By Solene Lavenu
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That Christmas menus and New Year’s Day have been thought through and developed, and they reservationa few days before Christmas Eve, is open at restaurants or catering companies.
” We already have requestsand it looks pretty good, even very good, both for Christmas and New Year’s Day,” delighted Arnaud Féron, owner of the restaurant Le Panoramique, in La Pernelle (Manche), a few days ago.
Look at every penny spent
” We have many reservations for large tables. It starts very strong and customers don’t really look at the cost,” explained a caterer in Cherbourg.
But if consumers want to pamper themselves during the holidaysthe chefs, they assure that they must look at the smallest used penny.
Everything has increased: sugar is, for example, tripled. There’s also beef, mustard, dairy… Everything has exploded!
And it is difficult to send it on the card. ” We cannot offer cards that are too highwith the risk of getting fewer customers,” summarized the chefs.
This year The most frequently mentioned party product that cannot be found is still foie gras. Due to bird flu, this product has become rare.
“We usually work with foie gras and goose rillettes, but there are none left! sums up Arnaud Féron.
So everyone adapts. When the goose failed, Panoramique opted for duck foie gras.
“When we used to offer a piece of foie gras in our Christmas menus today, we offer something different. We make a recipe, we work more on the product. Customers also want to be surprised, to be offered originality… So we put our brains in that direction,” he explains.
Balancing work at the right price
Finding the right price to avoid discouraging the customer, and at the same time compensating for price increases, is a real balancing act.
” We have to raise our rates a bit. », sighs the restaurateur. “But we can’t pass the power on…”, the professionals agree.
That Christmas card has also often been developed several months agoas the final prices for certain ingredients were not yet known.
We established our menu in October and there were still no prices for holiday products, which always increase by a few euros.
At Plouc 2, where the chef previously offered foie gras on the menu, he has now given it up. “ It went from 80 to 90 euros, we had no choice, sighs Mickaël Enot. But I think, and the caveats confirm it, that people need to pamper themselves more than ever. »
An enchanted parenthesis before January, “where there, we don’t know what awaits us…”.
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