In the Ivorian language, darsheenn, means "joyful man". Ahmed Traoré is this man, happy to live and smiling at life, despite the hardships endured from the top of his 23 years. The son of a political opponent killed when he was 15, Ahmed had to flee Abidjan alone, crossing Mali, Algeria and Libya to reach the Italian coast of the island of Lampedusa. "My father was a businessman and a politician," says Ahmed. In 2012, there was the post-election crisis. People were fighting each other. My father died. »
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If the memories remain painful, the young man manages today to put words on what he experienced: the confinement in Libya, then the horror ... when the Zodiac on which he was crossing the Mediterranean, with 250 other people, lost its engine. "Our lives were saved because a huge boat was passing by," says Ahmed. When we landed in Italy, I was very sick. I was sent to a hospital in Sicily, and then to a hostel near Naples. »
Many other projects
Back on his feet, Ahmed Traoré chose the France as a land of exile, and landed in Lyon (Rhône) by chance. "I slept on the street before training as a cook." After graduating, the young chef decided to take a tour of Europe of restaurants (Paris, Montpellier, Geneva, Copenhagen) before settling in Saint-Étienne, where he opened the Darsheenn in a shopping district of the city.
"I discovered, thanks to the Adie (Association for the Right to Economic Initiative), which helped me a lot, that you can be a foreigner and an entrepreneur." This is how Ahmed created his restaurant where he offers Franco-Ivorian cuisine. His specialties? Mafé chicken with peanut sauce, hibiscus tiramisu, soft chocolate-chili, baobab juice.
The address is full. The cheerful man can't believe it: "I was able to return to Côte d'Ivoire where I'm working on a TV show project." Ahmed also wants to set up a pop-up restaurant in Abidjan during the next African Cup of Nations.
