Your Favorite Chef May be Coming For Dinner With You!

[SeanDirty]

I think its great that there are so many food events these days,  what I dislike is how impersonal most of the events are.  The interaction you are alotted is akin to a book signing.  If your Lucky you get a word in, if not you grab a tiny bamboo plate and get a half mumbled description of their dish...

 

Do you think it would be cool to have dinner with a couple chefs.

 

Here is my idea, i'd like to throw a dinner "event" something small so we can keep it intimate, maybe 40 diners at most (Spread between maybe 2-3 tables) and two chefs would be invited, each chef would come up with 3 dishes, I am thinking family style so we can keep it slightly less formal.

 

Chef # 1

Amuse

Appertizer

Fish

 

Intermission - SMOKE BREAK!

 

Chef # 2

Mid-course

Meat

Dessert

 

While one chef is cooking and plating the other chef is spending time at each table eating with the guests. Intermission chefs switch, when the meal ends mingling will occur, and the honoree chefs will stay for as long as time permits... The "event/dinner"  will most likely be hosted in a restaurant. or a place that makes sense, working on a Manhattan location, but maybe Brooklyn.  Trying for maybe Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...  

 

SO the question would be, What Restaurants Chef would you like to see be apart of this event.  (This is not Hypothethical, and please if you pick Daniel, or Per Se, it wont be Daniel, or Chef Keller, it would be most likely their Chef De Cuisine) I am pretty confident I can make this happen if I can see that ill be able to sell out the event...

 

So please post what restaurants chef, or if you know a chef in paticular you would like be apart of this... 

Also post your willingness to attend this event, only if your chosen chef is goin to be apart of it, or you would like to attend reguardless.

Lastly, how many would be in your party.

 

 

Any Ideas or critiques to better this idea would be appriciated. 

 

 

 

 

[gfweb]

Neat idea.

 

Money will be an issue for all concerned. Does everybody involved come out ahead?

[SeanDirty]

Sorry kept telling myself to list a round about price as no menu is set yet its only an estimated price per person...  

 

I was estimating between $85-$125 

 

Possibility of adding a Sommilier wine pairing option... depends on if we get the bodies...

[gfweb]

I was thinking more of the venue and the chefs.  Do they come out ahead?

[SeanDirty]

Once costs are covered, then contributors.  But i really need help promoting this otherwise we aint gonna have nothing...

[gfweb]

I don't get it yet.

 

So a chef would do this with no guarantee of pay?

[weinoo]

I don't get it yet.

 

So a chef would do this with no guarantee of pay?

Let me know when you get it.

 

Dave Santos already does something similar at Louro, with his Nossa Mesa Supper club.

[gfweb]

I guess I am incapable of getting it.

 

Do you understand the economics of this as presented so far Weinoo?

[weinoo]

I guess I am incapable of getting it.

 

Do you understand the economics of this as presented so far Weinoo?

No way.

 

I also don't understand "intimate" at 40 or more people.

 

Nor where it might be held.  

[gfweb]

Pay for at least a chef and a sous x 2  +  food cost  +  rent the space  +  a server or two

 

The chefs would normally be at their own places at work, so who replaces them there...or would this be on a day off?

[gfweb]

I vaguely recall some deal in the past year or two where patrons would pay $100 to be put on a list for pop-up dinners that would feature young chefs trying to build a following and test recipes.  Similar idea but larger scale.  Seemed like a bad plan. Wonder if it worked

[gfweb]

Here it is.  Dinner Lab.  For Philly its $125 to join. Sounds like a really bad deal. It would be interesting to see reviews

 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234147

 

https://dinnerlab.com/sampleevents.php

 

 

ETA-Well if their FB page is an indicator, I was wrong. Looks to be thriving and with commercial tie-ins too. https://www.facebook.com/dinnerlab

Edited February 28, 2015 by gfweb (log)

[SeanDirty]

I am aware of Dinner lab and what they do. As they are clients of mine. I am friends with more chefs than I can count. 90% of my numbers out of the 3000+ numbers in my phone are all chefs or work in the industry respectively. I wouldn't expect any of then to do this for free, but for promise of payment on the back end would not be difficult for me to ask of my friends.

