We had 2 interesting days in Hamburg. The idea was to check out a few innovative ideas and have a general chat about how to cope with the ever increasing problem of scarcity of trained chefs and spiralling labour cost.
We started out with lunch at Va Piano In my opinion one of the most innovative food concept we have seen in a long time.
Followed by tour of the East hotel
And dinner at Elysee
The reason we had dinner the Elysee was that we wanted to test the Block Menu concept live – and that was a real eye opener for all. A 160 seat restaurant handled by 2 chefs in a space no larger than 14 sqm. In the banqueting department 2 chefs handle up to 1000 covers in a night with ease.
So the next day we went to Zarentin outside Hamburg to find out what the sceret begind the low labour cost was: Block Menu
Export manager Rüdiger Brümmer took us through the menus and demonstrated how far sous-vide cooking has come – and we may all have different opinions on taste but we could not fault the quality of the products.
The experience was intense – every one fully concentrated
On the way back to Copenhagen in the bus we had a god chat and reflection on the merits of the various cusines we visited and our hig profile chefs of course stuck to their principles and gave conveniens food a good bashing – but then they got hungry…
Need I say more…
It was good fun and an eye-opener for us all – and like it or not, what IKEA has done to furniture production, Block Menu is determined to do to food production.
