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In our series, we asked catering companies how they see the situation in the industry in a pandemic situation. Today, Árpád Bakcsy mingled in a friendly conversation with Lajos Bíró, who had been registered as a “star chef” for several decades.
I also don’t think he had many problems during the Covid era: his phone keeps ringing, giving advice, coordinating menus.
To hell with me! Who would you advise now when almost everything is closed? There will be something in the summer at the earliest, we are preparing for that. But it will also be mainly in the countryside, for example on Lake Balaton. If anyone likes this damn virus, they will be the hosts at Lake Balaton. For the most part, they have been operating at full speed for four to five months out of the year so far, and this will be the case again – only now will a crowd of hungry guests arrive on the shores of the lake.
The best season of the last ten years was last summer, and that’s to be expected now.
Luckily for them, they don’t have to fully re-button their coats like in Pest, where they have to find something different than what they used to have.
With?
I have no idea! Not even for me, although I’ve always been a cashier. There are ideas in the profession, of course, that those who have so far only thought about fine dining should open more bistro-like venues, but that’s not necessarily a joker to survive either. Now I think that Budapest will only be able to support half of the restaurants. I just don’t trust returning tourists for a year or two, even though many of them have lived.
Not afraid that the reopening will lead to a deterioration in quality? On the one hand, due to the closures, the market for quality suppliers has also shrunk significantly, and on the other hand, catering companies also want to make up for the loss of revenue. Therefore, the low price of raw materials on a large scale is maintained.
At first, of course, it will be that no matter what we eat, we finally do it in a restaurant, as we see in Italy these days. But it seems almost impossible to me for an innkeeper to have the brains to make a profit on newly returned guests. Sure, there will be dumping, but after a few months it will subside, and those with whom they were dissatisfied will permanently alienate those guests. Such a restaurant can lower the blinds forever.
There’s no need to guess the future either: as soon as this boom couple of months happens, there will be a setback.
People are considering whether to spend more on restaurants. The era of savings will come, as many will fear that more and more epidemics will come, and then they will have to form a reserve for their financial security. Just as our grandmothers and mothers ran out of flour and grease after the misery of the world wars, the years of peace came in vain.
Will restaurants be cheaper in the long run?
Surely there will be people lowering prices, but that’s the dumbest thing in the world. It is not very cheap anymore. Hot spots may have to do more than Thomas Keller in America – he has raised the prices of his gourmet menu many times over, as fewer people can now sit in his restaurant …
Is the transition from Moon Street Market to Streets of Light already part of the Covid reboot?
No, we had previously planned to have a Lush Pigs in Buda. The closing of the Moon Street market only accelerated the movement.
Isn’t it strange that the market has recently revived and is now closing on that pretext again?
If your goal is to make a profit, I don’t think so. Moon Street Market’s dilapidated building has been very seriously, if not perfectly, renovated, but it has become beautiful. The support from the EU that could be asked was to help primary producers. A functioning market is really good for this, but the Hold Street buyer, who would have bought the carriers from the primary producers, has disappeared.
It is unrealistic for a bank secretary with little money to go down to the lobby at noon to buy a bag of potato chips and a pound of onions.
On the other hand, there were plenty of people working in the surrounding offices who would have had a good meal, not to mention the Airbnb tourists who live in the area. They need a maximum of one or two delicatessens or greengrocers and a wide variety of cozy bistros. Well, for that, we had to rethink the heating, cooling and ventilation of the lobby building. Anyway, the classic big markets are over. Most people prefer to go to supermarkets to buy groceries, where they can park, push a full shopping cart into the trunk of their car, and last but not least buy something for the kitchen at a lower price. .
Are the great classic restaurants outdated?
Anyway, yes. But then, like the Time Out market in Lisbon, where more famous chefs and their restaurants make simpler meals, but with the same cutting-edge technology, knowledge, attitude as before in their big restaurants, they will appear. And of course at better prices. Everyone has to constantly renew themselves. But it is also an impulse from within. You want a good car. So when you have it, you won’t be so excited anymore. It is important, but not exciting. So it was with my restaurants: I had the Museum, it was good, but then I had to move on. The Bock Bistro arrived, it rang me too, but now the market is here.
So the Bock Bistro is a closed story?
We will decide in the next few weeks. As the guests dwindle, the innkeeper himself dies. Although the atmosphere in Bock was relaxed and the food good, it turned out to be little to appeal to young people. Because there is no doubt, it is necessary to find new generations with success. My friend John Little (Hyatt Corporation Executive Chef) is always predicting the future for me as he is ten years older than I am and is usually quite right. When he was 60, he said:
pay close attention because you are no longer so important at your age. Rejoice if you can stay a little higher at the top because younger, smarter, more energetic and more ruthless are already arriving.
So I laughed at that, but he’s right. The expired disc is unpacked.
So her son, Dani, has a future, who is already a great cook. It is provided …
Yes. But there is still something to learn from me. At this point, I tied it to my recipe ideas that I have collected over the years.
There is still a long way to go to put down the wooden spoon, as you can see that she makes food with gusto almost every day at the Fény Street Market.
I’d enjoy it even more if I could make it right under my guests’ noses! I do not understand why this cannot be done even now in the market. We could provide reassuring protection against the virus, with Plexiglas, tables several meters apart, and continuous disinfection. It would be a safer place than public transport in Pest, buffets in office buildings, shops winding on the ski lifts of shopping centers, or ski lifts. They would at least sensibly explain why the terraces cannot be opened!
So why not take the lead in the disobedience movement and open up?
I am not crazy! And not because there are stiff fines and six-month lockdowns for those who break the law. I also have regulars who try to serve them here on the corner, let them eat their fried meat or give them a glass of champagne, but then in a regular glass. No! It’s just not worth the risk, and I’m following the law anyway.
But will you get at least some help if you are already acting in such a legal way?
State aid should be accelerated. You don’t even need help anymore as it sounds so humiliating, but a trade-off. 50 percent of 2019 average net sales must be delivered to all innkeepers. Austria has given seventy, but we are not in as good a condition as our brothers-in-law. However, if you get public money, you can’t send your people either. How to help providers is a more difficult question.
Professionals, but also quite a few press media, refer to him as “Lali, the King”. Could it be that if the “state of emergency” for Covid is maintained, sooner or later the king will also walk?
Fear not, I can still refuel the car, but also my tricycle helicopter. If that happens, I have an electric scooter. A king does not walk!
(Cover image: Bakcsy Árpád Zoltán / Index)
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