371 replies to this topic

[oakapple]

The cult of the chef has supplanted the cult of the maitre d'. That might not be a bad thing.

[Wilfrid]

Largely pre-dating television, not to mention the Internet, the cult of the maitre d' was never as significant as the cult of the chef.

[Adrian]

The cult of the chef has supplanted the cult of the maitre d'. That might not be a bad thing.

Somewhat related to all this: My friends and I were debating this piece at dinner the other week. Side Not Me believed that the practice would still work. Side Me believed that the practice would no longer work at newer style restaurants (anything from BF to Ssam to Frej). Discuss.

ETA: for clarity, the question is: can you bribe your way to the front of the line at Ssam?

[Wilfrid]

Practice?

Some owners still have a front-of-house impact, don't they? Even if they're not spooning out caviar and filleting fish.

Perhaps that's how "maitre d'" has evolved. In NYC, at least, the distinction has been a little blurred because the most famous maitre d's were also (or became) owners - Cavallero, Soule, Maccioni, Nieporent, etc.

[oakapple]

Can you bribe your way to the front of the line at Ssam?

I think there are comparatively few places where that works any more, Ssam or otherwise.

[Sneakeater]

You cannot bribe your way to the front of the line at Ssam.

[Sneakeater]

So I guess this makes it at least calculable:

Does or does not the new expense of the chefcentric menu outweigh the elimination of mandatory grease during the maitre d'-centric era?

[Adrian]

Can you bribe your way to the front of the line at Ssam?

I think there are comparatively few places where that works any more, Ssam or otherwise.

Yes, I agree. Though the article isn't that old, and the practice works at a surprising number of old guard restaurants that still exist (would it still work at LB? What about EMP?).

Sneak, that's what I'm getting at.*

*Also, this has a lot to do with what people mean when they say these new places are more "democratic".

[Orik]

The cult of the chef has supplanted the cult of the maitre d'. That might not be a bad thing.

Somewhat related to all this: My friends and I were debating this piece at dinner the other week. Side Not Me believed that the practice would still work. Side Me believed that the practice would no longer work at newer style restaurants (anything from BF to Ssam to Frej). Discuss.

ETA: for clarity, the question is: can you bribe your way to the front of the line at Ssam?

It's less likely to work because they're smaller, are less flexible with seating times, etc., but for example on the night we went to Atera the Maitre d' could fit 2-4 more people in.

Also, new generation reservation systems are either making this nonsense obsolete, or codifying it - for example, Next offers any same day tables on Facebook, and for the El Bulli meal they offered institutionalized bribery (if you donated to cancer research they agreed to help give you liver cancer)

[Sneakeater]

I'd bet that it would work at more old-school-style places. Considering the great treatment I got at The NoMad just from being recognized as a sometime dining companion of RozRap's, I would be surprised if it WOULDN'T work there.

[Adrian]

(I'm starting to get the feeling that this is the example that I didn't use in any number of other threads that I should have.)

[oakapple]

The funny thing is, it's not immediately apparent that the article is a dozen years old until you get down to Ducasse.

[taion]

I'm a page or two behind, but this is the part of the Drew interview that was interesting to me

I give everyone so much credit for trying. But I think small spaces are very difficult, because if you hit a home run, you can only do your capacity. I think you need at least a hundred seats these days to do anything. In Tribeca, it's the stalwarts—Odeon, Tribeca Grill… no more Chanterelle. Fine dining is very tough. For Corton, the movie [about it] won a James Beard Award, it's coming out on DVD and it's going to premiere in London. But at the restaurant, Paul [Liebrant] is Paul. I don't think he fits in any category to be honest. Even Eleven Madison… there might be some restaurants outside of New York that look like Corton.

Whereas it really seems like recently, there's not much of interest that isn't happening in small, non-traditional spaces.

[Wilfrid]

Equally, people aren't interested in things that don't happen in small, non-traditional spaces. There was a time the food boards would have been very excited about Didier Elena returning to Adour, for example.

I don't think the news is any more or less exciting than it ever was (and he's left now), but a number of other things have changed.

Another example, The Dutch has been fascinating to people in a way that Carmellini cooking at a formal place would not have been.

[oakapple]

Whereas it really seems like recently, there's not much of interest that isn't happening in small, non-traditional spaces.

There just isn't much of interest happening, full stop.