Is the Pressure getting too much, Has the economics finally caught up with the dining industry?

Declining Demographics , Boomers and Gen X are dieing off, Younger generations becoming more environmentally aware and questioning the destructive farming methods , preferring to spend what little money they have left on travel and tech.

With mass shortage of staff keeping restaurants running at a viable margins, millennials and Gen Z become disillusioned at the unsustainable way of living , making just enough money to pay rent and maybe getting to work , this in turn leads to more pressure on restauranteurs , investors and staff , it’s becoming a death spiral , that there is no way out off.

Richard Corrigan’s new Dublin Venture is in the news today .

Staff complaining about the wages ,And a toxic working environment ,turns out most of the service charge went to the Managers.

Only opening in November having already lost all the KP’s 6 of them , Sous chef , CDP’s , General Manager, Restaurant Director ,2 floor managers ,6 waiters not bad for a month..

Abusive behaviour and doggey work contracts are being blamed on the exodus.

A Large Staff turnover has been pretty standard to the restaurant industry since time and memorial.

They will blame the younger generations of course for not have the grit and determination to work in there, But that’s what they have the younger generation , no point moaning about..it’s adapt or die time.

Outrage at Noma

Well news this week that Noma is closing  in 2024 is a surprise to no one that works in the gastronomic world..embroiled in exploitation allegations.. Rene Redzepi says the restaurant is unsustainable.. Unsustanable to run a restaurant now it’s been rumbled and they may have too start paying it’s staff.

To Be Fair to Rene he has admitted it’s a problem and says if he has to pay staff he can’t make the business profitable in keeping to keep the current level of standards ..that of a leading and cutting edge 3 star Michelin restaurant , as Marco Pierre white once said “ There’s only so much you can charge for a plate of food ".

El Bulli closed down a decade ago’, Ûnsustainable ‘ the worlds best restaurant ..Had more Deadly chemicals in it’s dry store than a Pfizer Vaccine Lab , you had to enter a lottery to obtain a seat ., thus was the demand .. over 2 million people entered the draw to be allocated one of only a couple of thousand tables over the 6 month period it was open .. it lost 800,000 in its last year of trading!!! Losses increasing by 10%a year until its demise .. that too was to focus on R and D according to Ferran Adrià and his Brother Albert Adrià.

Faviken Closed .. They were over it. As Magnus Nilsson said as he couldn’t very well ask his staff to work 6 double shifts if he wasn’t willing to to that himself .The Restaurant changed to do Dinner only 5 days a week and staff worked 45 hours .. but unfortunately the restaurant wasn’t profitable and they simple where over it..it takes a toll , you just can’t keep up those hours and be creative .. you need to be in a good place to be creative..Artists don’t paint for 16 hours a day 6 days a week , if they did their Art would be shit.

Bras.. Closed

Eleven madison park . Has become a ‘Shit Show’ an article from Business Insider quotes employees with low wages, 80-hour weeks, and understaffing issues taking on a toll on the staff’s mental health.One employee referred to the restaurant’s style as “farm to trash,” in reference to the amount of food wasted. Out of the estimated 45 employees that were hired onto the reopening kitchen team last June, “less than a handful” remain at the restaurant, according to the report.

Alinea.. There a Video out there condensed into a few minutes of a 24 hours camera in the Kitchen ..It’s maned all the time..Someone in the Kitchen for 24 Hours...like a Saddistic Badge of Honor. Not enough hours in the Day ,

They are constantly looking for staff FOH and BOH. , unknown before Covid.

Caught in an egotistical arms race.. trying to outdo one another.. at the expense of the ‘stagiers’.. and the environment, catering for the types of persons that attend the WEF and preach about environmental collapse and ‘we’ll all have to tighten our belt’,not them though.

Michelin have aided misery upon thousands of Chefs..FOH staff and Restauraters in the last 3 decades ..with Quite a few suicides in the process. best stick to tyres i say..

And that was in the good times with no shortage of venture capitalists ,cheap credit..and Expansive supply of millennium labour..

