What is a restaurant trying to ‘say’ to us?

[Jonathan Day]

This weekend, while wandering in a forest of argument about French and Italian restaurants, haute cuisine, technique, and other topics that have trodden these boards for quite a while, I started to think about the implicit message that different kinds of restaurants seek to convey to their customers. And I am struck by how different the messages are. Some of the conversation so far has sought to capture the different communications of French and Italian restaurants, but I thought it might be interesting to pursue this line of thinking.

So here are a few ‘pen portraits’ of the messages that it seems to me that restaurants of different genres are seeking to convey. I have had to indulge in some sweeping generalisations, of course, but so be it. These are, I hope, loving caricatures. I do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world.

The traditional French haute cuisine restaurant (Taillevent, for example, or a place outside France such as the Waterside Inn) says, “We have gone to enormous lengths to give you pleasure. Bresse chickens, Sisteron lambs and Normandy lobsters – not to mention a few of our overworked apprentices – have died for your enjoyment. We have concasséd, larded, barded, boned, stuffed, braised, simmered, reduced and puréed your food, to the point that you barely need to lift the fork to your mouth. Before you ever crossed our doorsill, our wine suppliers worked for decades to ready the finest wines for your meal. Our serried ranks of waiters attend your every need and seek to know what you want before you ask for it. Only you, and a few of the elite like you, can access the incredible techniques we have mastered. You are one in a million. Eventually the bill will arrive, but for the time you are with us, you are a member of royalty.”

The Western ‘high art’ restaurant (Gagnaire, El Bulli, Fat Duck) is not as subservient in its message: “We are the teachers here, and you are our students. Those little dabs of brightly coloured purée, the peanut butter-spinach-horseradish gaspacho, the chilli-tuna-tomato lollipops, the boeuf bourguignon ice cream – they are all part of our art. You will eat them in the sequence and even the manner we prescribe, scooping your spoon through contrasting layers of foam just as we direct you. We will challenge all of your assumptions about food and find new ways to enlighten you and give you pleasure. It’s up to you to suspend your beliefs about food and find ways to enjoy it. While you are with us, we are not on trial. You are.

The Japanese ‘high art’ place (e.g. a fine kaiseki ryori restaurant) combines elements of the first two: “We’ve studied for years to learn just how to slice fish in the right way, just how to create a magical little pile of shredded vegetable, just how to make a miso soup that is light and flavourful yet somehow proclaims “autumn!” with one mushroom and a wisp of herb. We’ll bring you course after course of what’s right for this time of year and this place, all presented in the right sequence. You may not be able to recognise or even appreciate the subtleties of colour, shape and flavour, but while you are with us you will know that they are present.”

The French provincial cuisine restaurant – for example, one of the great old Lyonnaise Mères or a place like Loulou in Cagnes-sur-mer – says: “We have mastered our trucs and astuces over the years. It’s that dab of mustard in the sauce, that special way of simmering the chicken in the pig’s bladder, our wizardry with the grill, that enable us to transform the ordinary into something magical. And now that you’ve been clever enough to find us, you can share in the benefit of this knowledge. For the time you are with us, you are a savvy insider, a member of those in the know.”

The Italian restaurant conveys a message something like this: “Look what we’ve just found in the forest and the market! The freshest mushrooms, the most tender young salads, the most beautiful beefsteaks. And you’ve just walked in to share this goodness. Now we’ll prepare it quickly and simply, with just a splash of the best olive oil and a few very fresh herbs. Our meal may not be elaborate or formal, but nothing will get in the way of this bounty. This isn’t really a commercial transaction, even though we will bring you a bill. For the time you are with us, you are a member of the family.”

The classic British restaurant: “Life is hard and resources scarce. Bad things happen more often than good. But one must eat, after all. So see if you can choke down what we’ve prepared – after all it’s better than going hungry. Come in out of the rain. For the time you are with us, you can cheat starvation.”

The modern British restaurant – St John, let’s say, or Chez Bruce – has a brighter message: “Food is good! It can give pleasure! What a wonderful surprise! Like a sunny summer afternoon, it may arrive only a few times a year – but what happiness it can bring! For the time you are with us, you can forget about how tough life is, and enjoy yourself.”

