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Pascal Aussignac, a Michelin-starred chef, prepares take-out foie gras at his Club Gascon restaurant in central London. Image: AFP / TOLGA AKMEN.
Pascal Aussignac, a London-based Michelin-starred French chef, had counted on hosting Christmas dinners to recoup his restaurant losses after a year ruined by the pandemic.
Then everything fell apart in the space of a few days.
“I have 50 capons and ducks trapped in France; They will never arrive in time for Christmas dinner because we should have filled them (already), ”he told AFP.
Restaurants in London were forced to unexpectedly close last week amid the crucial holiday season when strict restrictions were placed on the coronavirus.
A “no-deal” Brexit would make things even worse for Aussignac’s restaurants, imposing customs duties and quotas on local French products that are their specialty.
Then a swift decision on Sunday by several countries, including France, to stop travel to and from Britain sparked a new crisis.
Trucks full of food from France have been stranded on the other side of the Canal.
Aussignac had to break the news to its customers that it would only have fillers to sell for its Christmas meal.
“They have to find English poultry,” he explained, adding that they would have to cook the birds themselves.
Some customers did not appreciate this development and made their feelings known, he said.
But this is out of our control. We are all victims of the situation, ”said the restaurateur, who has worked in London for 22 years.
Even if Aussignac ends up not having to pay for late poultry, he is still discouraged by the loss of expected income from holiday meals.
The accounts of its six locations, which include a cocktail bar and a fish and chips restaurant, were already in the red.
They had suffered, like the rest of the British hotel industry, from a first lockdown that lasted from late March to early July, a second in November and a third that began in mid-December due to a new strain of the virus considered highly contagious by British authorities.
“They’ve really clipped our wings,” said Aussignac, sitting in his flagship Club Gascon restaurant with its marble-paneled walls and empty turquoise velvet armchairs.
Due to social distancing measures, she had only been able to serve 22 diners here, instead of the usual 46. That drop in numbers forced him to lay off staff.
In an attempt to cover part of the fixed expenses and salaries not covered by the government’s compensation scheme, which is capped at 80%, Aussignac turned to take-out sales.
The tables of his Gascón Bar were full of paper bags ready to be delivered. The order amount stapled to each ranged from £ 30 (about $ 40 or P2,000) for two duck burgers to several hundred pounds for a feast of foie gras and fine wines.
The switch to delivery has also been difficult.
“We didn’t have the proper packaging, we had trouble changing the way the food is placed as it ran the risk of damage on the way, not to mention the fact that the food gets cold during delivery.”
Like many other chefs, Aussignac has started offering cooking classes at Zoom to supplement his income. He also subleases the kitchen of his closed Comptoir Gascon restaurant to a startup called Pro Tempeh that makes an Indonesian-style fermented soybean paste.
After Christmas, the chef plans to update his menu.
“I will make orange duck, a smoked chestnut and veloute salsify and a cheesecake made from Brillat-Savarin (a mild French cheese),” Aussignac said.
These dishes will be made with duck breasts and duck confit that you brought from France previously, anticipating a possible disruption from January due to Brexit. Otherwise it will depend on UK providers.
Another impact of Brexit is that there are fewer people coming from the European Union to work in restaurant kitchens and in front of the house.
“The British don’t work in the hotel industry,” Aussignac said.
“I have become a British citizen, but the company I have dedicated two decades of my life to is no longer safe here and I fear for the future,” he said. “2021 could be worse than 2020. Are we going to survive? That’s the big question “. DC
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