French chef Alain Ducasse offers a restaurant protected against coronaviruses in Paris

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Customers will be offered transparent round “dividers” to place on their table

Paris:

French superchef Alain Ducasse is using a ventilation system similar to that of hospital operating rooms to reopen one of his Parisian restaurants.

Ducasse, whose restaurants have 17 Michelin stars – the largest number of chefs in the world – installs the sophisticated system in its historic Allard bistro in the chic Saint Germain des Prés district of the French capital so that it can open later month.

French restaurants have been allowed to serve on their terraces for 10 days, but strict social distancing rules mean that interiors are prohibited.

Paris’ bistros and cafes are traditionally seated almost shoulder to shoulder on small tables – a nightmare for restaurateurs who have been informed that tables should now be at least one meter per part.

“No restaurant can survive with only half of its customers,” Ducasse told AFP when he unveiled his Allard air filtration system, the tables of which will also be screened with canvas blinds.

Large white air “socks” decorated with designs of the gods and goddesses of the wind hang above each table from the air ventilation pipes, gently repelling the stale air.

And customers will also be offered transparent round “dividers” to place on their table for added security when French restaurants are fully reopened on June 22.

Ducasse said his prototype “would give additional security to customers in confined spaces” and was a possible solution for tight bistros who could lose half of their tables if the rules of distancing were applied rigidly.

Designer Patrick Jouin, whose work is exhibited at MOMA in New York as well as at the Center Pompidou in Paris, said he had discussed with scientists and virologists before proposing the air system.

“Appropriate modernity”

It stated that its effectiveness was comparable to that used in hospital operating rooms and intensive care units.

Jouin said he contacted Ducasse in April to try to restore the circle of social distancing, which he knew could be disastrous for restaurants in the long run.

The designer said his extraction and filtration system means that the safety distance between people can be reduced from one meter to 32 centimeters (about a foot).

Ducasse insisted that the system does not spoil the atmosphere of the institution of the 1930s, with its red velvet benches and its vintage wallpaper.

“We have preserved the spirit of the place,” he told AFP. “I like the idea of ​​fair and appropriate modernity that we inserted into the DNA of this restaurant from the 1930s.

“Even if COVID-19 disappears, I will keep this design,” promised Ducasse.

The chief said that he wanted to “show that it is possible to do things differently and not only to accept passively (the constraints imposed by the virus), but to work actively with them”.

Jouin said normal restaurant air conditioning systems work very quickly, which can ironically help focus the viral load.

So he had to find a way to reduce the speed while “changing more air”.

“We take the air from the outside and pass it through a filter which makes it absolutely clean. In which we inject fresh, slightly cooled air over each table at very low speed.”

Jouin refused to say how much the system cost but insisted that it was not expensive. “Restaurants will be able to afford it,” he said.

(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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