By Ed Avis
Covid devastated the restaurant business, but it also caused many restaurant owners/chefs to focus on improving their work environments and sustainability practices, according to a panel of chefs at the Latin American Cuisine Summit at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio. The event began yesterday, September 12 and concludes today.
Fermin Nunez, owner of Suerte in Austin, said the stresses of running the restaurant during Covid made him and his staff realize that it is important to focus on quality of life issues outside the restaurant.
“I asked, ‘Why are we doing this?’” Nunez said. “Now staff take actual vacations, people are not afraid to ask for what they deserve.”
The difficult Covid environment also made Nunez realize that sometimes traditional rules of running a restaurant – such as never wavering on open hours – can be broken. When several staff members had Covid, for example, he reduced the open hours of Suerte so the remaining staff could handle the load.
Chef Sergio Remolina, owner of Laurel Café in San Antonio and former vp of culinary of Taco Cabana, described similar experiences.
“I think about the restaurant differently now,” Remolina said. “I used to think of the restaurant as a destination; now I think of it more like a community.”
Remolina also said his relationship to staff has changed: “I became more approachable.”
Both chefs also said they have focused on efficiency since Covid and the subsequent increase in food prices. For example, Nunez said fish heads that previously went into the trash are now roasted. The flesh is then removed, seasoned, and rolled into flautas. And he said he sources more food locally.
“I have a philosophy now that you don’t have to travel far for the best ingredients,” he said.