Some thoughts on restaurant bread rituals

[Fat Guy]

I have a few issues with general practices at fine-dining restaurants when it comes to bread service.

First, as much as I appreciate a fine selection of bread, I would rather have a bread basket than deal with a server coming around with a bread selection and going through the whole "Would you like sourdough, olive, multigrain, or raisin-walnut?" rigmarole all night long, over and over, with each individual person at the table. Just give us a few pieces of every type of bread in a basket, and bring more if we need it. I guess with warm bread individual service makes sense, but most places aren't doing warm bread.

Second, butter allocations are usually too small. A table of four people might be given essentially a pat of butter in a little dish. I suppose it's understandable that restaurants wish to avoid waste (even though restaurant dining is a fundamentally wasteful experience, but whatever), but if they're going to give small dishes of butter then they should be better about replacing them. That guy who comes around incessantly with a tray of bread; why can't he be more diligent about noticing when you're low on butter, and then not taking ten minutes to come back with more.

Third, there should be salt on the table, especially if the butter is unsalted but even if it is salted.

Fourth, don't serve cold butter. Yes, the department of health makes you store it cold, but surely you can let it come up to room temperature just before service.

Fifth, the system in place at most fine-dining restaurants that offer a bread service seems to be that, if you say "No, I won't be having another piece just now," they take your bread plate away. This I suppose helps them know not to keep offering you bread. But the reality is that I, and many people I know, sometimes just want a bread intermission. I don't want another piece right away because I don't want to eat ten pieces of bread before my food comes. But I will want another piece at some point. Or maybe I'm not sure. In any event, I don't want to have to ask for a new bread plate if I later decide to have more bread. The solution, leaving a small uneaten piece of bread on your plate to deter clearing, is unappetizing and shouldn't be necessary.

[Khadija]

No salt on the table drives me crazy. And, unless the bread is very dense, I don't know what I'm expected to do with cold butter.

[lancastermike]

I have never understood bread as an amuse or something to eat while waiting for the real food. I LOVE bread. If it is well made, that is. And I enjoy it along with my meal not just something to eat before the meal. many places want to clear the bread when the food arrives and I always ask it to remain.

[slkinsey]

I wonder if fine dining restaurants, which seem to be the ones that have the "bread sommelier" come by and dole out single pieces of bread from basket of bread selections, are trying to discourage diners from filling up on bread. I mean, I'm 100% in Steven's camp that it's an anoying practice. I just wonder if that may be part of the logic.

[Fat Guy]

I should add, I usually ask for "one of each" when the bread guy comes for the first time. But I can't seem to train my dining companions to do the same, so the bread ritual marches on.

[slkinsey]

What do you think would happen if you asked, "is there any way you could just put a bunch of each kind into a bowl and leave it on the table for us?"

[Fat Guy]

"Just leave the basket."

[GordonCooks]

It's simple business

If a basket of free bread and butter is dropped before the food order - hungry patrons will immediately eat thus curbing their appetite and most likely ordering less food. Filling up on bread after ordering will most likely have you overeating thus lessening the chance you'll order less dessert or wine/cocktails.

[Fat Guy]

But the restaurants offering this sort of bread service are the most likely to have prix-fixe menus, where you get three courses, including dessert, no matter what.

[MarkIsCooking]

FG -

I love your 5 points. The no salt is a big one. I happen to like how you can create something interesting for the bread at an Italian place (i.e. start with the olive oil for dipping, add S&P, red pepper flakes and now you've got something).

I get particularly excited when the place has something they've created other than 'just' butter (some sort of spread or interesting 'something' to put on the bread).

I have never liked the whole idea of a guy circling the dining room doling out bread in way-to-skimpy a manner, plus the guilt of asking for more and more.

Great topic.

-mark-

[piperdown]

The only thing I disagree with is the cold butter comment. I love cold butter on warm bread. There is something about the contrast that I just find so satisfying. It does have to be at a temperature that sames it somewhat easy to get out of the dish, but I want the butter sitting onto of the bread, not melted into the bread. If the bread is not warm though, then I do like a softer butter.

As for how much bread to give...I think the one piece at a time thing is crap, and I can't stand restaurants that do this. The first restaurant I cooked in did one roll per person, and you pretty much needed to ask for more bread if you wanted it. since most of the time each roll was heated to order, if you asked for more then it took a bit of time. I always hated this and thought it was quite stupid.

The restaurant I cook at now though gives a basket of two kinds of bread, and usually a few pieces of each, and is always willing to refill. We do have a bread warmer with works well to keep the bread warm for a while at the table. This has always made a lot more sense to me...we also serve our butter cold (along with a spread of some kind)

There has never been a time where too much bread being served has kept me from eating things off the menu because I was too full. Well maybe at university where we would fill up on soup and salad at East Side Mario's, and take most of our entree home, but that's because we were cheap ass students.

[GordonCooks]

But the restaurants offering this sort of bread service are the most likely to have prix-fixe menus, where you get three courses, including dessert, no matter what.

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Thinking back, just about every mid to upper restaurant place I've dined at recently has offered at least 2 (most more) choices. The place I frequent the most locally offers an olive, wheat, sourdough, breadstick, and walnut zucchini. It's pretty common around here for the standard Italian places to offer hard and soft crust along with breadsticks. Maybe I'm geographically blessed with plentiful bread selections.

