Gourmets seem beyond the pandemic to a revolution in French gourmet restaurants

Chef Yannick Alléno served a € 395 menu with prawns and foie gras at his three-star Michelin restaurant near the Champs Elysées.

But as France prepares to allow restaurants to reopen for outdoor service next week after six months of closure, instead, it will serve burgers in its wine cellar for a fraction of the price.

That a superstar chef like Alléno, the stable of high-end restaurants in Courchevel in Marrakech that has more than a dozen Michelin stars, is changing strategy highlights the difficulties facing France great restaurants while trying to recover from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We need to inspire people to come here to pique their curiosity,” he said of the Pavillon Ledoyen, the neoclassical building that houses several of its restaurants, including the three-star Alleno Paris.

These temples of French cuisine have long catered to wealthy foreign tourists, who will happily pay more than 1,000 euros to eat for two people, as long as they experience the French art of living. But with international travel sharply reduced by the pandemic, these customers are not expected to return for a while.

Attracting locals is the new challenge, as well as retaining employees, many of whom have left the sector and its remarkable challenging working conditions. Many restaurants are also full of major debts after taking out state-guaranteed loans to get out of the crisis.

“I have three years of struggle ahead,” Alléno said, adding that half of the € 4 million in cash reserves had been spent. “For three-star restaurants, there will be a lot of casualties.”

Its flagship restaurant used to generate more than three-quarters of the revenue of foreign diners, mostly from Asia and the United States. Since it makes little sense to open without them, the doors will remain closed until September. Alléno will experiment for now in a less formal place while planning a review that seeks to drag restaurants into the 21st century.

“Everything has to change,” he said, citing the title of the book he co-wrote during the closing. In it, he called for a renewal of everything from the service style (warmer, more personalized) to staffing (more flexible and family-friendly).

French haute cuisine its roots go back to 19th-century visionary chefs such as Auguste Escoffier and Marie-Antoine Carême, who created cuisine based on rich sauces and meticulous (often theatrical) service. For decades it was considered the best in the world and became a key part of French identity.

But its popularity has faded in recent decades thanks to competition first from the showiness of molecular gastronomy and then from the reduced Nordic style. As a Frenchman haute cuisine lost ground, it became much more expensive, putting it out of the reach of many.

“The pandemic has exposed that the business model of high-end restaurants in France just doesn’t work without tourists,” said Joerg Zipprick, co-founder of the La Liste group, which ranks the best restaurants in the world.

“It’s a relatively new development. Before that was it. . . a local doctor or manager would come to these places to celebrate a special occasion. Not anymore. “

Zipprick said that for the best chefs, many of whom had spent the past year experimenting with takeaways and meals, success depended on their willingness to adapt.

Diners would not want demanding and experimental dishes on their return, he predicted, but would like to eat good food in a good restaurant in the company of friends and family.

“There are no more technical things or foods that require a long explanation from the waiter about the fermentation process. People don’t want their food to be a work of art, ”Zipprick said.

The last time French cuisine was reinvented was in the 1970s when chefs like Paul Bocuse and the Troisgros brothers created new kitchen. The movement, less opulent and calorific than the good food that preceded it, highlighted fresh, high-quality ingredients and the service became less formal.

Alléno believes that the best restaurants should aim to adapt experiences by talking in advance with customers about the occasion for dinner, guests and their tastes.

This “concierge service” approach would allow for better planning of menus, improving the customer experience and the economy of the restaurant.

“If I know I only have three people eating shrimp on a given night, I don’t need to order six pounds just in case,” he said. “It really changes things for the kitchen.”

Others are even more radical. Daniel Humm’s three-star Eleven Madison Park in New York will stop serving meat and seafood when it reopens next month, as the Swiss chef wants to show that sustainable, environmentally conscious eating can be compatible with luxury .

Still, Éric Fréchon, the three-Michelin-star chef at the five-star Epicure restaurant at the Le Bristol Paris hotel, downplayed expectations of radical change.

“Things will be back as before,” said Fréchon, who noted that the hotel’s restaurants had a large local customer base. “People have missed the experience of haute cuisine for so long they will be eager to return. ”

Fréchon said he would keep some coronavirus-era innovations, including the € 1,390 “gastronomy and bed” package that is marketed as an overnight stay for locals that includes dinner in the suite or in the bedroom. the hotel.

“On New Year’s Eve we had 60 servers coming and going to the rooms, it was very difficult,” he said. “But it allowed us to reach new customers who might not have dared to come to a three-star restaurant. Now we have to keep them. “

Additional reports from Domitille Alain in Paris