Yes this would be held on a day off, or held far enough in advance that they would be able to organize.

Perhaps this event structure isn't the right way to go. Maybe it's better to ask what would you the public want to attend as an event?

If say you had access to the city's chefs.

[SeanDirty]

No way.

 

I also don't understand "intimate" at 40 or more people.

 

Nor where it might be held.

As I mentioned before the tables would be split into 2-3 tables. So tables of anywhere from 13 to 20 people, peferably round.. Would that not offer a close enough setting to converse?

[weinoo]

At this point, I don't think it's fair of me to opine.  I'm not your target market. Been there...done that. Not my favorite way to spend my dining dollars.

[MattyC]

Forgive the intrusion - generally don't comment on regional stuff outside Boston or Maine, but happened to see this, felt maybe I had 2 cents worth chiming in with.

 

So I get your idea - I actually run a dinner club in the Boston area, partially focusing on the social and intimate parts of dining out, so i get where you're coming from. It's actually one of the reasons why I started doing it, because I felt like there was a disconnect between the food and the actual social part of going out. I like talking to guests. I like being able to have conversations with people. There are a million and a half events, and a million and a half popups around here, but everything just mimicked regular old restaurant dining, so I thought I'd bring the social love back into it.

 

I structure everything to be at single communal tables, and try and have a lot of the food family style or share able with other people attending. It works well - people have made friends - some of them even started an alumni facebook group to help stay in touch with not just each other, but myself and the other guest industry people I bring on.

 

So our ideas aren't far off, and now is the part where I chime in a little bit - 

 

40 people is too much for something to be intimate. It really is. That's a full dining room for some places. I purposely keep my number counts at 15 guests or lower. I've talked with guests about that very same thing, asking if they think we should go larger, and it's been a resounding no. It gets too loud, and even if people dining get in the time to talk to myself or some of the other talent creating dishes, they also want to be able to socialize with the others there. Not to mention, you would need a bunch of staff, a bunch of people running the food, doing wine, etc - with smaller groups, the chefs can do it themselves ( or at least help out a little more), which is more face time. After 3 months of doing 3 or 4 dinners per month, everyone attending has shot down any thoughts of doing something larger, all giving the reason it would ruin the intimacy.

 

Second - even with chefs able to do it, for most likely not a lot, if any, money - getting 3 dishes ready for their maybe 1 day off, 40 portions of each, is a good amount of work to be asking, even for something they think could be fun. For something intimate, people love when the chef talks about the dish, the food, what it involved, etc, and with 40 portions of 3 different courses in the mix, that could mean less time for the chef chatting and getting the guests involved, which sounds like part of the whole idea in the first place. I know that you mentioned that you could structure it to have one chef in the kitchen, while the other is out 'schmoozing' and eating, but unless you have a large staff, or a long delay between everything, i'd think the other chef would want to be getting things ready. Generally I'd think a chef coming out and talking after each course would be a little better, instead of coming out and starting with 'Hey, you know that fish course you ate 40 minutes ago?....'. Just a thought.

 

Those are the first things I thought of. I hope this doesn't sound negative - I really love the idea and thought, but for something hailed to be intimate, something to get you involved and have a little more face time with a chef, this just seems a little.... too much. Sounds more like a publicity dinner, than something put together to be intimate. People want to see the chef cook, they want to have a drink with them after, they want to interact, etc.

 

Again, just take this as 2 cents, or just write it off completely if you want. I don't get world renowned chefs, but myself, friends, and others I utilize have been written about, and are known at least with locals and those in the industry, so we do have people wanting to talk to us. I just think if you're hailing something as an intimate time with a chef or two, your idea is a little grand. Too many staff, too many diners, too many moving parts. Get gritty, get people in there and involved. Distance the event from every other chef event.