'Half the value for the same price? It works!’
The gastronomy guide Gault & Millau has analysed the price development in a thousand German gourmet restaurants since corona. The result: 53 per cent more expensive. Editor Jochen Rädeker on greedy landlords, lousy service and rip-offs as an industry problem.
Interview by Marten Rolff Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), 30.082024
Excessive prices, poor service and then the constant moaning for more support: the criticism that the new Gault & Millau boss has levelled at upscale gastronomy sounds harsh. But it is meant to be constructive, says Jochen Rädeker, Professor of Communication and Corporate Identity at the University of Konstanz and, as a side job, recently became one of the country's most important restaurant assessors.
The German edition of Gault & Millau, the second largest gastronomy guide alongside the Michelin Guide, has itself often been in turmoil recently: Change of publisher, management buy-out, licence stress, withdrawal of the editor-in-chief ... Now the new edition is due to be published at the end of October. The new editor's debut is unusual for the often flattering and purring critic scene. Instead of the usual praise for the German gourmet miracle, Rädeker and his colleague Hannah Fink-Eder have launched a study on price trends in 1000 top German restaurants on behalf of their publishing house Henris Edition. Their verdict: the rampant usury is now threatening to compromise the quality of the cuisine.
SZ: Mr Rädeker, Gault & Millau rarely has to be strict, you usually celebrate chefs. This year, on the other hand, you're giving the industry a good wanking. The tone is also new: You commented on your survey on price trends in the catering industry with the words: ‘Lack of service, greed and avarice’ have become a problem, and diners are being downright ‘ripped off’. What has happened?
Jochen Rädeker: That's right, that's what I wrote, but without context these sentences sound a bit exaggerated. So before we get to the rip-off, I need to put the judgement into perspective: The vast majority of restaurants that we visit as testers are excellently run. By committed people who make their guests happy. That's what gastronomy can do. But beyond that, we are also very concerned.
About the restaurants or about the guests?
Many restaurateurs complain that guests are staying away. We asked ourselves why this is the case. And we realised that the price-performance ratio in some establishments has become extremely negative: excessive price increases combined with lousy service, poorer use of goods and the claim that you have to support the industry because it is suffering so much. All of this has created a very unfavourable atmosphere throughout the entire scene. We criticise that. To protect the many chefs who are doing a good job. And to protect the guests, who should know what to expect. I've noticed that even our testers have been leaving restaurants more and more frustrated recently. That's one of the reasons we did the study.
Can you briefly explain what exactly you investigated?
Our team of 25 critics assesses around a thousand restaurants a year. Over the past three years, we have precisely documented the price trends in these restaurants, for example with invoices and photos of all menus and all dishes consumed. We analysed all this data, adjusted it, classified it according to various criteria and compared it with general price trends.
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If you always pour slightly below the calibration bar, you shouldn't be surprised if guests stay away.
There is indeed a real restaurant crisis with many closures, the catering industry has not had an easy time recently: lockdowns, staff leaving, inflation, usurious rents, a renewed increase in VAT due to coronavirus.
We see it the same way. The cost pressure has been tough and has led to a damaging dynamic, and we also think the VAT increase makes no sense. But in fact, a large proportion of landlords have not only passed on the real price increases to guests, but have also added to them. The consumer price index has risen by 19 per cent since 2021, but the price increases in the thousand restaurants we surveyed average 53 per cent. Around two dozen restaurants have even increased their prices by more than 100 per cent.
That's steep.
To be fair, it must be added that the increase in food prices is not sufficiently taken into account in the consumer price index for comparison with the catering industry, but even that only partially explains the increases. Just a few years ago, a meal cost less than 100 euros on average, now it's 140 euros. Including drinks and tips, I pay an average of 200 euros per person for an evening in an upmarket restaurant. Even for special occasions, that's a lot of money. And even the few who would have it rightly consider whether this sum would not be better spent on an opera premiere or the front row at a pop concert than being fobbed off in a restaurant by stressed staff at unfavourable opening times with often worse products than before. You could also put it more bluntly: if you always pour slightly below the bar, you shouldn't be surprised if guests stay away.
