Food & Wine Magazine Names Best New Chefs of 2020
Though the coronavirus pandemic has stalled restaurants and chefs across the country and around the world, Food & Wine Magazine shines a light on the brightest stars in the American culinary world with its annual list of Best New Chefs. “They are the people who not only will help rebuild their shattered industry, but also will eventually help it thrive in new ways—through their cooking, their resolve, and their vision for what a more equitable future in restaurants might look like,” editor Khushbu Shah writes.
Take chef Nick Bognar for example. At Indo in St. Louis, chef Bognar deftly combines Japanese and Thai traditions in a fusion cuisine that tastes completely natural. Chef Camille Cogswell masters the art of the bagel at K’Far in Philadelphia, and Eunjo Park is close to winning the world’s hearts with the rice cake at Kāwi in New York City. Since 1988, Food & Wine has helped fuel the careers of promising tastemakers with its top ten list, and this year is different only in that these chefs will become true trailblazers as they help us all navigate the brave new world of dining out. “The fallout from the pandemic has revealed new layers of strength and creativity, best embodied by this year’s class of Best New Chefs. With them at the helm, the future of dining looks brighter, fairer, and more delicious than ever before,” says Shah.
Chef Gabrielle Hamilton Reveals Longstanding Vulnerabilities In Independent Restaurant Industry
Gabrielle Hamilton, award-winning chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York City, found herself in a tough spot this past March–10 days of inbox-clogging chaos among those in the food industry searching for answers on what actions to take in the face of COVID-19. With sales dwindling day by day, on March 15th, Hamilton decided to pull the plug on the operation just five hours before New York Mayor Bill De Blasio enacted the city’s shutdown, according to her article in the New York Times.
After closing Prune and watching many other restaurants on her street close, Hamilton had a realization. The independent “restaurant” we know and love today may not survive this turmoil. “You can’t buy a $3 can of cheap beer at a dive bar in the East Village if the ‘dive bar’ is actually paying $18,000 a month in rent, $30,000 a month in payroll; it would have to cost $10,” she said. Chef-owned restaurants already operate on razor-thin margins. Most have been struggling to keep the lights on for years, as food and labor costs have risen and staff seek adequate health insurance.
Takeout, delivery, and contactless transactions have given many restaurateurs a life raft during the coronavirus shutdown. But some are not excited about running such impersonal restaurants in the future. After all, the entire industry is built on person-to-person hospitality. “I started my restaurant as a place for people to talk to one another, with a very decent but affordable glass of wine and an expertly prepared plate of simply braised lamb shoulder on the table to keep the conversation flowing, and ran it as such as long as I could. If this kind of place is not relevant to society, then it — we — should become extinct.”
Some Restaurateurs Configure Pandemic-Friendly Dining Rooms
Gov. Brian Kemp gave permission to restaurants in Georgia to start table service again on Monday, April 27th, allowing many to dip their toes back into business. Gov. Kemp’s decision came after health data suggested the state’s death toll had peaked. The idea of reopening a dining room still seems unthinkable to many American restaurateurs, considering the nation’s death toll has exceeded 60,000 and the majority of U.S. states have remained locked down.
“There is no fancy meal right now that is worth my people’s health and the health of other people who come into a restaurant,” said award-winning chef Hugh Acheson, who runs restaurants in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia. While some restaurateurs remain opposed to the idea, others are finding ways to reopen safely. Yardbird, a popular restaurant in Hong Kong, China, has installed plexiglass partitions between diners so they can still see and interact with each other and the restaurant staff safely. The dining rooms in China must follow strict regulations, including a table distance of 1.5 meters, customer temperature checks, health declaration form signatures, and a requirement for both workers and customers to wear masks at all times. Masks may only be removed to eat or drink with an envelope for mask storage provided by the restaurant. “You don’t have that huge vibe,” said co-owner Lindsay Jang, who opened Yardbird in 2011 with chef Matt Abergel, “but it’s still good. It’s still a restaurant.”
