If the tables and terraces are crowded in good weather, restaurants struggle to find people in the kitchen as well as in the dining room to serve them. As the restaurant world prepares for the coming summer, 200,000 seasonal positions are still to be filled in France. The reasons for this shortage? Salaries that are too low, limited benefits, or even intense and irregular hours. In the restaurant industry, the issue of well-being at work has been a worrying subject for some time. Certain structures have taken note and are proposing new, fairer models, which will perhaps lay the foundations for the restoration of tomorrow.
As soon as it opens in September 2023, the restaurant “A Table!” », decided to overturn… the table. So don’t expect to eat there on a Saturday or Sunday. Not even every evening. Don’t plan to arrive there too late either. Because the establishment is closed on weekends, as well as Monday and Tuesday evenings. Its employees benefit from two weeks of additional paid vacation, or seven in total, as well as higher salaries than in the rest of the profession. Obviously, as a counterpart to this balance, there is cut-off work specific to catering. A menu that is the polar opposite of a sector where we don’t count the hours. Camille Guérin, chef and founder of this bistronomic address in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, wanted to escape from these extreme patterns: “I wanted to maintain a social life for my team and me. All while working with good producers and offering quality cuisine. “.
Paid operation
The absence of service on weekends may seem surprising, but is also justified by the location of the restaurant. “We are located in a residential area, the two days off are not very disruptive and the restaurant already has its regulars. For many, they are the local workers,” explains the chef. Internally too, the operation seems conclusive. “For nothing in the world I would go back to another way of working” exclaims Boris, the establishment’s waiter.
Before welcoming its customers and operating at full capacity, the restaurant team takes the time before each service to share a good meal together. A ritual guaranteeing a good atmosphere and far from being common in the area, as explained a Slate file from June 2023, which pointed out the rush in which many cooks and waiters found themselves every day. Camille Guérin was once in this situation: “I worked in many kitchens where it was normal for me not to eat.” Because while sharing a meal with colleagues seems completely normal in many professions, catering does not always enjoy such luxury.
The reality of a very vertical environment
This initiative is part of a context of freedom of speech in the community. Covid was a shift: “The forced rest from the pandemic allowed us to realize how hierarchical, masculine and military this universe was. Many people fall into drugs and addictions to keep up,” explains the restaurateur. A study by the French Collective Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies published in March 2023 rightly highlighted the over-representation of catering professionals among cocaine users.
Madalena, head chef at “A Table!” », was also able to observe certain excesses, specific to the environment: “As in many “passion” professions, we are used to tolerating very difficult working conditions. For example, there is a real neurosis about the idea of not being a chef at 30 which pushes young people to accept the unacceptable.”
Marina Delorme, owner of Pleni, a restaurant in Issy-les-Moulineaux, has also arranged the schedule of its employees in this way: closure in the evenings and weekends, as well as seven weeks of paid leave. Slowly but surely, she observes a change in her colleagues: “It takes time, it’s a bit of the job of professionals and the media to highlight good initiatives. There are many people who are working in this direction and whose work deserves to be highlighted more! » Restaurateurs who are struggling to find help for their brigade should possibly consider drawing their managerial inspiration elsewhere than from the infantry regiments.