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Chef Foster: On college trip with son, we discovered while food can be great — service really matters


It isn’t often that I get a chance to sit and observe from the other side of the kitchen door. Most of my life and career has been spent in a kitchen or a classroom, playing an active role in the process of making and serving food to the general public.

Even in my other food-related activities, like writing this column or helping out in a community garden, it is an action taken, not observed that formulates my opinion of the event.

So, I was a bit out of my element this past weekend when I took my son to Chicago to start college.

We ate out a number of times, in places with grand reputations and in storefronts newly opened near DePaul University. We had a different experience in each place we ate ranging from excellent to puzzling with plenty of material to consider for our own restaurant, The Sage Rabbit.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am not the type of chef who considers the service staff to be of lesser importance or not worth my time. I spent a fair part of my early years up front, tending bar, serving and managing a floor staff in busy restaurants. I chose the kitchen based on my nature and fully understand what it means to serve. That’s the main reason behind this week’s column; to try and parse out just what each experience really taught me.

First and foremost, it was incredibly helpful that my wife, my co-owner and co-worker was present as well. She has an incredible eye for detail and a sharp sense of what’s good and bad. I sometimes relax too much in these situations, taking what is given with less expectation than I should. No one gave us a meal, we didn’t get preferential service. We were like any other customer dining out on a holiday weekend. The fact that we own a restaurant wasn’t ever brought up until the end of the meal, in conversation with our server, and directed towards an aspect of the food or a particular wine or bourbon on the list. All very low key, almost casual in nature, but still very focused on the experience. But oh, how those experiences differed!

Service is a very physical and emotional act, similar to play acting or presentation. The physical bearing of a server often telegraphs the type of experience you will have. It helps to have a little restaurant context to notice, and some people believe that it shouldn’t matter in the least. I’m a firm believer that dining out should be a partnership from the back of the kitchen to the front of the house, including the guest. When you enter my restaurant, you have established a type of contract with me, my staff and my business. There are benefits to all sides, so I as a guest become invested in everything about your present environment short of knowing the personal side of each employee there.

We had a wide range of servers, from experienced to new, young and old, physically fit and slightly worn. Servers at the start of their shift, attentive and eager, some at the end, closing out their day with one last table, one burst of energy. As befits a major food city, all were competent, capable of navigating through a crowded dining room with trays of food, pacing service to maximize the enjoyment of service to our benefit. The food was ordered, delivered, eaten and cleared all in a timely manner, that is the very baseline that all service should aspire to. But there were cracks in the façade that at times were endearing, at other times maddening.

A young, vibrant server identifying easily with the vibe we wanted and then opening up a bit as we relaxed as well. An obviously by-the-book veteran at the end of her shift giving efficient, polite and ultimately excellent service without a stitch of personal connection. Those two, in particular, stand out as the tops of the weekend. Very different approaches, very similar results when it comes to service, and yet we both agreed that we would try the first restaurant again before any others. It wasn’t necessarily about the food or the ambiance, and that’s why service in all forms matters.

There were others, who for various reasons were not as successful in their service. One gentleman, in particular, chose the opposite of what we teach most servers to do, and he gave us the minimum of attention that he could. It was breakfast, not a particularly lucrative shift for a server unless they do a ton of volume. The volume was there, the service sadly was not. Oddly, the food came out the quickest, but without basic things like silverware, condiments, syrup for pancakes or even a follow-up at the table. It was a clinic in casual service. Only after repeated interventions by the host did we finally see our server again, and it was to drop the check and hurry back to the sanctuary of the service station.

Our meal at another famous Chicago restaurant was brimming with energy and promise and for the most part, it delivered. Communication was the issue at this spot, and while the experience was wonderful, the connection, that partnership was incomplete, especially when the genesis of the food and the décor is so crucial to this restaurant’s story.

Other factors were involved in the experiences at each spot. There is no service template that takes into account views of a dirty service kitchen or riding an elevator back down to the street accompanied by the dishwasher and the trash, (yes that actually happened). That didn’t impact our assessment of the service but obviously formed our view of the overall establishment.

For me, the final thought would be to consider the overall impact a server has on your dining experience. With all the other variables, the positive note should be that your experience is enhanced, that at the very least the server effect is neutral, and perhaps the most important take away from all of this is that you recognize the good server with your gratuity, perhaps a smile and a goodbye for a job done well, and an experience happily realized.

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John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit.

To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.   


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