Speaker 1: These sees Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim
Speaker 1: Stanovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, our next guest is an author,
Speaker 1: a television host, a philanthropist, James Baird Award and Michelin
Speaker 1: Star decorated chef that again just also earning a four
Speaker 1: star rating from The New York Times. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that in just a moment. He is definitely in a
Speaker 1: class all his own. We're talking about Eric Repair, executive
Speaker 1: chef and co owner of La Bernadin, now celebrating its
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary. Libernadan, one of the rare New York City
Speaker 1: restaurants to be awarded the maximum three Michelin stars for
Speaker 1: excellent and cuzine cuisine. If there is like a benchmark
Speaker 1: and award, he has certainly won it. He's also vice
Speaker 1: chairman of the board of City Harvest. He joins this
Speaker 1: via zoom in New York City. Eric, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on Bloomberg again. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Thank you for adding me to do congratulations.
Speaker 1: Um uh, We're not quite sure where to start, um,
Speaker 1: but let's start. For first of all, because you were
Speaker 1: kind enough in the midst of the deep depths of
Speaker 1: the pandemic to come on and talk with us about
Speaker 1: the industry. Um, tell us where we are today and
Speaker 1: how much we've come back, how much we have to go.
Speaker 1: So the industry came back very quickly. Um, people right
Speaker 1: after the pandemic uh decided that they wanted to splurt
Speaker 1: and a great experience and live life and be happy.
Speaker 1: And therefore restaurants and the hospitality in general are benefiting
Speaker 1: from that shift of thinking. And despite the fact that
Speaker 1: last year we we started the year with the omni
Speaker 1: chron and it was a bit of fear attached to that,
Speaker 1: restaurant did extremely well in general in New York City
Speaker 1: and all over the US. And no signs of stopping. No,
Speaker 1: I don't see the stops of stopping. The big difference
Speaker 1: in between last year and this year is that more
Speaker 1: people are going out, but spending is a bit less
Speaker 1: than two thousand twenty two. Where are you seeing that? Well,
Speaker 1: the spending is at least le bernard and the spending
Speaker 1: is less in the wine consumption or in the in
Speaker 1: the cocktails. People have the tendency to be saving a
Speaker 1: bit more. There Um, we have a prefixed menu or
Speaker 1: testing menu, so people cannot um eat something less expensive
Speaker 1: because again it's it's already decided. But for the one consumption,
Speaker 1: for sure, we see a huge difference. And when I
Speaker 1: talk to my friends in the industry, they observe exactly
Speaker 1: the same phenomenon. So I wondered, too, how much ERIC
Speaker 1: is because of still the inflationary and price pressures. How
Speaker 1: that is playing into kind of your dynamic. So we
Speaker 1: have seen a lot of inflation in two thousand twenty two.
Speaker 1: We still see some inflation right as we speak right now. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's difficult to to really quantify the effect. But we
Speaker 1: had to raise our prices by twenty percent in the
Speaker 1: period of time of eighteen months and right now, depending
Speaker 1: on the weather and depending of many components, the price
Speaker 1: of many products and produces varies. And I know during
Speaker 1: the pandemic from the New York Times Rave review, which
Speaker 1: will get to But you had seven people working with
Speaker 1: you in the kitchen. Is that is that correct? So
Speaker 1: I imagine you've got a lot more now. But talk
Speaker 1: to me about what that transition kind of back to
Speaker 1: quote unquote normal has looked like for you, and how
Speaker 1: have labor labor costs changed for you. So it was
Speaker 1: very difficult to reopen the restaurants because a lot of
Speaker 1: people that we're working in our industry went back to
Speaker 1: other states that were open to business, like Florida, for instance,
Speaker 1: or young students that are usually learning in in the
Speaker 1: kitchen of fine dining restaurants went back to their families
Speaker 1: and never came back to New York. So when we
Speaker 1: reopened the restaurant, the manager and management was here. They
Speaker 1: were employees that work at Lebernard and for a long time,
Speaker 1: and we were short in staff. But we reopened, as
Speaker 1: you remember, at capacity in New York City, and then
Speaker 1: it increased to fifty and then we closed again, and
Speaker 1: then we reopened finally at percent today from seven people
Speaker 1: in in the kitchen that we had, we have sixty cooks.
