L’Assiette Champenoise, in Tinqueux (Marne), the only three-star in the department, will close at the end of January for a month off. In the meantime, “the recruitment for March is over. We are lucky to have very few departures, only 5 or 6 out of 55 employees, ”explains Arnaud Lallement, worthy heir to a company founded in 1975.“ I even had the opportunity to select my candidates from among several , or even keep one or two under the elbow if the first ones do not like each other. “The secret of such ease, when the workforce everywhere is lacking:” The stability of our establishment, perhaps. About thirty employees have more than ten years of work, that inspires confidence. “
And then there are the choices of internal organization, too, at a time when working conditions in restaurants are widely criticized. “We have two teams in the kitchen: one in the morning, one in the evening, for more performance. The two days of rest are common to all, Tuesday and Wednesday. Ditto for the holidays, 6 weeks in total. The result is a similar pace for everyone, same form and same fatigue. It creates a certain osmosis, ”says the chef.
On the salary side, “it is not logical to pay at the minimum wage a young person who works evenings and weekends – with us for services going until two o’clock in the morning – as we would pay an employee in the office from 8 to 5 pm, recognizes Arnaud Lallement. Or if not, you have to compensate with more free time. And all this, according to the chief, is not so much the responsibility of professional organizations in the sector as of personal education, within each establishment. “The Covid crisis has shed light on what has been going on in the shadow of catering for years. We will have to review the way we manage our houses. “
Regarding the La List ranking, which places L’Assiette Champenoise third in the world alongside a British and a Japanese establishment, Arnaud Lallement opines: “It’s a nice ranking which recovers, thanks to an algorithm, everything which was written during the year. Articles, online reviews, guides… It’s proof that all channels count to attract customers, from a visit to Top Chef to a recipe published in a magazine. Michelin remains however, according to Arnaud Lallement, the first vector of interest – including, obviously, for the employees of the sector.