At Le Bouillon Chartier in Paris, the recipe for a perfect beef Bourguignon involves beef, carrots, wine, butter and “coquillettes,” a tiny macaroni-shaped pasta. It is cooked for at least three hours. And it must be affordable, so the price cannot be more than 10 euros a dish.
Since 1896, the belle époque eatery has been Parisians’ destination for cheap French fare.
The elements that go into its beef Bourguignon, including electricity for the restaurant as well as wages for the bustling staff of servers and cooks, are 30 to 45 percent higher than they were five years ago, said Christophe Joulie, the restaurant’s owner.
The price of everything that went up essentially stayed up, he said. But our fight is to always offer a decent meal at a decent price.
The challenges facing Mr. Joulie reflect the broader impact of sticky inflation across Europe. Inflation in the euro area climbed to 2.4 percent in February after cooling last year. The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the sixth consecutive time on Thursday, but is facing an uncertain path forward as an increase in military spending and possible tariffs cloud the horizon.
Inflation has fallen from a record 10 percent after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and pandemic lockdowns. Prices for energy, meat and dairy, and even glassware and tablecloths, are not rising as fast. But they are still stubbornly higher than before the inflation outbreak.
Higher prices are also lashing other businesses in Europe, pushing factories and energy-intense commerce, including restaurants, to the brink. In homes across the country, people trying to put food on the table are finding the price of their supermarket basket has dipped only slightly.
At the Bouillon Chartier, those forces are marbled throughout the beef Bourguignon, France’s most emblematic dish: The overall costs that go into making it have nearly doubled since the pandemic, Mr. Joulie said. The price of beef that he orders from longtime suppliers has risen threefold, driven by higher feed and fertilizer costs, energy to run the slaughterhouses and gas for tractors and transport.
Other ingredients have come down in price from their peak but remain high, according to Insee, France’s statistics agency.
Every morning I go see my purchasing director to figure out what we can buy, Mr. Joulie said. It’s like playing the stock market.
The bouillon, as the eateries like it are known, has become a culinary refuge from the cost-of-living crisis that has crimped the spending of the average French citizen.
Until now it has worked, he added, gesturing to the phalanx of diners sitting elbow to elbow in the immense hall, adorned with a giant fresco made by the painter Germont in 1929 to pay his overdue tab.
The scourge of inflation simmered beneath the surface for every diner. Traffic in his eateries, and at restaurants and bistros around France, slowed after a post-pandemic surge. By the end of 2023, persistent high prices for energy and food had deepened a cost-of-living crisis; even in the bouillon, customers ordered less.
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