Locked Doors: Denmark's Culinary Industry During Covid-19

The case revisits the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide an up-close account of the unprecedented and complex interplay of challenges that this crisis posed for small enterprises in the service and hospitality sector. Narrated primarily through the eyes of Jakob, owner-manager of a wine bar and a restaurant at the center of the renowned Copenhagen culinary industry, the case recounts how government measures to combat the virus threaten the industry's basic business proposition of both establishments-not just serving good food and wine, but also providing social interaction, conversation, and a sense of community and closeness. The crisis forces many of Jakob's fellow Copenhagen restaurateurs to close their businesses for good, while he his own staff begin to leave and the modest liquidity shored up in his business dwindles away. On top of these very immediate pressures, the pandemic exposes deeper, long-term, and structural problems in the culinary industry-these include long hours and difficult working conditions, a culture of sexual harassment and bullying, low margins and the real price of food, pressures to adopt more sustainable practices, the lack of a common political voice to champion industry concerns, and the often command-and-control, non-collaborative nature of leadership in kitchens and restaurants.