Table For One In A Swedish Meadow
Linda Karlsson and her husband Rasmus Persson are opening a one-table, contactless restaurant at their home in Ransäter, Sweden. Set to open May 10, the restaurant will be named Bord för En, Swedish for “Table for One.” The idea was born after Karlsson’s parents, who are over 70 and at high risk for the coronavirus, visited their home unannounced. Persson and Karlsson simply sat them down at a table outside their home and served them food through the window, completely contact-free.
From opening day until August, one of their home’s two kitchens will be used solely for the restaurant. Reservations can be booked for one person a day anytime from 10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. Bord för En offers guests a three-course breakfast, lunch, or dinner sent down a rope in a picnic basket. According to Persson, who grew up in Ransäter, Bord för En is possibly the first and only restaurant in Ransäter. The couple has received reservations from throughout Sweden and even Japan.
The entire menu is vegetarian, as the couple only occasionally eats meat that is humanely raised and locally sourced. Each course will feature a non-alcoholic beverage crafted by Persson’s childhood friend, Joel Söderbäck, who owns several upscale bars in Stockholm. Guests leave used plates and utensils in a bucket alongside the table between courses. When guests have finished their meal, the cost is up to them. Karlsson says, “There shouldn’t be a price tag that is too high for anyone to enjoy this” and believes that one-person meals will be here long after the pandemic subsides. .
Restaurant Worker Relief Fund Hits $20 million
The Restaurant Employee Relief Fund (RERF), founded by Guy Fieri and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), has recently reached a new milestone of $20 million after PepsiCo chipped in with a $3 million donation.
Initially opened for applications on April 2, the fund was set up as a one-time $500 payment for restaurant workers, operated on a “first-come, first-serve” basis. However, the fund site immediately shut down due to the overwhelming number of applications. After another try just one week later, the site was taken down again for similar reasons. By the third week of April, RERF was able to send their first award notice and the fund has since approved and notified over 10,000 hospitality employees.
To be eligible, restaurant workers are required to have been employed in the industry for at least 90 days, had significant loss of income as a result of COVID-19, and have documentation of these circumstances. Income loss includes cuts in hours and at least a 50% reduction in pay. RERF has been processing grants and delivering much needed cash to former restaurant workers for over two weeks now, said Rob Gifford, NRAEF president. Applications are being judged on eligibility and “not all 63,000 people who apply for the fund are going to be proved eligible,” said Gifford.
European Restaurants Navigate Reopening Post-Lockdown
European countries are beginning to set dates and regulations for reopening restaurants, such as Austria’s date of May 15 and Italy’s target date of June 1. Socially distanced dining will make restaurants quite a different experience across the continent. In Austria, staff must wear face masks, no more than four adults may be seated per table, and there must be a minimum of 1 meter (about 3 1/4 feet) between patrons. In Madrid, Spain, the city council may require the installation of screens that separate diners at outdoor tables.
The French government has not set a specific date for reopening its 240,000 restaurants and cafés, but mid-June has been suggested. Other countries have begun various initiatives to help the restaurant industry recover. It Italy, where as many as 50,000 restaurants may close for good, the businesses can claim €600 ($655.69) for every month closed and tax payments have been postponed. Italian restaurateurs can also apply for subsidized bank loans to be paid back after two years. In Germany, to help jumpstart the restaurant industry recovery, economy minister Peter Altmaier announced the government would cut VAT taxes from 19% to 7% starting July 1.
Restaurateurs Torn As Landlords Demand Rent
While the coronavirus shutdown continues, delivery and takeout sales are not paying the rent for many restaurateurs. In February, the owners of Urban Bar-B-Que in Rockville, MD unsuccessfully requested rent relief from White Flint Express Realty Group. Owners David Calkins and Lee Howard were forced to close the location, but they still owe rent on their lease, which doesn’t expire until August. Calkins and Howard and Calkins offered their landlord all the equipment inside and their security deposit in exchange for being released from the lease. But in a written response from White Flint Express’s attorney, the landlord threatened to sue Calkins and Howard for the full amount of the least through August.
