Sharing knowledge so that other restaurateurs benefit: In the 'Gastro-Live-Talk', Vanessa Vu, editor at ZEIT Online, and Uwe Opocensky, head chef at Restaurant Petrus in Hong Kong, discussed what gastronomy worldwide can learn from Corona.
The way many parts of Asia – such as Taiwan, Vietnam and, of course, Hong Kong – are handling the pandemic restrictions stands in stark contrast to the European approach, as Vanessa Vu, editor at ZEIT Online’s Ressort X magazine, has also observed. ‘In Asian countries, they generally deal with quarantines very strictly,’ she says. The people affected spend the weeks either in hotels made available specially for quarantining or at home with an ankle bracelet, according to Vu. In her opinion, a hard lockdown with everyone in solidarity from the very start would have been better. ‘This week-by-week thing [in Europe] is exhausting for the economy and the psyche,’ says the editor with Vietnamese roots. She compares the approach in Germany particularly with the situation in Vietnam, where she has family and friends.
‘Vietnam is considered Covid-free,’ she says. Sometimes there are cases at the airport, she adds, but the outbreaks are quickly brought under control with mass testing and strict quarantines. And Vietnam is also working to develop its own vaccine. ‘The hospitality industry is open for business,’ Vu says. ‘People get together in large groups and go out normally. They just have to wear masks in the street in order to maintain a general awareness of the fact that the pandemic is not over yet.’