Top chefs in particular are concerned that tables are increasingly empty. There used to be waiting lists. Munich's two-star chef Tohru Nakamura recently said in an interview that all the city's star chefs are discussing how to change this. The problems aren't all home-made, are they?
Not only. But Tohru Nakamura, for example, now charges 315 euros for his menuyou have to be able to afford that. I happened to eat there just last week. Even the digestif still cost 18 euros for 1 cl Rochelt, a fine fruit brandy. I ask myself: with a menu price of 315 euros, do you also have to sell the schnapps to the guest for 1800 euros per litre? The margins in this area are enormous. Rochelt is a good product, but little things like that really weigh on the price-performance ratio. As a
guest, I feel forgotten. A guest who pays three figures for a menu deserves a special experience.
And he no longer has that?
Yes, but at least it is often severely spoilt. The ‘Rutz’, Berlin's most highly decorated restaurant, has increased the menu price by 60 per cent in the last three years, from 225 to 345 euros. Nevertheless, even as professional tasters, we didn't realise that the menu quality had changed significantly. As a result, the restaurant was half-empty on my last visit. The food at Rutz is still outstanding, but the problem is that such price structures have a signalling effect.
What do you mean by that?
Because even less highly rated chefs now think so: If the Rutz charges 345 euros for a menu, I can just as well take 180 euros. The highest mark-up is a high-end Italian restaurant in Freiburg, which has raised the price of a very comparable menu from 79 euros to 166 euros within three years - 210 per cent of the original price! Especially in the less highly rated gourmet restaurants, the increases have recently been absurd, averaging 63 per cent. And similar quality at double the price - unfortunately, this is not only the case in gourmet cuisine.
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Decent food is becoming less and less worthwhile. And unfortunately, the better restaurants have themselves to blame for this development to a large extent.
Does this mean that restaurants are also demonstrably increasing their prices?
Here in Baden, where I live on Lake Constance, roast onions are the benchmark. Until the coronavirus crisis, 30 euros was considered the sound barrier there. Four years later, you have to look hard to find roast beef for under 40 euros. If you look at the price trend for Margherita pizza, you often end up with more than the 19 per cent increase that the price index suggests. Even in the countryside, you can't get anything under ten euros for the simplest pizza, which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Yet even in the better shops, the cost of goods is still well below two euros. And what does that mean?
You tell me.
That as a guest I end up paying a minimum of 20 euros even for the cheapest possible dish, a sip of water and a glass of cheap wine. So it's no wonder that people are migrating to system catering and prefer to order an industrial product for which they don't even pay half the price. System catering has seen doubledigit record growth in recent years.
So where people are still cooking fresh food, are they ruining themselves with the mark-ups?
That, at least, is a danger. Decent food is becoming less and less worthwhile. And unfortunately, the better catering trade has itself to blame for this development to a large extent. It is fuelled by a few black sheep who moan loudly, demand state support and live very comfortably.
There are also counter-examples. Berlin's ‘Nobelhart & Schmutzig’, the best internationally listed German restaurant, recently introduced schnitzel and asparagus days and halved its menu price.
Unfortunately, this is a bad example. Billy Wagner is a gifted restaurateur, but he is also one of the loudspeakers. Although the menu consists of great produce, it is presented in an extremely minimalist way. What many restaurants offer on one plate, he serves - in better quality - on five. What's more, Nobelhart has not only halved its prices, but also the number of courses. What's more, the restaurant had already exactly doubled its prices since 2021. The result: I'm now paying the same as before, but for six courses instead of ten, and I'm thrown out after a good two hours because of the new two seatings. PR stunts like this are not good for the industry. As a guest, I'm personally annoyed, and the message to my colleagues is: Half the service for the same price? No way!
They say that the guests' money is still there, but is increasingly being spent elsewhere. And market research sees ‘downgrading’ as the biggest restaurant trend: Diners still go out to eat, but order cheaper dishes and often forgo a second drink.
