Carrots, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, all being cut by a group of happy people in the rhythm of the music being played in the background. What are they doing? Maëva Tordo inaugurates our new series "Sharing Stories" with her marvelous experience at the co-cooking event Disco Soupe in Paris. “Come and join us for a co-cooking afternoon”, the Facebook event said. One of my sweetest friends was the organizer of Disco Soupe, an event meant to bring together random like-minded people for a joint cooking experiment. After our usual Velib ride through the city, my friend and I arrived at the new coworking space I had heard so much about. As soon as I walked through the door I instantly felt at home. The place was lovely. Vintage upcycled furniture everywhere, a colorful mixture of old and new chairs, shadows and lights like in a David Lynch movie. The Disco Soupe team was already busy arranging the freshly-saved-from-the-bin veggies they had kidnapped from the Rungis’ market at 6 am that morning. "What do they mean by 'disco soupe'?" my friend asked. "Open your ears" I said, pointing at the Brazilian band that was on stage. He smiled like a 6 year old boy. "I love this place", he whispered. "Where are we?" asked a mum rinsing apples while rocking her co-created angel. "Haha, I just asked the same question", answered a man behind her, "We’re apparently at Mutinerie (Riot), a so-called coworking space where people come to share desks, projects and ideas." "You mean we’re going to co-cut and co-cook in a coworking space? That’s co-ool!" she joked. As soon as the music started, a sparkling energy grasped the entire room and every single participant grabbed a peeler or a knife and started cutting with the rhythm…Carrots here, cabbage there, potatoes on the left, tomatoes on a chair, and random unknown veggies we didn’t even know how to cut…People started sharing food stories, secret recipies, smiles, lives, knives...I think I would cook a lot more often if I had sixty friends at home every night to cut with to music.
Two hours later the soup was bubbling like a jacuzzi. The music had forced people to get closer and to raise their voices, the Disco Soupe Team was dancing near the theater curtain and I had lost my friend, who was immersed in a passionate conversation about whether couchsurfing was creating more soft-links than ridesharing. As I approached the guacamole table I starred at a guy right in front of me. "Do I know you ?" we asked at the same time after a long glance. Laugh. He had the first guess, "Social Business Startup Weekend, I was a mentor." "Right! Haha, amazing that I meet you here, that’s pretty random", I added. And we started remembering the other social businesses that were co-created during that day. A couple of minutes later I realized I had been pretty impolite to my co-bench neighbour. "Hi, I'm so sorry, I’ve already spoken so much, and we have not met yet I think. Are you also working in social business?" "Well, not exactly", he said gently, "I’m passionate about the collaborative economy, I started a blog on this topic." "Aaaah that is you? The person I had on the phone two months ago?" He smiled. "Well, I guess I am." This time, it was really amazing - and I am not saying this because I want my writting to sound american-style. We started talking about the sharing economy, the disruptive shift that will take place in the next decades, the blurring of the lines between consumers, retailers, producers and the new social paradigm that is being created. Even though the conversation was exciting, I didn't forget to try some of the almost completely eaten up guacamole and took a piece of his bread while listening to every single word. "What’s mine is yours", he smiled. I blushed, embarrassed not to have asked. "It’s a book...a very interesting book, you should check on ouishare.net, there are some lines about it." Smart turnaround, I thought. And that’s indeed where the story starts… Credit pictures: courtesy Stefano Borghi