January sunshine in our winter of discontent…

He told that the wave of restaurant retreated by the end of 2022. Sales dropped a little in the first quarter of 2023, but the mild weather is good news for the trade, e.g. the energy bills to be paid are smaller. Mr Kovács believes that demand will remain high for fine dining restaurants for quite a while. Hot meal delivery contracted after the reopening of restaurants. Rising cooking ingredient prices are a burden on the trade, but this isn’t the most expensive part of running a restaurant.

The president thinks it is unavoidable to increase the number of vegetarian and vegan dishes on restaurant menus, as this is what guests – especially the younger generations – want. It seems the workforce problem is less serious than before, perhaps the only exception is West Hungary, where a lot of people choose to work in Austria. One of the biggest problems is still trade education. Unlike in other sectors, the dual system of education doesn’t work. László Kovács opines that it is a mistake to delegate certain teaching tasks to the restaurants. //