Michelin star magnate chef Alain Ducasse says it’s safer to eat in a restaurant than cook at home.
The French chef, with a total of 17 Michelin stars, reckons it’s safer to eat in a restaurant where the chefs are all trained in food safety protocols rather than go to the supermarket where you risk bumping into people without masks.
He might have a point too. The supermarket is a potential viral minefield with all the handling needed to stock shelves and all along the supply chain. It is estimated that every piece of fruit you buy in the supermarket has been handled by a minimum of six people. That is the potential for a lot of contagions.
In a restaurant often food gets delivered directly from the producer, therefore cutting out the number of hands it passes through. Chefs highly trained food safety experts whose living depends on making sure food gets delivered to customers' plates without the presence of pathogens, so you can probably trust them more than you can trust your own kitchen set up.
"Gradual and responsible"
“It’s better to eat in a restaurant that takes all the precautions than at home where you have to go to your little local supermarket where people are bumping into each other, touching the fruit and not everybody is wearing masks,” the French chef told Agence France-Presse.
He called for a “gradual and responsible” reopening of restaurants, saying the lockdown has been “catastrophic” for the industry.
“This can only last for a few more weeks,” he told AFP.