Hubert Boivin, Head of the Departmental Association of Café Owners, Restaurateurs, and Nighttime Industry Professionals in the Alpes-Maritimes, welcomed us to his offices in Nice. On the agenda for this discussion: the reduction in VAT, hygiene issues, and the implementation of the Professional Qualification Certificate (CQP).
Nice Première: In one of the reports by Nice-Première, a tattoo artist, commenting on her peers who do not follow hygiene rules, had an interesting reflection: “a natural selection occurs, unscrupulous colleagues quickly fold shop because customers avoid them.” This natural selection does not exist in the restaurant business. Aren’t these simply societal problems and changes in morals?
HB: Tattooing is a high-risk profession. Hygiene is very important. In the restaurant sector, we will introduce a “Tourism” or “Quality” label, which will be decided at the Congress in Pau. This label will identify restaurants that we could recommend to tourists.
“It’s the restaurateurs and nightclub owners who suffer the most.”
N-P: There is a difference between “snacks” where one only “feeds” and gastronomic restaurants where one wants to enjoy the dining experience. Wouldn’t it be simpler to create two categories of restaurants with separate legislation and separate hygiene controls? Why is this not the case? What are the reasons given?
HB: We are considering this distinction in two categories. There are what I call “snack” places where one eats little and quickly. I do not want to call these places restaurants. For me, a restaurant means being a restaurateur. Being a restaurateur is about hosting customers. They take the time to eat, to enjoy, to relax. By talking about restaurants for all these establishments, confusion arises. When you see “2.5 tons of spoiled products seized in restaurants,” you think of restaurateurs. Upon checking, it’s two tons seized at a wholesaler, 250 kilograms in an Asian self-service. In total, therefore, it’s 250 kilograms across fifty restaurants. It’s too much but far from 2.5 tons. Restaurateurs get the blame. Tourists think of restaurateurs when they see headlines like this. When we talk about hygiene in restaurants, one immediately thinks of restaurateurs, the same for alcohol, tobacco, noise, the cost of living. Restaurateurs get the blame for everything. Regarding tobacco, the Evin law must be applied. Alcohol is bought in grocery stores and it’s not in nightclubs where the youth drink the most because it’s too expensive. Yet it’s the restaurateurs and nightclub owners who suffer. In old Nice, the night industry is always blamed when there’s noise. We can make noise in the street without necessarily coming out of a pub.
N-P: The reduction in VAT was a battle. You have succeeded. Will there be guidelines or recommendations for restaurateurs to distribute the benefits of this decline? Should employment be prioritized? Hygiene and upkeep of premises? Revaluing wages?
HB: There are four important points:
– Job creation: we can create 40,000 jobs.
– Salary increase of 13 or 14% starting January. Wages had already increased by 11.5% in January 2005 with a sixth week of paid vacation, two days off of choice. The profession will maintain itself with the increase in remuneration.
– Investment for compliance of kitchens. Many restaurateurs do not have the means to comply their kitchens.
– Providing customers with improved menus with a free aperitif or cheese and dessert instead of cheese or dessert. There will be an opportunity to offer better quality fish, a turkey escalope instead of a veal escalope. There is a desire in each region to promote local products but also to bring something extra.
N-P: Obesity is progressing in France especially among the youth. The causes are known and can be summarized in one word: junk food. Awareness campaigns are multiplying, perhaps to the detriment of restaurateurs. What is your position on this?
HB: Young people eat anything and anyhow. They eat without hunger. This is what “junk food” is about. Going to a restaurant is different; it’s about eating slowly, sitting down, enjoying, appreciating. Next year, advertising campaigns will be inaugurated to showcase dining. So far, we only see advertisements for fast food; we will emphasize conviviality, relaxation, the joy of being at the table, with one’s children…
N-P: Regarding clandestine work or “black labor,” what would be your solutions to curb this practice that harms everyone?
HB: Penalize both the employee and the employer. It should also be noted that the employee often asks not to be declared. The restaurateur, in a rush, complies with this request. The employment agency sends him two or three candidates who are not suitable but whom he would have declared.
There is also a problem with interns. Recently, we discovered a restaurant working with eleven Indian interns who worked 15 hours a day and were paid a pittance. We obtained that all restaurants operating this way pay these interns at least the minimum wage. I proposed to the prefect that we limit interns to two per business. The intern will learn the trade, work seven hours a day with two days off.
What image does this give of France with this intern system? What will the Indian say when he returns to his country? He will say he was exploited, working fifteen hours a day for €200 as compensation for the season…
Thus, I am for control and sanction. Thus, both the employee and the employer will think twice before deciding not to declare.
N-P: Just about anyone can open a restaurant in France, what is your position on this topic when you know that many other professions are regulated (hairdressing, pastry making, bakery…)?
Hubert Boivin: Today, you cannot be a restaurateur without having learned about the profession. A new restaurateur, and Paris will determine this, will have to undergo training to learn the basics of the trade, to understand what cooking, hygiene, compliance, regulation, purchasing, management, the cold chain, wines, and spirits are about. This training must be completed by “non-professionals.” If a chef wants to open a restaurant, he won’t need to follow this training except perhaps for business management. But he will learn nothing about “cooking,” it would be laughable if he had to take an exam. The goal is that a boss can put on the apron.
A shoemaker, a hairdresser, a plumber must have a diploma, but not a restaurateur, even though it’s a dangerous profession.
This CQP (Professional Qualification Certificate) will be required by banks to grant a loan to open a restaurant. It will certainly see the light of day in 2006. We will discuss it on September 19 at the national office of the restaurant industry, of which I am a member, and then at the Congress in Pau in December.
N-P: Aren’t the problems of hygiene in restaurants, that is, cleanliness defects (dirty tiles and windows for example), due to a clientele that is not very concerned about these criteria?
HB: When you go to old Nice, you look less at the tiles than on the Promenade des Anglais. It’s a matter of setting. In old Nice, it is ancient, very stylish, Niçois, we pay less attention. Personally, I check cleanliness by going to the toilets. A clean restaurant cleans them four or five times a day. When you stroll along the Cours Saleya, you notice that people have a drink in hand, with a sandwich. They don’t buy it in a restaurant. It’s a new way to feed oneself.
N-P: “High” gastronomy is often a privilege. How to make it accessible to the most people?
HB: We need to adapt formulas for the masses. It should be such that for the same price as fast food, one can sit down. With advertising campaigns, we can relaunch this great cuisine. The media must talk about it. Children attract parents and grandparents to fast food restaurants, just because of advertising campaigns. We must do the same to bring families back to the restaurants.
N-P: Niçoise cuisine is one of the most recognized cuisines in France and the world. What do you think about the “Cuisine Nissarte” label dear to Mrs. Graglia of the Capelina d’Or?
HB: It’s something beautiful. Niçoise cuisine is recognized due to this label. It is typical.
N-P: And finally, what is your favorite dish?
HB: The stew cooked for at least six hours.