[Kent Wang]

The future is BYO Bread. As hard as a restaurant may try, they cannot hope to serve an adequate range of breads. When I need to impress a potential client, I can't sit there as they are served a rack of lamb with red wine, and then offered a ciabatta on the side! If I want to make a sale, I want the client to know that I'm concerned with how they feel as a human being, and nothing can touch the soul quite like a bread that takes in mind the meal, the wine, and the person.

My pantry at the local steakhouse where I conduct my business dinners is stocked with a '97 pumpernickel from Dresden, and I've recently added a fresh loaf of Brioche from Bourgogne as a dessert bread. It has cost several thousand dollars over the years to keep a well maintained pantry, but the feeling that comes with it is well worth the cost.

[Dianabanana]

The future is BYO Bread. As hard as a restaurant may try, they cannot hope to serve an adequate range of breads. When I need to impress a potential client, I can't sit there as they are served a rack of lamb with red wine, and then offered a ciabatta on the side! If I want to make a sale, I want the client to know that I'm concerned with how they feel as a human being, and nothing can touch the soul quite like a bread that takes in mind the meal, the wine, and the person.

My pantry at the local steakhouse where I conduct my business dinners is stocked with a '97 pumpernickel from Dresden, and I've recently added a fresh loaf of Brioche from Bourgogne as a dessert bread. It has cost several thousand dollars over the years to keep a well maintained pantry, but the feeling that comes with it is well worth the cost.

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I know it's "wrong," but I adore cold butter. And just to show how truly transgressive I can be, I also adore my ice cream frozen hard. But that's another thread.

[hathor]

It would be interesting to have people from other countries chime in, because what you are discussing is American bread issues, and I never would have thought that if I wasn't living outside of the States.

I'm in Italy where bread is as important to eating a meal as using a fork. So, bread appears at the table at the same time as the menu. I can only think of one restaurant where I've been in Italy that there was a bread sommelier. We don't serve butter with the bread. In a month's time, we've had one request for butter, and one request for a salt shaker.

I am in no way saying that this is a 'better' way to eat, I'm only fascinated by the differences between cultures.

[Toasted]

I hate cold butter. You can't spread it and it rips the bread. Hate. I have also noticed the stingy portions of butter. Why? Particularly when you know the cook is dumping in about a cup with each pasta order.

[rooftop1000]

Worse than just plain old cold butter is, butter that has been warmed at some point to pipe into ramekins then rechilled so that it tastes like Refigerator

at least in cheap places, diners etc if the foil wrapped butter cubes are to cold you can cup it in you hand for a moment.

Tracey

[Fat Guy]

I believe it was at the restaurant Muse, in the Muse hotel in New York, several years ago, that we were served melted butter with the bread. Actual melted butter, in a tiny butter chafing dish with a flame under it. There was definitely no cold-butter problem there.

[David Naylor]

I have a few issues with general practices at fine-dining restaurants when it comes to bread service.

Fourth, don't serve cold butter.

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When eating good quality butter the fact that it is cold brings out the flavours and taste. I enjoy being served unsalted butter and use only unsalted at home. I will always return butter that is not sufficiently cold. Occasionally I might mix a pack of butter with crushed fleur de sel when making hot ham and cheese ciabatta sandwiches. I was always taught by many respected chefs and FOH staff that butter tasted better served cold.

Hathor - your comments were very interesting, many years ago I read a rather lengthy book on breads and how the varying cultures of the world treated this particular commodity. I ate in a Indian household a couple of weeks ago great food but no cutlery - we used chapattis to transport food from the plate to the mouth.

[nibor]

The before-dinner bread served at our favorite Persian restaurant is flat. It is cut into wedges, and eaten loaded up with ice cold butter and slices of raw onions. Yum.

[Fat Guy]

When eating good quality butter the fact that it is cold brings out the flavours and taste.

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Really? I have exactly the opposite perception: cold butter has little flavor at all, and only reveals its flavor as it softens and approaches a nice spreadable consistency.

[Basildog]

I want bread baked in house, daily.That is all.No need for 17 different types, just a good bread made everyday by someone out the back there.A basket left on the table, refilled if necessary.Room temp butter.Thanks

[Fat Guy]

I want bread baked in house, daily.That is all.No need for 17 different types, just a good bread made everyday by someone out the back there.A basket left on the table, refilled if necessary.Room temp butter.Thanks

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Absolutely. I'd just add: plenty of that butter, plus salt. Unless you're a restaurant with two or three Michelin stars, one kind of good bread is all you need and if it's done well there's little room for improvement. When you get up to global haute-cuisine destination status, it's nice to have two or three breads. More than that is hardly necessary, and usually dilutes quality.

If you happen to be in a city with a high concentration of good bakeries that deliver twice-daily to restaurants, it's okay I guess to purchase bread. But it's nicer to bake it, unless you such at baking in which case of course purchased is preferable.

[edited to add 2nd paragraph]

[Basildog]

To me ,bread is fundamental to restaurants.It says everything about what your all about.If you buy in your bread, then why not the petit fours?, or the odd dessert? or some stock.Bread making is easy.I make 12 loaves a day, and i'm basically a one man band! If i can do it, anybody can.

[Dianabanana]

When eating good quality butter the fact that it is cold brings out the flavours and taste.

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Really? I have exactly the opposite perception: cold butter has little flavor at all, and only reveals its flavor as it softens and approaches a nice spreadable consistency.

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This is interesting! I've never heard anyone say that butter tastes best cold, but I think I agree, at least for unsalted butter. It certainly tastes different than warmer butter--more of a pure milk flavor. I would think that as it gets warmer, we are able to taste more flavor components in the butter, so that it is more flavorful, but whether you think that tastes better is a matter of, er, taste.