The Chef is more than likely not working behind the stove, he or she will be pontificating on the telly or some conference about the importance of sustainability whilst having a restaurant or two with the environmental and carbon footprint of a small African nation.

An industry built on unsustainablity , staff exploitation and abuse ..an industry in which the staff are gradually institutionalized in the hope that one day , they too will be able to feed their over inflated ego and riches will come ..like some sort off SBF Ponzi Scheme if their coke and alcohol consumption doesn’t ruin their life in the process. Waking up one morning reliving they have frittered away there live , no time for a social life , wife or kids ,.that it’s for the greater good and in the pursuit of perfection and at the same time aiding and abetted there own demise , catering for virtue signalling rich arseholes ..

‘Oh ,we had the most wonderful meal at Noma last night” , India Declared to Sabrina , we had a sliver of 100 year old clam from the northern Baltic Sea, Hand dived by nitrox pickled divers, how wonderful it’s totally sustainable you know “ .. job done , box ticked, sleep easy tonight . Here’s an idea, why not just leave it on the Seabed..

Gen Z are more savvy , they go in and say fuck this bullshit .. and find another career..the Staff turnover has always been stratoshephric , Gen Z ain’t buying it..it ain’t Instagram , there is no time to post narcissistic videos on Tic Tok, it’s Graft , if you want to have a 15 minute break to grab a bite to eat ..you are not committed enough. In the black book you go..

There’s book published by Charle Trotter on Kitchen Pyscology , ‘ Lessons in Service’ , It could have been written by Joesph Goebbels for all I know, this around the time when MPW and Charlie where completing to be the biggest Sociopath..How to Lose friends and Abuse People..it’s a blood curling read..

A little window into the mind of an elite chef.. Once I worked in a hotel in Australia where the Exec chef used it as his Bible .. He would do  a marathon before coming to work..arrived eyes sunken in his head like a crack head..tapping his finger to his temple declaring to his disciples. “Clears the fuckin head lads “ , then off he popped onto the office  and sat on Bouncy ball because his back was ruined to assess and plan the days attacks and psy-ops he was going to play on the kitchen brigade..Total fucking nut job..

I remember watching an Tony bourdain talk about the new labour laws in France was destroying the restaurant industry and the days of 80 hour work weeks are done.. if the Late Tony was with us today I’m sure he’d retract that..

At some point , it appears that most of the High end chefs have a lightbulb moment , they have a family and relize they need to get out of the kitchen.

As Magnus Nilsson did , closed Favikken as he couldn’t ask his staff to work 6 double shifts if he wasn’t willing to to that himself . they tried though ,The restaurant changed to do dinner only 5 days a week and staff worked 45 hours .. but unfortunately the restaurant wasn’t profitable and they simple where over it..it takes a toll , you just can’t keep up those hours and be creative .. you need to be in a good place to be creative..Artists don’t paint for 16 hours a day 6 days a week , if they did their Art would be shit.

There’s hard work and then there’s modern day slavery .. the two should not merge into one another..

I for one will not miss these types of establishments having spent decades in them..

The quicker the better..

They are fast becoming Relics of a bygone era. The demographics a re smaller , Kids are more aware of the importance of good mental health , and with a myriad of career paths and occupations to choose from.

The environmental impact is also huge , the amount of water and energy used , not to mention produce being shipped in from the 4 corners of the globe.

Covid was a real wake up call for everyone..with the hospitality and tourism sector on life support for a couple of years , Industry professionals had a lot of time on there hands to reflect on life and half left the industry.

During Covid a large amount of establishments let there staff go ,they received no wages and were not entitled to support from the government , whilst there office dwelling friends got paid to stay at home and work remotely , I mean Who’s not looking at that situation and saying..Shit i’m in the wrong industry.

With Remote and flexible working becoming more accepted in other industries the hospitality trade is going to find it near impossible to survive.

Are we watch the de

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ath of the Restaurant Trade ?

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• https://www.irishtimes.com/food/restaurants/2023/01/14/regrettable-staff-departures-from-high-octane-new-corrigan-restaurant-in-dublin-4/

• https://ny.eater.com/2022/6/14/23165644/eleven-madison-park-vegan-low-wages-labor-shortage