The beginning of the project

For the past five years, Singa Lyon has been promoting the richness of migration and social diversity through shared passions with local people. Through activities such as sports, cooking and art, Singa promotes social ties. With the introduction in 2016 of the "Singa Invite for the Holidays" event creating a collaborative evening of culinary discovery in local homes, as well as the setting up of regular cooking workshops, recipe sharing has become one of Singa's most important actions. These social inclusion projects have been made possible through the intermediary of numerous food associations in Lyon, such as Légumerie, an association of local gardeners and cooks working to reintroduce plants and social ties into the heart of neighborhoods.

The Be My Guest project was born of the realization that food is a conveyor for social interaction and learning, a culinary journey that brings together a wide range of people.

Be My Guest - Cooking and social interaction

The Be My Guest project is a series of cooking workshops spread over eight months with thirty participants or so, in order to create a social bond between some people through the sharing of recipes often derived from family traditions. The aim of the project is to facilitate the integration of newcomers to Lyon, while at the same time raising awareness of the need for a diversified diet based on local, seasonal produce.

The Ink Link was contacted to co-construct the project, to find the tool best suited to the beneficiaries and the association's wishes. After three days of discussions with workshop participants, we illustrated and designed the layout, based on texts written by Singa and La Légumerie.

The project takes the form of a series of recipe cards chosen by different people (migrants and locals), accompanied by a drawn portrait and a description of themselves.

The artist: David Combet

We chose David Combet to illustrate this guide, as he already had experience of some Ink Link projects through several collaborations with WHO, and had lived in Lyon for many years. This enabled him to spend several days with the participants, to capture the atmosphere of the workshops. What's more, his semi-realistic, colorful graphics were ideally suited to representing the recipes.

This project is an important record of the series of workshops organized by Singa. The workshops also helped to strengthen the social ties between the various residents of Lyon, as well as facilitating the integration of these new arrivals.