The project gives an insight into the hospitality industry and illustrates the obstacles that restaurants face and may face in the future because of Brexit . The aim is to explore whether the general speculations about Brexits affect on the industry were actually true , and to show people the inside of the industry , with its difficulties and ways to handle them. As well as now , due to the crisis , give a little insight to how Covid-19 has also affected the industry , and Heritage restaurant in London in particular.
The target audience is the general public with an interest in the field , as well as people from the hospitality industry and farmers.
Brexit will affect many industries , but hospitality will be affected the most. Imagine you are sitting in a restaurant , lets say Italian , and you don’t hear the foreign ‘Italian’ accent , the chefs and the waiters are all from UK. Before you would have been able to feel the atmosphere of Italy, enjoy their self expression, their loud voices,and for the time being in the restaurant , immerse into a different culture without travelling. Even though the menu would have the Italian dishes , everything needed for them have been sourced from around the UK .
However this may not be the case in the nearest future. Nobody knows for sure what is going to happen after the 31st of December , as that is the finish due date of the transition period that has started right after the Brexit day.
“I think that Brexit’s biggest impact on hospitality industry is that we are seeing and going to see a big staffing shortage.”
Besides the pressure of Brexit on the hospitality industry, and particularly on workforce as Chef Aarik mentions, the current situation with the pandemic complicates things. As all the restaurants are closing or are already closed , the EU workers are moving back to their home countries, and the question that remains is whether they will return back after the virus.
Heritage is a restaurant with a Russian owner, international staff and a modern Swiss cuisine , and the problem it faces illustrates the impact of Brexit on the whole industry .
It is now closed ,but most of the interviews were filmed before the crisis , when Brexit was the only issue for the hospitality industry.
About the effects of Covid – 19 on the restaurat ,Dmitry Filimonov- the owner of Heritage restaurant – says, “Everyone who was hired in February and before were sent on furlough. We are using government retention scheme to pay our our employees 80% of their salary until £2,500 a month.”
“We will be taking numerous measures to protect our clients and employees from Covid – 19. Masks and glavoes for kitchen and service staff. Disinfecting tables and chairs after clients. Maintaining social distancing between the tables . Creating working groups of employees to avoid cross contamination.
