Dr. Charles Feldman Notes Difficulties Restaurants Face Due to Coronavirus Pandemic for NJMonthly.com
Posted in: College News and Events
Dr. Charles Feldman, Professor in the Nutrition and Food Studies Department, noted difficulties that New Jersey restaurants will face due to the coronavirus pandemic for NJMonthly.com as the opened their doors for 25% indoor capacity on September 4, 2020.
Dr. Feldman stated, “It’s clear there will be a lot of bankruptcies. Restaurants need to get into a lean mode, where fewer people do more. The days of 200-seat restaurants may be over. I think you’ll see smaller operations with smaller staff, more counter service and takeout.” He added, “People will want to go to restaurants. But it’s going to have to cost more.”
Additionally, in the new era, Dr. Feldman argues, it is unsafe for so many workers to labor in the confined spaces of the kitchen, as they have for hundreds of years. To shrink the kitchen staff, he believes restaurants may have to forgo making some foods from scratch, instead ordering from a “commissary operation where it’s mass-produced and there’s less chance of cross-contamination.”