A restaurant that cooks without gas, wood or electricity? In southern France, Le Présage is harvesting the sun's energy for 'cuisine solaire.' The restaurant, which had a soft launch in August 2020 and reopened at a new location in April of this year, uses solar ovens and a Scheffler mirror — a large, parabolic dish that reflects and concentrates the sun's rays to heat a stove to 400 °C. The kitchen's water is heated by the sun, too.
Le Présage's current incarnation, which serves find food from a shipping container to guests seated under a tarp, is an appetizer for the actual restaurant that its owners will start building later this year. The permanent restaurant will include a biogas installation to turn the site's own organic waste into gas, enabling chefs to cook on cloudy days and after sunset. Biogas residues can then be used to fertilize a garden that's meant to supply a quarter of the restaurant's vegetables.
