Info Tours | [En vitrine] In Tours, Flavie imagines recipes filled with local products

At 35, Flavie has a long scientific background. Originally from Auvergne, she has lived in Touraine for 14 years and completed a doctorate at the INRA research center in Nouzilly, in the north of the department. From now on, it’s a completely different type of formula that makes up his daily life: mixes of ingredients for recipes for stuffed zucchini, onion quiches or pasta salads.

How did the thirty-year-old get there? She says that at the end of her course, the options available to her were not the most exciting for this reproduction specialist. Not really a permanent contract in his field, no desire to give courses at University or go abroad. At 32, she became… a saleswoman then a manager in the ready-to-wear sector. First in Châteauroux, then in Chambray-lès-Tours.

He likes the experience, the way his employers operate much less (too many responsibilities compared to the salary, all in stores that are seriously understaffed). “I wasn’t convinced, so I decided to launch into entrepreneurship” she summarizes.

Her company is called Tours’N’Go and it is located in the center of Tours, Rue Constantine. Behind the window: a fridge, a stove, cupboards. All the equipment of a household kitchen because Flavie imagines the recipes that you will cook at home for lunch, in the evening or on the weekend.

Inspired by what national companies like QuiToque and HelloFresh do, Tourangelle offers to provide you with all the ingredients necessary to prepare the main dishes of your meals with the guarantee of having 0 leftovers, which means that there is exact amount of honey, vegetables or spices for 2, 4 or 6 people, not a gram more. 8 recipes are offered simultaneously, 4 of which change every week. Price: €5 per person, all without subscription or commitment.

And so what is the difference compared to competing national brands? Flavie exclusively uses products marketed by companies in Indre-et-Loire, or even grown in Touraine. Milk, tofu, eggs, vegetables, honey… Everything comes from here. As for the spices, they come from the Terre Exotique brand based in Rochecorbon. In total, around fifteen partners provide Tours’N’Go.

“I really like good products but I often had a pace of life that prevented me from buying quality products because I often had to go to several places, or I was not available to do so. the market. I told myself that I must not be the only one and that there were other people who wanted to eat quality food without having to travel everywhere” explains the merchant to explain the origin of her project.

Another argument she puts forward: the delivery of small quantities to avoid keeping for months a spice that we do not know how to use in new recipes. An anti-waste approach, therefore (Flavie does not deposit packaging but invites its customers to bring their jars, reuse the containers provided when collecting orders, or even bring them back the following week in order to reuse them).

To establish its recipes, Tourangelle draws inspiration from the availability of its partner producers, books or food content available on social networks. “The idea is to offer different things all the time. I might make stuffed zucchini again, but not with the same ingredients” she tells us. Moreover, a good part of the proposals are vegetarian or even vegan: “I would like us to eat more responsibly in terms of meat. When I offer it, I therefore look for good meat. »

Downloadable from the company’s website, the recipes can be kept for life. And if your daily life is full of unexpected events, the ingredients provided will generally keep for 1 to 2 weeks. The recipe catalog is updated every Tuesday, with a student formula soon to be introduced.

Finally to those who would retort “But I don’t have time to cook!” »Flavie assures that all her proposals are designed to take a minimum of time (around 30 minutes of work), ” simple and efficient “ she smiles, nevertheless declining any responsibility if you fail to cook the quiche!

Olivier Collet