Speaker 1: We should be about seventy five cooks or chefs, and
Speaker 1: we are a little bit short. The salaries are in
Speaker 1: general much better than what they were have pre COVID,
Speaker 1: because again it's a shortage of labor, labor in the
Speaker 1: kitchen and in the dining room as well. Uh and
Speaker 1: therefore it has a huge impact on the budget of
Speaker 1: the of the restaurants and um some of the inflation
Speaker 1: is passed to the consumer, and some of it is
Speaker 1: absorbed by the owners of restaurants. And I know that
Speaker 1: you differ from Noma and Copenhagen, which is a restaurant
Speaker 1: that does not they have unpaid interns, and I know
Speaker 1: that you pay everyone on your staff. Uh, talk to
Speaker 1: me about where you're able to increase costs the most
Speaker 1: easily for customers in order to maintain the profits that
Speaker 1: you need to run the business. Well, Um, the prefix
Speaker 1: that was pre COVID was twenty percent less than than
Speaker 1: today we had. We had to raise the price of
Speaker 1: the food. People didn't really mind and understood. The lunch
Speaker 1: price has also increased drastically because we were very inexpensive
Speaker 1: for lunch. But to get people understand again that the
Speaker 1: price of goods has changed, and um, we do not
Speaker 1: have people questioning our the price of our menus. Um,
Speaker 1: the price of the wine is basically the same and
Speaker 1: people have a lot of choice. We have about thousand
Speaker 1: bottles uh different wines at Lebanon there and people can
Speaker 1: choose inexpensive fare or or exceptional price. Of course, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, Eric, we had Danielle Blue on back in December,
Speaker 1: and you know I do recall you I want to
Speaker 1: go back to what you said about workers and some
Speaker 1: of them leaving and they went to Florida, and that
Speaker 1: was one of the things he said. I think labor
Speaker 1: was a really tough issue for him as well. And
Speaker 1: just this whole idea that workers who were in the
Speaker 1: industry have left, they haven't come back, and they found
Speaker 1: jobs elsewhere, um, And so that that continues to be
Speaker 1: a real chronic problem. It is a big problem, especially
Speaker 1: for fine dining restaurants because usually we again have a
Speaker 1: lot of students who come from culinary schools or people
Speaker 1: who are starting their career and they want to go
Speaker 1: into find dining because it's where they learn the basics
Speaker 1: and give them huge opportunities in their future. Those young
Speaker 1: people make a big sacrifice to live in New York City.
Speaker 1: Usually they have roommates, um, they live not necessarily in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: and when COVID happened, they left and and they didn't
Speaker 1: come back to New York because the lifestyle is too expensive,
Speaker 1: and they find those other jobs in other places. Do
Speaker 1: you ever think about or do you and you and
Speaker 1: the industry at home, you know, think about It's something
Speaker 1: that's come up with FED speakers it's come up with
Speaker 1: certainly politicians, this whole idea of immigration and opening up
Speaker 1: the borders more a little bit, and just got about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, and then we'll come back and continue the conversation.
Speaker 1: We we will love that. Of course, we would love
Speaker 1: to have more immigrants, legal immigrants coming and helping us
Speaker 1: in the kitchens because they stay with us for a
Speaker 1: long time. All Right, we're going to continue the conversation.
Speaker 1: Delighted to have with us, Eric repair of course of
Speaker 1: Le Bernadine, as we said, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary and
Speaker 1: just again earned a four star rating from the New
Speaker 1: York Times. Uh, the review is pretty incredible, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about it with Eric in just a moment.
Speaker 1: So let me read you something. A great restaurant can
Speaker 1: be a sort of cultural preserve, a place where rare
Speaker 1: skills are passed on from one pair of hands to
Speaker 1: the next. Even formal restaurants services built on careful study
Speaker 1: of human behavior. If it's done right. A restaurant like
Speaker 1: Liberta Dan is run by people who know things that
Speaker 1: others haven't learned yet. This is part of what ran
Speaker 1: through my head too when I tasted those scallops and
Speaker 1: their cream sauce, and thought they kept it alive. Now
Speaker 1: this is, of course a New York Times review that
Speaker 1: gave Labernardin four stars again and I believe it's the
Speaker 1: fifth consecutive time that they have gotten this with us.
Speaker 1: Of course, as you know, is Eric Repair, executive chef
Speaker 1: co owner of Labernardin with us on the phone here
Speaker 1: were actually via zoom in New York City. Eric, to
Speaker 1: hear that and to get this distinction again, how does
Speaker 1: it feel? Well? It feels good because the New York
Speaker 1: Time is an institution and pitt Welles is a tough
Speaker 1: food critic to have four staff since the opening of
Speaker 1: Legnard and which is since uh, it's exceptional. We are
Speaker 1: the only restaurant in New York to have that that record.
Speaker 1: And we celebrated for a few days the review. And
Speaker 1: now we are back to work and uh trying to
Speaker 1: create an amazing experience for the clients that come to
Speaker 1: leban are there. We um, we are living the passion,
Speaker 1: We are living the dream. I'm glad to hear that
Speaker 1: you celebrated at least a little bit, though you you
Speaker 1: deserve that and much more. I have to wonder there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of bad press lately for these incredible restaurants.
