‘A look around the world in the time of Covid-19’ might be a good subtitle for the
Gastro-Live-Talk session at the beginning of 2021. The talk session recorded live (recording available at
www.facebook.com/rollingpin.co/live_videos) featured guests such as Uwe Opocensky, who discusses how he is experiencing the 4th (!) wave in Hong Kong and how the restaurant where he is the head chef is managing. ‘Since 6 December, we’ve only been able to open for lunch,’ Opocensky says. ‘We can seat 2 guests at each table, with a maximum of 50% occupancy. But under those conditions, our restaurants are full. Lots of people are working at home and go out for lunch.’
Hong Kong’s residents are sticking closely to the rules the government has set forth, according to this German head chef who has been living and working in Asia for many years now. Everyone wears a mask; whoever who wants (or needs) a test can get one free, he says. That includes the employees of
Restaurant Petrus at Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong, as Opocensky notes: ‘We have tests that give a fairly reliable result after just 20 minutes.’ For events outside the restaurant, the staff are tested weekly. The state is also making every effort to get flare-ups under control as quickly as possible, he adds. A
website provides precise information about the blocks – Hong Kong is a very densely populated city – where there is an outbreak. ‘When people who work at our restaurant live there, we are informed right away and those employees are not allowed to come to work for 2 weeks. And that is checked very rigorously.’