The American restaurant: “Look how bountiful the world is! There’s so much food to enjoy! You can choose from a huge variety of foods and eat just as much as you want: the biggest steaks, mountains of fries, platefuls of pasta, enormous salads covered with prawns, grilled chicken, shredded cheese and baco-bits, all followed up with a whopping fudge-ice cream-marshmallow-caramel dessert. Or two. For the time you are with us, you can forget about finitude.”

The Chinese restaurant: “Everything and anything can be good, if you can just work out how to prepare it. It’s just a matter of knowing how the particular animal, vegetable or mineral wants to be chopped up, and whether it wants to be fried, red-simmered, roasted, boiled, or … Yes, resources are scarce and you have to look in some strange places to find food. But once you’ve figured out how to prepare it, things, they can all be delicious. While you are with us, we’ll make luxurious ingredients, ordinary substances and things you wouldn’t otherwise touch taste very good.”

Perhaps other members with different experience could complete the picture: German, Korean, Spanish, Jewish, …Canadian ?

[Gavin Jones]

German,Spanish: You will become one with your inner pig.

[Steve Plotnicki]

This is a great post. If I can add to some of the descriptions you have posted so far.

traditional French haute cuisine - Let us perform for you. We have mastered culinary technique to the extent that we have removed the inconveniences that come with eating. That wonderfully delicious soup that you are eating is actually vegetable soup even though there is not a vegetable to be found anywhere. Through pureeing, straining and the cooking process, we have made it perfectly smooth and without any extraneous bits. And the texture, consistancy and thickness is a metaphor for your success in life.

High art - We have raised the spector of performance into a quasi artform. Through techniques we have devised, we will extract the essence of an ingredient and that process us will allow us to change its form. And in the process, you will discard your notion about how certain food relates to other food as well as how food relates to your life

More later

[Gavin Jones]

The classic British Come in out of the rain. For the time you are with us, you can cheat starvation.”

The modern British For the time you are with us, you can forget about how tough life is, and enjoy yourself.”

I like the social characterizations:

The provincial French restaurant allows you to be a member of the provincial French bourgeoisie. If you're very lucky your mistress may murder you after.

The classic British restaurant allows you to experience the weight of the class system and you will be treated accordingly (deference/suspicion/contempt).

The modern British restaurant nods backwards towards this with an ironic inflection - now you're able to eat innards through pleasure not necessity...

[Wilfrid]

JD, I think you have touched on something which I feel has been lacking from many eGullet discussions, which is that choosing to dine in certain restaurants is a way of saying something about yourself which goes far beyond expressing a taste for a certain type of cuisine. It is pretty well accepted now that consumption - in the broad sense - has an important symbolic dimension. If I wear a Burberry overcoat, it signifies something beyond my wanting to stay warm. That's a simple example, but of course the symbolic dimension can become extremely complex.

Part of the restaurant's message (if it's coherent) is surely that it will fulfil, confirm and reinforce the statement the customer wants to make when they choose to dine there. I think you bring that out in some of your examples, but perhaps I can go further (when I have time).

As a postscript, let me shoulder again my weary burden of carping at hyperbolic condemnations of traditional British food. You don't cite a classic British restaurant, so I wonder which (if any) you have in mind. Wilton's? The Ivy? J. Sheekeys'? Your description doesn't do them justice. There are lousy classic British restaurants too, but of course there are lousy French ones.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I thought his description of British restaurants was just fine .

Wilfrid - Actually there is some talk about what a restaurant stands for on some of the French threads. Read the threads that discuss El Bulli and you will see that part of the conversation is whether the style will gain wide acceptance with so much of the focus being shifted to what the chef does, and less on what makes the diner happy. As to your Burberry raincoat example, you have brought up what it means as a fashion statement. Before you get to that, before it was fashionable it was merely a design that was appealing to people, i.e., designed better, i.e., better technique applied. That it was eventually marketed as a symbol of affluence and stability doesn't diminish from the fact that at one time, it stood out from a massive number of raincoats it was in competition with because it balanced function and style better then the competition did.