Other realtor-restaurateur relationships are less contentious. On March 13th, the owner of Buffalo & Bergen in Washington, D.C., Gina Chersevani, received an email from her landlord, Eric Korsvall of Massachusetts Avenue Properties. “You probably have a lot of pressing concerns with respect to your operations, staff, guests,” Korsvall wrote. “Paying your rent at 3<sup>rd</sup> & Mass might be a concern, and we want to help you by taking that off the table for a few months. We want you to take care of your people first, and to help you do that, we will forgo any rent due.” The offer released Chersevani from paying potentially tens of thousands of dollars in rent while under the economic pressure brought on by the outbreak.
These are just two examples on opposite ends of the spectrum. Even if some landlords grant temporary rent relief to restaurateurs, many owners face mounting expenses and reduced business prospects as the pandemic lockdowns are extended.
Kansas City BBQ Now Comes From A Vending Machine
The vending machine outside Jones Bar-B-Q in Kansas City was originally going to be filled with chips and soda. Since the pandemic lockdown, owner Deborah Jones began looking at the machine with new eyes. It’s a takeout opportunity, she thought: let’s fill it with barbecue.
As small barbecue restaurants like hers struggle to survive, Jones feels the vending machine couldn’t have come at a better time. While the machine isn’t completely contactless, it allows Jones to keep serving her barbecue while keeping her customers safe. “You’ve got to try everything once in your life,” Jones says.
Fine Dining Faces Long Road to Recovery
Restaurant reopenings in China offer a glimpse into the future of fine dining in America. In March, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten reopened his restaurants in Shanghai and Guangzhou, following extensive government rules such as regular temperature checks for both staff and customers, no more than four guests per table, mandatory space of six to eight feet between tables, and app-based ordering so that no cash changes hands. As America adjusts to its pandemic restrictions, a similar business model will likely govern the chef’s dine-in restaurants in the U.S. American restaurateurs are planning now for a three-phase approach to resuming business in dining rooms, following the White House “Guidelines for Opening America Again.”
These guidelines urge U.S. restaurateurs to operate at lower capacity with fewer tables and fewer dine-in guests, at least during phases one and two. Within this limited-capacity business model, mobile ordering, takeout, and delivery may be the only way for fine dining restaurants to pay the rent. Restaurateurs may also need to invest in new personal protective equipment for staff and, possibly, health insurance. It remains to be seen whether guests will perceive a decreased public health risk in frequenting restaurants that provide health insurance to staff in the post-COVID-19 era. If so, the expense may be more than most restaurants can bear. Depending on how many months the lockdown continues and how quickly cities proceed through all three phases of reopening, some restaurants simply may not survive. Many public health officials predict waves of rolling, temporary lockdowns that will last until a new coronavirus vaccine is available, which could be at least a year or more. As a result, by some estimates, about 30% of fine-dining restaurants will close permanently.
These are sobering times for the hospitality industry and for the tourism industry in general. It could be years before destination dining fully recovers. When it does, new dining guidelines and restrictions will almost certainly be in place. Be prepared for a new normal that minimizes the public health effects of a single person on a larger group of people, as in a restaurant or public market.
How Young Americans Plan to Spend Money Post-Lockdown
Young Americans want to go out to eat again. TruePublic, a Chicago-based research and opinion firm, asked Americans ages 16 to 35 about when they would resume their favorite activities post-lockdown and what those activities would be. Dining out was first, as the survey revealed 55% plan to eat at restaurants “as soon as isolation ends.” However, 16% will wait a few months after lockdowns are lifted before eating out again, and 16% say they won’t be going back until “long after a vaccine is out.” A smaller contingent, 13%, say they will wait only until a vaccine is developed and deployed. As for other activities, the majority of those polled said they would wait several months or even until there is a vaccine before returning to movie theaters, sporting events, concerts and other gatherings.
