The A-Z of Eating Out by Joseph Connolly

Author:Joseph Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2014-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

KITCHEN TABLE

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The kitchen in a restaurant used to be something you took completely for granted: there was one, obviously – possibly subterranean – and should you think of it at all, you simply hoped to goodness that it was cleanly scrubbed and generally well run, while trying your hardest not to dwell upon all the tales that you had concentrated so very hard not to hear in the past, all of them concerning the myriad of appalling crimes against hygiene that in restaurant kitchens were ritually and habitually committed, these to include the juxtaposition of cooked and raw things, rodents, the blood from a commis chef’s finger and the methods of malevolent vengeance grimly wrought by terminally aggrieved and ill-paid underlings. But these days the kitchen has emerged from the shadows: it is out there and proud! A great big slice of wall has been removed from the flank of many of our more fashionable restaurants so that snatches of a glinting and stainless-steel universe beyond may be glimpsed by the eager punter – a mighty strange land of greenish mists, of sizzle and appalling clatter, and one that is peopled by red-faced and shiny men and women in whites, each of them topped off by an abbreviated toque. And so now – suddenly, and at a stroke – that lousy table next to the swing door to the kitchen (the only two lousier being that by the entrance, a spot subject to one hell of a draught every time the door is opened, and that other one, you know the one, the one by the loos – quite enough said) … this has become the place to be: dinner and theatre, all in one go!

And soon after that, the concept was expanded – or it was in some of the rather posher places anyway, those with chefs that everyone had heard of. You can visualize the brainstorming session as the idea for a brand-new frontier, a brand-new fashion, gradually came to be hatched: ‘Hey, listen to this, everybody – how about a table not just next to the kitchen, but actually inside it? How about that?’ ‘In the kitchen …? In the kitchen …? What – so as to squeeze in more paying customers when we’re extra busy, do you mean?’ ‘No – to have it as a nightly feature. Lunchtimes too.’ ‘I see … and make it a loss-leader sort of a thing? Bang it out cheap, with a bit of an apology and a buckshee glass of Prosecco?’ ‘On the contrary: big it up to be the most unique, exclusive and highly sought-after opportunity for no more than six or eight or maybe just a dozen people to see, smell and hear our genius chefs up close and personal – and I’m thinking aloud here, but how about we bung in an endless tasting menu and charge the bloody earth? What do you think?’ ‘Hmm … sounds like a plan. Let’s go for it, baby!’

And so it came to pass.

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