[Wilfrid]

The coat was just a random example, and I am referring to something far more complex than a "fashion statement". I'll think about how to explain it better.

Thanks for pointing me at the other threads. I do, believe it or not, read threads sometimes without intervening, but I may have missed some of the E Bulli discussion.

I am sorry you remain ignorant about British gastronomy.

[macrosan]

That's a very thought-provoking concept, JD.

I wouldn't attempt to overstretch the concept. I doubt whether a chracterisation of British or German restaurants would produce anything more than an attempt to use a few clever words which actually had nothing to do with the national style of restaurant

But "Jewish" is fine, and it goes as follows. "Don't talk, eat".

[Steve Plotnicki]

I am sorry you remain ignorant about British gastronomy

I feel confident that this is one time where ignorance is bliss .

[Jonathan Day]

...let me shoulder again my weary burden of carping at hyperbolic condemnations of traditional British food.  You don't cite a classic British restaurant, so I wonder which (if any) you have in mind.  Wilton's?  The Ivy?  J. Sheekeys'?  Your description doesn't do them justice.  There are lousy classic British restaurants too, but of course there are lousy French ones.

Fair cop, guv. Guilty as charged.

I would put The Ivy in the 'modern' category -- e.g. pumpkin risotto. Unfortunately I've had more bad meals than good at Sheekey's; its cuisine and service are surprisingly variable. I've only eaten once at Wilton's, which was very good (Dover sole). Rules can also be good, in game season and when the staff are well motivated, though again I've had some bad food there.

Nonetheless you and Macrosan are right. Over the years I've had some very good trad food including, to my surprise, some rather tasty eels at a pie and mash shop.

I can only plead that I did try to balance the ledger a bit with the portrait of American food, the quantity and fattiness of which is a fairly frequent dinner party topic here ... mostly amongst neighbours who have just returned from Orlando, Florida.

[Jonathan Day]

One more data point: I've dined at a number of gentlemen's clubs where it was very clear that neither members nor staff cared much about the food; or if they did, they weren't going to say anything about it. It wasn't just that the meats were overcooked and the vegetables boiled for a minimum of an hour, it was more that these weren't valid topics on which it would have been considered legitimate for kitchen or the customers to have a point of view.

More attention was given to the wines, oddly enough. It was OK to make an appreciative comment when tasting a Chablis (though not to aereate the wine in the glass or to sniff the wine before tasting); it would have been out of place to comment on the quality of the cooking.

I think this gets to Wilfrid's important comment about the diner making a statement by choosing a specific restaurant or type of restaurant.

Assuredly, clubs in St James's can hardly be considered representative of British cuisine as a whole.

[Gavin Jones]

Assuredly, clubs in St James's can hardly be considered representative of British cuisine as a whole.

But very much of a certain tranche of society.

I think this food exemplifies a certain phlegmatic attitude - to enjoy it would be as bad as enjoying carnal relations with one's spouse.

[Wilfrid]

Please don't let me derail this into a British food debate. The original point deserves better.

(Of course, if ignorance is bliss, Steve P.'s perpetual cheerful smile is readily explained. Can't resist it sometimes )

[Peter B Wolf]

JD (London): Orlando Florida is a bad example.

To quote Wilfrid: "....and I am referring to something far more complex than a "fashion statement"....."

And Steve P. says: "....marketed as a symbol of affluence...."

And Wilfrid earlier: ".... choosing to dine in certain restaurants is a way of saying something about yourself which goes far beyond expressing a taste for a certain type of cuisine....."

The Restaurant is trying to say exactly what the consumant/diner is not able to express to others after the 'experience'.

Whereas one can express by what he/she wears (the Burberry) or drives (the Mercedes Stern - [even when mounted on a VW Beetle]) and making a 'statement' about oneself, this can not be done with the liking or knowledge of what people eat. Wanting to express that, can only be done by mentioning the place of dining in question, hoping others either know the place or will find out more about it. Thereby finding the taste of others.

