TV chef
Tim Mälzer: “You can’t leave people alone”
The Hamburg restaurateur Tim Mälzer opens again. Photo: Christian Charisius/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Tim Mälzer recently took a three-week break with his Hamburg restaurant “Bullerei” because of Corona. Now it starts again. In terms of politics, he has one wish.
The Hamburg TV chef and restaurateur Tim Mälzer hopes that politicians will not continue to abandon companies that have been struggling to survive due to Corona.
“I would like the government to continue working behind the scenes to help ailing businesses – whether retail, entertainment or hospitality. That it becomes clear that this is not a burden that an individual has to bear, but that the community bears it, »said the 51-year-old of the German Press Agency in Hamburg. People faltered entirely through no fault of their own. “One must not leave the people alone who are now facing the ruins of their existence.”
Mälzer himself had his restaurant in Hamburg, the “Bullerei”, closed for three weeks due to the corona. The team resumes business on Thursday. Before that, there was a lot of test cooking, tinkering and trying out. “That’s what politics hasn’t understood so far, that opening and closing gastronomy always causes start-up and shut-down costs.”
Nevertheless, Mälzer also admitted that politicians are now reacting better to the crisis. “I have the feeling that we are going into more open communication. There is less bossiness. I found that to be much more confrontational last year. And I also have the feeling that an attempt is being made to face the pandemic with more foresight.” In a crisis there is also “no complete right and no decisions that leave us untouched”.
lack of employees
Mälzer’s company, like most of those who are in the spotlight anyway, has come through the Corona crisis well so far. “The small companies that are not quite as much in focus have stumbled tremendously.” Apart from that, the crisis is not over yet. And there is the problem of a lack of employees across all sectors – for many reasons.
One of them: Because of possible positive rapid tests, many employees at home sometimes have to wait a long time for the delayed result of the PCR test. “As a result, we then have various healthy people at home and we can’t keep refilling and exchanging immensely.” He has many restaurateurs in his circle of acquaintances who would like to open, but simply cannot because of a lack of employees. «This is the killer for any company. This can become a big problem. And I think that will keep us busy.”
Mälzer and his team welcome the “Bullerei” guests from Thursday “unchanged with great motivation”, as he said. There is now also a corona test center in front of the restaurant with free tests for spontaneous visitors.