Rasmus Kofoed
Chef, Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Covid-enforced lockdown afforded chef Rasmus Kofoed the luxury of some time away from the daily grind cooking at his central Copenhagen restaurant, which holds three Michelin stars. Kofoed took the chance to explore new possibilities during time with his family on the remote Danish island of Samsø where he regularly spends his summers.
The result of the considerations is Angelika, a 100% plant-based restaurant, operating in the same space as Geranium and offering a much more casual proposition in style. The chef confirms that the opening of Angelika is at least partly connected to this year’s lockdown due to coronavirus. During his time on Samsø he had the opportunity to do a lot of cooking with his children. The family’s meals included dishes such as new potatoes with olives, pickled lemon and black pepper, oven-roasted asparagus with seaweed and preserved ramsons, and creamy butterbeans.
“There is no doubt that the corona[virus] lockdown has contributed to the opening of Angelika. Foremost, it is fuelled by an old dream to make a more accessible, green eatery,” he says. “However, many of Geranium’s guests come from all around the world and they probably won’t be able to visit us for a while. Therefore, the opening of Angelika is also a great way to keep our employees – and at the same time show people how delicious and nurturing plant-based meals can be.”
Without the enforced time out, he says, Angelika might not have happened. “I would not have had the time to make all this a reality.
It gave me the motivation,” Kofoed says. “I have wanted to open a vegetarian restaurant for quite a while but I never had the time to really plan it and make it a reality. The corona[virus] situation gave me the opportunity.”
Restaurants in Copenhagen reopened their doors as far back as May and the country endured just one month of lockdown. “Fine dining has already returned, we reopened and welcomed guests back to Geranium, it felt really great,” says Kofoed. As for how things might look in restaurants in a post-Covid environment, he thinks little will change. “People will be more aware and also take the time to properly wash their hands and use hand sanitiser, but otherwise I think it will be the same. People go out to dinner because they want to have a good time and a memorable experience.”
Iván Morales
Chef and owner, Arzábal, Madrid, Spain
Iván Morales, the co-founder of Arzábal, a small group of restaurants famed for their high-quality expertly sourced Spanish produce, spoke early in the pandemic. With Spain mandating one of the tightest lockdowns in Europe, Arzábal was forced to close.
Morales and co-founder Álvaro Castellanos were among the first chefs to sign up to join the Spanish branch of World Central Kitchen (WCK), the humanitarian organisation set up by Spanish-American chef José Andrés to feed people in emergencies. By the time restaurants reopened and the chefs went back to their day jobs, the Spanish WCK set-up had cooked in excess of 1,000,000 meals for the elderly and the vulnerable during the lockdown.
Shortly after Spain entered into lockdown, Morales began thinking about how he could make a difference. “I knew that I had to cook, but I didn’t want to be in charge of deciding who would receive our food – that’s a huge responsibility – and of course I wasn’t able to organise the logistics. They are very complicated,” he says. Arzábal’s team started making plans on 25 March and two days later the kitchen was up and running.
“We are used to the physical demands of the kitchen, but this was more mental – you have the constant pressure of knowing there are people who are not eating during this time. It makes you think a lot,” says Morales. But beyond the unusual circumstances, on a practical level, little is different for the kitchen team in Arzábal. “It’s not that different from how we would normally behave in the kitchen – we usually wear hair nets, aprons and gloves. The only thing is that we don’t usually wear face masks,” explains Morales.
Reflecting on the experience, he says volunteering the time and kitchen was instinctive. “If you see an old person falling over in the street, you’ll help them get back up – well, right now our country is falling over and we have to help it get back up,” he says.
Arzábal reopened its Madrid restaurants in June and has been able to return with the full team as well as a new revenue stream from delivery.
Nick Kokonas
Co-founder, Alinea Group, Chicago, US
When Covid-19 hit Chicago, fine-dining establishment Alinea surprised much of the culinary community by launching a carry-out option from the three-Michelinstarred restaurant. “About a week before the shutdown we considered take-out as an option so long as it was safe for our employees and customers,” says Kokonas. “We were up and running three days after the governor of Illinois mandated shelter in place. We wanted to feed our communities and get our team members back to work.” Alinea launched the carry-out concept selling a weekly pick-up item, charged at $34.95 – the first meal was a beef short rib wellington with mashed potatoes and a crème brulée to follow. All 3,500 meals spread over seven days sold out in the four hours they were for sale on Kokonas’ restaurant booking platform Tock. Similar programmes were launched at the groups other restaurants, Roister and Next. Continuing to operate, albeit carry-out rather than dine-in, also meant that 40 out of 300 employees were able to return to work.
“It was terribly sad to furlough employees, but we gave everyone a $1,000 stipend and benefits,” says Kokonas. “We immediately started figuring out ways to re-hire staff, or at least some of them. Any profits from our to-go menus will go back to the employees as a whole group – ownership and management is taking no salaries or profits.”
Alinea Group reopened Roister and Next in June and an outdoor iteration of Alinea, called Alinea in Residence, or AIR, on a Chicago rooftop in July. The team has continued to offer a take-out service.
Pete Wells
Restaurant critic, New York Times, the US
The restaurant critic of the New York Times since 2012, Pete Wells wrote his last pre-lockdown review – of Pastrami Masters in Brooklyn – for the paper on 10 March. When the city shut down, restaurants closed along with every other activity in the city.
So, what does a restaurant critic do when there are no restaurants to visit? In the case of Wells, he becme a reporter. “I have been trying to write every week, but it is completely different work,” he says. “Before, I knew what I would be writing every week; I just had to pick the restaurant. Now I have to find stories.” Since New York City went into quarantine in March, he has covered all areas of the city’s restaurant sector. From restaurant suppliers pivoting to sell direct to consumers as a way of making some money, to chefs selling meal kits and operators across New York City opening dining areas on sidewalks and streets, he has painted a picture of the pandemic’s impact on the city.
Before Covid-19 he always knew where his article would be placed, but since the pandemic his stories have been published across the paper. “I have had stories in the metro section, in the national section and in the business section. I have not been in the arts section, but it’s only a matter of time,” he jokes.
He admits to feeling ever so slightly disconcerted. “I have one of the great jobs in journalism and what makes it great is that I have a connection with my audience which is really engaged. So, I worry that I have lost touch with my readership a bit,” he says. At time of writing, four months after that last review, he is yet to start reviewing for his restaurant column again.
While he waits for that, he is enjoying the outdoor-dining scene. “I’d like to do that as long as it is happening. I think the outdoor restaurants are really interesting and I like being outdoors anyway – I am interested in this experiment we are running here, putting people in parking spaces in the street,” he says. “I drive and I like my car, but I also think it is kind of crazy how much of the city is given over to cars; parking spaces don’t do much for the urban fabric.”
It’s is true there’s little certainty on how this will all shake out when the pandemic is over, but Wells is clear, “We may not know yet, but I am sure every single person in the sector feels there will be major changes to come out of this.”
This collection of articles was first published in FCSI’s Foodservice Consultant 2020 at www.fcsi.org.
