On Christmas Eve, long queues can be seen in front of Luxembourg’s catering services. One order after the other is rolled out of the doorways. And even though the sector has suffered under the pandemic, it even recorded a slight increase in Christmas orders over the past years.
Speaking to our colleagues from RTL.lu, Rick Hotschnig from one of the many catering services in the Grand Duchy explains that during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, his business initially noticed that people reverted to homemade meals a lot more. But now, Hotschnig says, “it seems like people want to treat themselves”, seeing as the pandemic has been going on for nearly two years already. Hotschnig notes that in the 40 years that they have been in this business, his service generally noticed a slow but steady increase. But nevertheless, “it was a bad year” and “a good 24th” will not change that situation.
1,200 orders were placed just for the Christmas weekend alone. Between 6,000 and 7,000 people will have a menu from Hotschnig’s catering service on their plates. Is it too much work to prepare the food yourself? Or is the Christmas menu from a catering service simply a tradition?
Speaking to several of the customers reveals that many of them are in fact returning customers. They have ordered Christmas meals in the past, enjoyed the experience, and simply decided to come back again the following year. “Why change something that works well?”, as one of them puts it.
One woman also stresses that she enjoys talking to her guests, which she could not do if she had to constantly run back to the kitchen.
For the Wagner family, on the other hand, ordering from a catering service is out of the question. No matter the workload, Christmas is all about homemade food for them.
Josée Wagner explains that her family generally prepares their food themselves, so not just on Christmas. She does add that it helps that she has a husband who enjoys cooking.
The family does, however, not have a “traditional” Christmas menu. This year, they are preparing a Chinese fondue.
“My daughter requested it and because we haven’t had one in a long time, we also thought it was a good idea”, Wagner says.
Lots of cutting, lots of preparation. Before the enjoyment comes the work if you go for homemade food. But for those who choose to do so, it is usually well worth the effort.
Watch the full video report below (in Luxembourgish):