Most eGulletiers that posted here, and have mentioned places they went to, tells me exactly what their tastes are, as I can find the specific Restaurant info at many sources. (Reviews, critiques, menus on line etc.) The menu "expressions try to say" IT.

[Jinmyo]

JD, your original post was great. You must have worked quite a bit on it. Thanks.

[Gavin Jones]

If I'm reading you right the reason we eGullet is that we hope the laboriously constructed statements about ourselves (lengthy trips to certain sorts of restaurant et al) will finally find an appreciative audience.

Or at least one who can decode these absurd statements about ourselves.

So as opposed to

- I went to ADNY last night

- How much did that cost?

- XXX$

-Wow, I'd never spend that on food/How come you only spent $XXX you cheapskate

we have

- I went to ADNY last night

- Only because you're unable to appreciate the innovation of Pierre Gagnaire/Exactly so, your appreciation of 3* dining singles you out as one of the cognoscenti (italian so not culinarily relevant).

[Tonyfinch]

But "Jewish" is fine, and it goes as follows. "Don't talk, eat".

Since that mesage is clearly ignored by every Jewish member of this site(including myself)along with every Jew I know I think you must have got it wrong by one word.

It should read:Don't talk,eat FIRST"

[Wilfrid]

Peter and Gavin, seriously, I think you're right. I think we all reveal a lot about ourselves when discussing our tastes here on eGullet, not necessarily intentionally.

[Jinmyo]

The lower range Canadian restaurant: "Damn, it's cold eh? Well, warm up and have a nice cold beer. Want some fries?"

The middle range Canadian restaurant: "Damn it's cold, eh? Well, have a nice bowl of pasta and some fresh herbs. Would you like some wine with your beer?"

The upper range Canadian restaurant: "This is just as good as any American restaurant except we've put real maple syrup in unlikely things. The risotto is made with wild rice, eh? Canadian wild rice. From Canada. And we grow all the mustard seeds in the world. The Dijon mustard there? We grew the mustard seeds. Here's the wine list. And the beer list. Cold, isn't it? Put that cigarette out."

[GordonCooks]

German Food - Cuisine to exact, precision specifications

Jewish - Traditional, unpretenious Cuisine

[Steve Plotnicki]

But all art tells us something about ourselves. It's just that high art doesn't compromise itself with marketability, and more consumable items (like food, clothing and furniture) depend on their likeability/functionality to work well and to be appealing. I am struck by how easily we characterize an affluent meal as a statement that says I am of the cognascenti. As opposed to a statement that says that people (all of them) are entitled to live this well.

I don't find much difference between French Provinical/Jewish food/Italian home cooking, and other types of cuisine where stewing or braising is the technique at the heart of the cuisine. I think those "comfort foods" are soulful. And I think there is some metaphor with one's life being long and slow, and becoming mijote or gedempt with time. I think the Chinese have this same soulfulness but coming from a different direction. As do the Moroccans and the Mexicans. A good subthread for this thread is why does what we consider "soulfood" move us to the extent it does? And it is also in that light one has to ask why British cuisine lacks so many of the elements that would make it soulful? A description I might add that can be applied to the U.S. and the rest of Europe north of Belgium. Looking at it simply, is it just a matter of broth from chickens or meat?

[Wilfrid]

I think we make a whole series of statements when we choose to dine at a restaurant (or to discuss having done so), whether intentionally or otherwise, so I don't think we need to exclude one such statement in favor of others.

(Still trying not to be sidetracked into British food, but we'll get there if you keep taking vague sideswipes, Steve. Slow braised oxtail in red wine, with onions, carrots, bacon; stewed neck of lamb with barley; soulful as anything, I would contend.)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Still trying not to be sidetracked into British food, but stop parading your lack of knowledge, Steve - you really think there's no slow braised food in Britain?)

Of course there is there just isn't any taste to it . (Oh that felt good )

[Wilfrid]

You can do better than that.

[Steve Plotnicki]

As I do not want to plagerize his work, I direct you to issue # 61 of the Art of Eating by Ed Behr. Now we can get back to the topic at hand.