40 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:At a small dinner in Paris, the subject of waiters came up. One guest had regaled us with descriptions of his twice a day Michelin starred meals over the past week. He dropped a comment that he never noticed his waiter. WHAAAAAT? Your waiter is not only your server but your only conduit to the kitchen, the chef. How does the kitchen know that you like, even care about the food? Even in a diner, the cook likes to hear someone say something nice about their work. I can't imagine ignoring the waiter, essentially your partner for the duration of your visit.
Obviously the guest must have discussed food and beverage at some point. I'd take it as a compliment on the service if things like re-setting silverware between courses and filling glasses are as unobtrusive as possible.
35 minutes ago, gfweb said:Customers looked right through her? What should they have done instead?
While servers are lovely people, diners aren't going there to chat up the server.
I agree. Welcome to the world of working for a living. Of course diners should be civil, say thank you, etc but if you work in a service job, sometimes you're just the help. Sounds like she wasn't very good at the job so better to be invisible than berated for slow pancake rolling. It sounds like a hectic place, not one where the name of every forager and microgreen supplier is reverentially dropped with each course. And if they serve family style, the server doesn't have as much direct contact with each guest, no time to bond and become besties.