Beleaguered French chefs have come up with a radical plan to protect the nation’s gastronomy: a limit on the number of restaurants.
They are demanding quotas to restrict competition and to protect traditional establishments against what they denounce as an invasion of microwaved food.
Thierry Marx, a Michelin-starred chef and chairman of the Union des Métiers et des Industries de l’Hôtellerie, the restaurant and hotel owners’ federation, which is behind the plan, said drastic steps were necessary to save French cuisine. “I travel a lot in rural areas and I see more pizza distributors and industrial bakers than bistrots. There are only a few survivors left,” he said.
Traditional restaurants, such as Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse in Paris, need protection, according to the restaurant and hotel owners’ federation
HANS LUCAS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
His federation has called for legislation to limit the number of restaurants in areas deemed to have too many, mirroring quota schemes applied to other sectors, including chemists and taxi operators. A chef wanting to open a restaurant in such an area would have to wait until one closed down.
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Franck Chaumès, chairman of the federation’s restaurant branch, also appealed for a new law to ensure that only establishments employing a chef with a cookery school diploma could officially call themselves restaurants. He said no qualification was needed to declare oneself a restaurateur under current legislation.
However, Emmanuelle Ducros, a commentator on Europe 1 radio, ridiculed the quota proposal, saying: “One has rarely heard a stupider idea.” She added the measure would reduce competition, reduce the quality of the meals on offer and lead to a rise in prices, while barring newcomers who were “perhaps more talented and more creative”.
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François Lenglet, an economics commentator on RTL radio, said: “If we let civil servants decide who can open a restaurant, we are going to eat a lot less well.”
Critics said the proposal would dissuade talented newcomers
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The row follows an increase in the number of restaurants from 361,000 five years ago to 407,000. Many of the new arrivals are fast food outlets, which are criticised as unfair competition by traditionalists, who say they are being driven out of business.
A total of 8,681 restaurants went bankrupt last year, an increase of 17.7 per cent compared with the annual average between 2010 and 2019.
Marx said the situation was particularly grim this year. Many restaurants have been affected by a 25 per cent drop in takings this summer compared with the same period in 2024.
Critics, however, say some chefs are damaging the profession’s reputation with inflated prices. In recent weeks, for instance, photographs of the menu of Club 55, a jet-set beach bar and restaurant on the French Riviera, have gone viral on social media. It features grated carrots for €23.
Dining and Cooking