Seeking opinions on "scary" chefs and intimidating restaurants

[voodoo]

I’ve been lurking on this thread and just today, the inimitable Rose Levy Beranbaum (pastry chef and cake guru extraordinaire) has a blog entry about hospitable vs. inhospitable chefs/restaurants:

http://bit.ly/aA0O70

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[cjboffoli]

What an interesting story, voodoo. Thanks for sharing. While a $25 forkage fee sounds (and perhaps is) outrageous, the restaurant IS in business to make money, and usually on very thin margins at that. Every bit of food or wine someone carries in from the street is potential profit lost to them. It is their restaurant so I guess they can make the rules. And customers can choose whether or not to eat there. But they’re not in business to provide a quiet, comfortable dining room in the middle of Manhattan in which to eat brought-in cake, any more than local coffeehouses are in business to provide free wi-fi all day to a patron who sits nursing a $2 cup of drip coffee.

With due respect to Danny Meyer and his restaurant empire, I’m not sure I agree with that writer that hospitality is important above all else. I’ve definitely had experiences in which I’ve refused to go back to a certain restaurant (Elemental at Gasworks, I’m tawkin’ to you) because I was treated rudely. But there was also the added element of the food being unexceptional. Had the chef been a genius I may have been willing to suck it up and go back.

I was recently talking to a James Beard award-winning food writer who suggested to me that Americans tend to get too caught up in the whole notion of a restaurant as a service. That if you go in and demand a cheeseburger off the menu they should make it for you because YOU’RE the customer. If you’ve ever read any behind-the-scenes stuff about what waitstaff can frequently go through with boorish customers (www.waiterrant.net is a great one) you’ll quickly recognize the extreme to which this notion has been taken. You’ll also get a sense of the actual contempt that the waitstaff has for customers, hidden under the veneer of hospitality.

Again, as long as the food is good there can be something interesting (and even fun) about surly restaurant service. I think of the infamous Soup Nazi from Seinfeld (inspired by a real place on 55th St in NYC) or these red sauce joints in Boston where you go in and they TELL you what you’re going to have.

This thread was inspired by rumors of a Seattle chef famous for tanrums and who was rumored to have actually thrown boiling water on a patron once. That’s obviously an extreme example. But again, if the food is something special, I’m motivated to overlook (to some extent) bad behavior from the chef or staff.

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[dawsonct]

Something restaurant workers need to understand: a good experience is reported to a few friends, usually in passing, a bad experience is relayed to ALL friends as quickly as possible; a bad experience by a world famous food writer can destroy you. If I owned that restaurant, whatever attitude I was trying to project, and knew that a server acted that way even AFTER they knew who they were dealing with (the chef certainly should have, at least), they would NOT be in my employ anymore, and Ms. Beranbaum would quickly receive a very apologetic, even downright repentant phone call from me.

—

I DO agree with charging a NOMINAL fee when a customer brings in outside food or wine, the restaurant is STILL providing a service even if it is at the minimum level of providing equipment and cleaning up afterwards. My experience though, has always been that we plated and served as well, not to mention having a cake in your walk-in, fragilely taking up space for a significant amount of time. Charging for that isn’t unreasonable, charging $25 for tossing four forks on the table is despicable.

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[voodoo]

Yes, without this turning into a debate over whether forkage/corkage/cakeage fees are warranted in any occasion (I myself lean on the side that on very special occasions it may be acceptable to call a restaurant ahead and ask if it would be permissible to bring a wine/cake/whatever and then expect a small fee for dishes or whatnot), I do agree with the idea that surly service or an overly megalomaniacal chef to be taken in stride is not the model of restaurant I want to visit.

However, this is freakin’ Rose Levy Beranbaum we’re talking about – the waiter missed out on a very good thing by snubbing her cake! ;-)

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[Gina]

I do not go back to restaurants with co-owners that cause talk of revenge schemes if ever visited again. I just stay away, and point out other places to get the same type of food, even though the quality is less.

Don’t want to see the names of people I know in the Crime Watch section! Or provide bail.

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[MargL]

Well, here’s the line. How often do you interact with the “Chef” – the person preparing your food? I think the chef does set a tone in the restaurant with the menu choices and how well it’s prepared. However the -waitstaff- has much more opportunity to affect the dining experience. If I walk in the door and am greeted with surly attitude, have to wait for a very long time to order, wait to get my food, wait for water, wait for the bill, etc. then I do not care what the chef is doing or what is on the menu – I’m going to report a poor experience to friends and family!

So, I can’t really say I have or will avoid a restaurant because of the chef or his reputation, but if I hear about poor service (especially on top of uninspired food) I will avoid the place.

Why would I possibly want to spend my time and money being somewhere I feel abused? Part of what I’m paying money for is the experience and atmosphere and the attitude of the people working there is a big part of that. Otherwise I might as well just stay home, make my own food and spend quality time with family.

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[whiskey]

>>>This thread was inspired by rumors of a Seattle chef famous for tanrums and who was rumored to have actually thrown boiling water on a patron once.<<<

The only reference in the first post is Hajime Sato… **sniff sniff** I love the smell of libel in the morning…

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[JanS]

And…if you read the whole post, he had good things to say about Hajime…libel? really? have some more whiskey :)

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[whiskey]

JanS>>

Post#1 — “I had heard rumors for years that Hajime Sato” — sets the premise that he is indeed a “scary chef.” And is the only chef involved by name.

Post #27 — “This thread was inspired by rumors of a Seattle chef famous for tanrums and who was rumored to have actually thrown boiling water on a patron once.” Referring to Sato (as the only chef in post #1).

Why perpetuate unsubstantiated rumors?

Nevermind “good things to say.” Perhaps some damage has been done? SEO and connections to Sato with said rumors?

Severe damage to reputations and ultimately business and livelihood can be done by printing unsubstantiated “rumors.”

Think about it. This ain’t a smiley face joke.

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[cjboffoli]

whiskey: Remember, truth is a solid defense against libel ;-) However, the unnamed boiling water chef was NOT IN WEST SEATTLE. Think about it: there’s not a lot of boiling water in use at a sushi joint.

But 100 points for you anyway and thanks for playing ;-)

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[jen]

cjb…I have a pretty good guess as to the chef. If it’s the same one, I heard the scary/snarky rumors and visited anyway, didn’t have a problem and enjoyed the experience very much. I also visited the newer incarnation of the space, where the chef met me at the door and was very gracious (and I don’t know him personally at all). But then, I didn’t have an issue at Elemental, either – I love that place! I’m sure anyone who’s ever visited a restaurant has had a bad experience somewhere along the way. I’m equally sure that every chef – even the always-super-nice ones – have managed to annoy/anger/P.O some customer, whether it was intended or not.

All that said, I never let a chef’s reputation scare me away from trying a restaurant IF I’ve heard that the food and service are otherwise good. Pretty much the only thing that puts a restaurant on the no-visit list for me is when I have personally had a bad experience there.

And…chiming in on the communal table discussion – I don’t mind it at all and usually find the experience to be interesting. The only time I haven’t enjoyed it was at The Corson Building. The food was amazing, the company was engaging, but they seated 12-people at our 10-person table, which made the whole situation way more awkward and less enjoyable than it should have been. I was literally sitting past the corner of the table, while my plate was 8 inches to my left. I’d totally go to Corson again, but only if I could ensure that the table wouldn’t be overcrowded.

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