“I weep for you,” the Walrus said, “I deeply sympathize”.
Rewind almost two decades (yikes!) to Savannah Ga. where, had you been strolling through city market and environs, you might very likely have overheard some colourful language in an Irish accent inside a really cute Italian restaurant. That manager, yours truly, was very frustrated quite a lot of the time.
I worked hard in and loved that Italian Café I managed. It was white tablecloth at the time, but remember this was Savannah in the 90’s so still totally accessible. It’s really white tablecloth now, bravo guys. You were a great chef then and still are, love you bubba.
I had been given a bunch of cases of yet ANOTHER big chardonnay to add to the wine program, and of course, had to find a happy place for it with the cuisine – but not everyone ate Alfredo.
Ah yes, I remember it well.
I was working with a service team of really intelligent, earnest people and failing them abysmally. I had no road map per se, to give them to enhance their customers experience with our food. I became increasingly aware in fact that there were major food and wine catastrophes happening…think artichoke vinaigrette with a big woody (and popular) chardonnay. I’m not sure whether the food or wine suffered most BUT one thing I do know, the customer was getting a short deal – and as manager, I felt the responsibility that I rightfully carried to figure out how to make life better for all concerned.
Did I mention yet that I am a recovering (sigh) student of analytical chemistry? Yes, indeed, and throw some food science and water analysis into the mix and I bet you will see how that inner white coat began to emerge when faced with growing and perturbing awareness of the food and wine train wrecks that were happening in my dining room.
I bought wine books, all wonderful in their own right, but none said diddly squat about WHY these food and wine disasters were happening or what was behind it all or whether we could fix or improve it? H’mmmmm.
We are all just a melange of chemicals after all. I was absolutely determined to figure it out.
Wine promotional material focused on the wine with the usual “serve with light seafood dishes or chicken” on the label. Surely they jest? The word ‘sauce’ came to mind pretty rapidly but no mention thereof in most of the materials I had at hand for my servers to use. I realised, quickly, there was a gaping chasm in training material for service staff and I also realised that in order to help my guys, it looked like I was going to have to do my own.
And so it began. Trial, and error and more trial, until suddenly – the sun broke through the clouds and I saw what I had to do.
It took a while…