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Chefs and restaurateurs launch a new "cry of alarm" to Emmanuel Macron

2020-10-20T14:40:25.488Z


In an open letter to the President of the Republic, signed by many colleagues, Mathieu Pacaud asks that restaurant customers be able to return home until 11 p.m.


“The cry of alarm for the restoration”

.

This is the title of the open letter sent to the President of the Republic by Mathieu Pacaud, head of Apicius (Paris Society group) and of Divellec, after the announcement of a curfew at 9 p.m. in Île-de-France and in eight French cities.

Signed by around thirty colleagues (Guy Savoy, Hélène Darroze, Philippe Etchebest, Stéphanie Le Quellec ...), but also managers of catering groups (Olivier Bertrand, Benjamin Patou, Stéphane Manigold ...) and employers' organizations (Umih and GNI), the platform asks to be able to welcome customers in restaurants after 9 p.m.

The ticket provided at the end of the meal to customers - who arrived before 9 p.m. at the restaurant - would thus allow them to return home by 11 p.m. at the latest.

The letter also calls for emergency measures to be taken to safeguard the sector: rent moratorium;

cancellation of employers' contributions ...

"

Mr. President of the Republic,

During your televised speech on October 14, 2020, you announced the establishment of a daily curfew from October 17 from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. for a period of four to six weeks in Paris and throughout the Island. -de-France as well as in eight metropolises: Aix-Marseille, Lyon, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Montpellier, Lille and Rouen.

For the restaurant economy, already devastated by many months of crisis, this announcement is the final blow to us.

Mr. Chairman, behind our economy, behind the figures, lives are at stake. Those of our families, our teams, our suppliers.

We fear collectively that we will never be able to recover.

Before your announcement, we were already worried that 30% of our restaurants would go bankrupt by the end of the year.

Since then, we think it will be much worse.

No cluster has been declared in our establishments

We chose this profession out of passion, we took risks, financial of course, but also personal and family.

We have worked tirelessly to open, maintain and maintain our establishments.

Driven by this common desire which brings us together and unites us: to share, to make people love and to please.

Cafes, bars, bistros, brasseries, restaurants, gourmet restaurants… are landmarks in the life of a neighborhood.

They are a bulwark against isolation, relays of sociability and solidarity.

Including for apprentices and young people in catering trades who find more than a salary there.

Like many other parts of our country's culture, such as theaters, cinemas, museums, etc., we are the wealth of France and the pride of the French.

But our art of living, which is so unique and so unique in the world, is in great danger.

9 p.m., go home!

Yet we were good students.

We complied with all the rules, all the constraints, although sometimes difficult to understand, afraid of the idea of ​​reliving a total containment that brought us down professionally and economically.

We have adapted our spaces to respect distances and barrier gestures, so that everyone can be and feel safe.

We have removed tables, we have invested in facilities, we have noted the contact details of our customers, we have limited the number of guests per table.

Moreover, no cluster has been declared in our establishments.

And today, you tell us that all this is in vain?

The rules of the game change every week

9 p.m., go home!

Mr President, we have already experienced the distance between promises and deeds.

We have no more cash.

We are drowned in paperwork.

We have to pay the paid holidays of our employees who were nevertheless on short-time working, and the rents for places that we can only partially use for our activity.

Are you sure that your decisions to support us will be implemented?

We supposedly had the option of paying our taxes with extra delay, so how do you explain that we still have to pay late penalties?

9 p.m., go home!

Mr. President, to govern is to anticipate.

We have done everything to anticipate and face the slightest contingency, the problems of our suppliers, the arrangements to be made, the contracts of our employees, while you change, almost every week, the rules of the game. to other obligations which were not respected by a minority.

Today the light has gone out

If we appeal to you, it is because there is danger in the remainder.

In this crisis that we are going through collectively, everyone must take their share of responsibility.

We have already taken more than ours.

We are ready to continue if you give us the means and trust us.

For French catering to still have a future, a solution must be found so that at least the first evening service can be maintained.

We are committed to guaranteeing all sanitary measures.

Mr. President, we ask you to allow guests who arrive before 9 p.m. to stay with us for dinner.

The ticket that we would provide them at the end of the meal would allow them to be at home at 11pm at the latest.

Even so, our industry will be hit hard.

We also need urgent measures to be taken: a moratorium on our rents;

the cancellation of employer contributions throughout the duration of the state of health emergency;

the opening of partial unemployment to majority managers, and of the PGE (loan guaranteed by the State) to all companies, having had at least one positive result over the past three years.

And finally, the vote in the finance law of the adjustment of accounting rules, to allow us to strengthen our equity, in particular by allowing us to reassess our tax-free business assets in our balance sheets, and thus avoid numerous bankruptcies.

Mr President, you have brought us together on several occasions, inviting restaurateurs and chefs to the Élysée.

Each time you have expressed your pride to us, you have called on us to make France shine.

However, the light has gone out.

It is up to you to relight it in order to live up to the words you have spoken to us.

You told us you needed us.

We have been there.

Today, we are the ones who need you.

The petitioners

The chefs:

Mathieu Pacaud, Guy Savoy, Hélène Darroze, Yannick Alléno, Pierre Gagnaire, Christian Le Squer, Pierre Hermé, Kei Kobayashi, Philippe Etchebest, Michel Sarran, Stéphanie Le Quellec, Christian Constant, Yves Camdeborde, Stéphane Jégo, Bruno Doucet, Juan Arbelaez, Gérald Passédat, Mathieu Viannay, Dimitri Droisneau, Jacques and Laurent Pourcel, Akrame Benallal, Guillaume Sanchez, Tabata and Ludovic Mey, Rodolphe Pottier, Florent Ladeyn, Thibaut Gamba, Paul Langlère, Guillaume Leclère, Maxime Apert, Aziz Mokhtari, Benjamin Lechevallier.

The owners of catering groups

 : Olivier Bertrand, Jean-Louis Costes, Thierry Costes, Laurent de Gourcuff, Benjamin Patou, David Holder, Thierry Bourdoncle, Paul Canarelli, Thierry and Laurent Gardinier, Stéphane Manigold, Arthur Benzaquen, Nicolas Richard, Pascal Mousset , Pierre Moussier, Dominique Paul, Mathieu Bucher, Valérie Saas-Lovichi, Pierre Guéret, Olivier Lejeune, Arnaud Meunier, Fabien Chalard, houses Ducret-Chavant, Christophe Baron and Romain Pecqueret.

Employers' organizations:

Umih (Union of hospitality trades and industries), GNI (National group of independent hotel and restaurant workers).

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-10-20

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