At the head of several gourmet restaurants in Valence (Drôme) and in Paris, but also London (United Kingdom), Singapore or Lausanne (Switzerland), Anne-Sophie Pic, the only three-star Michelin chef, is one of the great voices of great French cuisine.
How did you react to Edouard Philippe's announcement of the total reopening of restaurants on June 2 in the green zone, but only on the terrace in Paris and Ile-de-France?
ANNE-SOPHIE PIC. I trust the scientists who guide the government on the choices to be made to ensure that the epidemic does not start again. My three-star restaurant in Valence is in the green zone. However, the Dame de Pic in Paris will not be able to reopen right away, but the health of the French must count above all.
What precautionary measures have you taken in your establishments and will they affect the level of your activity?
Of course, we will welcome less people and we reopen for the moment only a few days a week. We also had to rethink the way we work and adapt. Not everyone will get out of short time immediately, teams may have to turn. As for health security, as professionals, we are used to hygiene rules. I feed people every day and their safety is the first thing I have to guarantee them. From this point of view, we will strictly respect the rules laid down by the State and we will even push things to the maximum to reassure our customers.
That is to say ?
In our gourmet restaurant in Valence, we set up special routes so that customers do not meet. For hand disinfection, I asked a perfumer friend to make me a special gel to make this gesture a pleasure. Our servers and in the kitchen, everyone will be masked and respect the safety distances. In the hotel rooms, the air will be regularly cleaned by special oxygen equipment. It's a big investment. We therefore go a little further than the measures introduced by the State.
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And indoors?
We decided to reopen with 35 covers instead of 50 before the crisis in order to offer the maximum space to our customers. I want to take advantage of this so that each client has an even more personalized experience and an even warmer service, even if the ritual will be done on a pedestal table to respect the safety distances.
Will you reopen with the same card or, again, does the health crisis force you to work differently?
What we went through made me think a lot. I decided to launch a unique menu but which will change very often to be even more in seasonal products. So that the customer does not lose, it will be a creative profusion, I want to go towards an even more poetic cuisine, which is even more like me. I want to take advantage of this moment to test what the restaurant of tomorrow will be. I don't want to leave as before.
What do you say to the French to invite them to find their way to restaurants?
The restaurant is life, social bond. I grew up above a restaurant and I saw, with the clamor which escaped from it, all the happiness which my parents gave to their customers. To do this job, you have to love others. And then, you have all these local producers, these breeders, these market gardeners, these bakers, these chocolate makers, these fishermen who live on catering. By returning to our establishments, the French will allow all these sectors to catch their breath. I think that this negative, terrible moment that we lived, which showed our vulnerability, we must now transform it into something virtuous and say to ourselves that going back to the restaurant is life taking over.
On June 2, will your gourmet restaurant in Valence be full?
After the Prime Minister's announcement, we have already received a hundred requests. Our customers were eager to return. We need them but they too are waiting for us and I feel their desire to live again, to invite their friends back. We are reopening with a few weekends already full and we are very happy.