Downgrading is happening, but many gourmet restaurants are putting a stop to it by only offering a set menu and not allowing à la carte orders. One recent consequence of this has often been that diners are moving to cheaper restaurants and chains. The catering industry is also celebrating growth of 25 per cent. To put it bluntly, sales have remained the same overall, but the money that is missing from the better restaurants is being invested in McDonald's and delivery services. This is a threat to good cuisine. At 11 per cent of their income, Germans already spend much less on food than the French, for example, who spend 18 per cent. The trend is probably downwards. This is not good news in terms of health policy either. It's not just a lack of enjoyment, but also a lack of understanding of quality in the long term.
" It's often about making as much money as possible on the side. And the guests notice this.
A well-known three-star chef said behind closed doors during the first lockdown: Corona is finally separating the wheat from the chaff in the catering industry. Too harsh or do you agree?
I would agree with that. Top cuisine is also about creativity. And there are many restaurateurs who have recognised the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity. With gourmet-to-go packages, for example. Or the cooking-for-heroes campaign at the Berlin restaurant ‘Tulus Lotrek’, which still benefits from it in terms of image and is very popular. The guests realise: These are great people who are socially committed and passionate about their cause.
They say that the cost of goods, especially in upmarket catering, is not as high as many people think. As a percentage of turnover, it is lower than in midrange restaurants, where 25 to 30 per cent is normal. Does that mean that more is earned than expected?
You would have to ask the restaurateurs. The fact is: if I eat somewhere for 60 euros, 25 per cent cost of sales is not very much. On the other hand, if I eat for 200 euros, the chef usually doesn't need 25 per cent of that to buy much better products himself. But drinks make the biggest margin anyway.
What was interesting about your survey was the sometimes enormous price differences for drinks. For one and the same product. How can this be explained?
You also have to ask the caterers. The explanations vary. When it comes to water, for example, there are top restaurants that offer flat rates of six euros. So why does a bottle of water at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich have to cost 14 euros? This is also justified by the fact that there are losses because guests are drinking less and less wine. Which in turn does not explain the big price difference for champagne. A bottle of Dom Pérignon 2013 costs 179 euros in retail, around twice as much in the Baden gourmet restaurant run by the famous winemaker Fritz Keller and another 200 euros more at the Bayerischer Hof at 554 euros. This is certainly not only due to the higher rent or staff costs in Munich. It's often a question of making as much money as possible on the side. And the guests notice that. Generosity, on the other hand, a key gastronomic virtue, pays off. After all, I go out to eat to feel good. And water for 14 euros is a stupid thing to do, because guests immediately have a point of comparison. They feel badly treated. With a six-euro water flat rate, on the other hand, I feel so good as a guest that I have no problem if the main course costs more than 50 euros, because I automatically assume that the service is correspondingly good. That's how communication works.
But you also emphasise that there are restaurateurs who deal with the increased costs in a moderate and creative way, so that even the guest benefits.
Yes, fortunately there are many examples. Simon Tress from the Swabian Alb, for example, who saves money through good preparation, consistent avoidance of waste and local produce, which he in turn invests in his staff. You only see satisfied people at his restaurant and he pays very fair prices. The situation is similar at Vincent Klink in Stuttgart. He offers his staff almost double the standard wage and
good working hours. Guests notice this from the service and the great atmosphere. The restaurant is always full, at lunchtime and in the evening. And Klink tells his guests: ‘The lamb has to cost 58 euros, you can also have it for 15, but then without staff, on a paper plate to go in the underground car park.
You believe that the future of upscale gastronomy lies in skilful concepts and generosity, can you explain that?
Just take a look around many gourmet restaurants. Not only are the guests there staying away, they are also ageing rapidly. So if you want to get young people interested in good food now, you shouldn't moan, but come up with something. However, the ideas should be better than the new, strictly limited ‘special offer for young guests’ at the top Berlin restaurant Rutz: six courses including drinks for 300 euros. Absurd! I'm not sure if Rutz knows what 20 to 30-year-olds earn in Berlin.