Speaker 1: Right it feels like, I don't know if you've seen
Speaker 1: the movie The Menu. There's TV shows about being a
Speaker 1: Michelin chef and just how challenging it is. What do
Speaker 1: you think maybe is getting misunderstood about what hard work
Speaker 1: you do and the the challenge and beauty of these
Speaker 1: Michelin star restaurants. Well, fine dining restaurants are are meant
Speaker 1: to create exceptional experiences for for the clients, and people
Speaker 1: who work in those restaurants are very passionate and love
Speaker 1: the hospitality industry. Of course, in the kitchen is about craftsmanship,
Speaker 1: artistry in the dining room is about loving to interact
Speaker 1: with clients. And we have a team of somebody year
Speaker 1: that have a lot of expertise with the wines and
Speaker 1: they have passion for discovering and testing grid wines and
Speaker 1: sharing their passion for the clients. So this is what
Speaker 1: fine dining restaurants are meant for now. It's some restaurants
Speaker 1: that have good practices like Lebernard and where every employee
Speaker 1: is paid um with UH fair prices, fair salaries, where
Speaker 1: we pay also the overtimes and we have benefits for
Speaker 1: our employees and where we tweet all the employees with
Speaker 1: tremendous respect. And you have some other restaurants that are
Speaker 1: getting a bit of uh but press lately because they
Speaker 1: don't have the same standards as Lebanard. Yeah, it speaks
Speaker 1: to culture, right, we talked about it's got to be
Speaker 1: from the bottom up, the top down. Um, I want
Speaker 1: to ask you something, how does this process work? In
Speaker 1: other words, do you know and Pete Wells is going
Speaker 1: to come in? Does he walk in? And are you
Speaker 1: all surprised? Walkers there? We've all seen it in movies,
Speaker 1: you know, when the critic comes into a restaurant. How
Speaker 1: does it actually work? So Pete Wells, Um, it's pretty
Speaker 1: well recognized in New York because it's the food critique
Speaker 1: of the New York time for many many years. I
Speaker 1: think it's there for twelve or fourteen years. But you
Speaker 1: never know when he's going to show up. But what
Speaker 1: it does is send some friends first ah and and
Speaker 1: they have a fake name, and you see them where
Speaker 1: wherever you decide to to see his friends. Usually they're
Speaker 1: not necessarily the most well dressed people in the dinning room,
Speaker 1: and they're not necessarily well known by the by the team. Uh.
Speaker 1: So sometimes they end up um in in in the
Speaker 1: back of the restaurant and not in the front. But
Speaker 1: then he shows up, and then they choose at the
Speaker 1: very last minute whatever they want to experience from the menu,
Speaker 1: and they have interaction with the staff and with so
Speaker 1: many years again for the wines. So when Pete Whales
Speaker 1: arrives and he's with his friends and decided to eat
Speaker 1: many dishes, it's basically too late because if your fish
Speaker 1: is not fresh, your thoughts are not good, it's nothing
Speaker 1: you can do. It's too late. You can't reado everything,
Speaker 1: do you. Carol mentioned some of these movies, and one
Speaker 1: of them they say that the cretic comes and drops
Speaker 1: a fork on the ground to see how the staff reacts.
Speaker 1: And that's to tell that it's a it's a critic
Speaker 1: in the restaurant. Is any of that true? I have
Speaker 1: seen that with few critics. Yes, yes, it's it's uh.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they drop the napkin on purpose or furk or
Speaker 1: something like that, or they make a mistake and uh
Speaker 1: or sometimes like those a day, for instance, um pitt
Speaker 1: Wells wanted to have the desserts and when we were
Speaker 1: about to serve the desserts, they decided to have cheese
Speaker 1: at the same time, so we had to coordinate bringing
Speaker 1: the cheese cart, cutting the cheese and serving it at
Speaker 1: the same time as the desserts that were coming the pastry.
Speaker 1: So that's the way they do to to basically test
Speaker 1: the quality of the service. All right, Eric, just got
Speaker 1: about thirty seconds. What are you having for dinner tonight?
Speaker 1: Tonight for dinner, I'm gonna test the sauce. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: test the food without double dipping, and that will be
Speaker 1: dinner because I eat only once a day for lunch.
Speaker 1: All right. That's so interesting, all of it, and um,
Speaker 1: just such a joy to spend this time with you.
Speaker 1: And congratulations because the distinction, as we said, getting that
Speaker 1: four star rating from the New York Times again is
Speaker 1: just and subsequently getting it for several years here, uh,
Speaker 1: is just really remarkable. Um, Eric, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Be well. Eric repair executive chef co owner of Lebrona
Speaker 1: Dan as we mentioned, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. I believe
Speaker 1: the first time he got a four star rating was
Speaker 1: back when he was twenty nine years old. But again,
Speaker 1: getting it for the fifth consecutive time, So really remarkable, right,
Speaker 1: huge accomplishment and story you know, so good, such a
Speaker 1: good chat. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, Carol Master,
Speaker 1: Madison Mills. This is Bloomberg Radio.