Pandemic holds few lessons for European chefs
Necessity is supposed to be the mother of invention. If that were the case for the high-end restaurant industry, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic should have offered ample opportunities for creativity and renewal. Instead, it is turning into a bitter struggle for survival.
Many a three-star Michelin meal has been put into a takeout box and sent out on Deliveroo scooters, as renowned chefs in Belgium and elsewhere try to scrape through a second pandemic lockdown that is likely to threaten even the lucrative Christmas season.
Sergio Herman, who has run three-star, two-star and many other establishments that have wowed the Michelin powers and the most refined palates around the world, does not really see any positives to come out of working against and around the pandemic. “Sometimes you feel that whatever you built up over the years is slipping like sand through your fingers. It gives you this kind of fear,” he said.
Across much of Europe, still the apex of the finest dining in the world, exclusive restaurants have lost the precious appeal of the luxury dining experience — from the moment of taking your coat at the door, to eating several inventive courses with the finest silverware, to basking in sommelier tastings, to savoring the afterdinner sweet and having that little extra chat with the chef. If there is one thing that defines restaurant owners and staff around the world, it is their drive, energy and a zest for survival. They more than need that now. In the Michelin three-star restaurant De Librije, to the north in the Netherlands, chef Jonnie Boer has been offering online classes so people at home can get as close as possible to one of his three-course dinners. A “Librije’s Atelier in your Kitchen” online session goes for €140 ($165).
Clare Smyth of the two-star establishment Core by Clare Smyth in London said, with the lockdown takeouts and other initiatives, “people really wanted a bit of our restaurants in their own home.” In the end though, “it will never replace coming to a restaurant” for the overall experience of nearperfect cooking and hospitality, she said in a discussion organized by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Even if detailed statistics are not yet available, the 27-nation EU saw a precipitous drop of 79.3 percent in hotel and restaurant activity between February and April in the spring COVID-19 lockdowns. Even though business bounced back over summer, the resurgence of the virus with new lockdowns across Europe this fall amounts to a double blow.