Global Cuisine and the Customer

[Rien]

When talking about style, you mentioned "Asian, Italian, Southern, New England, French, Creole, American." In the question about flops you also mentioned a Chinese-style hot and sour soup being, for some incomprehensible reason, unappealing to your customers.

Granted, every list is both inclusive and exclusive. Are there any cuisines that you find either uninspiring or inspiring but too "off" for your customers? For example, Middle Eastern flavors with a frequent inclusion of sweet and savory? I can imagine that people might envision falafel or hummus and think it's too "down scale." Or, as with the sweet and savory, are their taste combinations that people don't accept?

Many thanks,

Rien

[Richard Hamilton]

When talking about style, you mentioned "Asian, Italian, Southern, New England, French, Creole, American." In the question about flops you also mentioned a Chinese-style hot and sour soup being, for some incomprehensible reason, unappealing to your customers.

Granted, every list is both inclusive and exclusive. Are there any cuisines that you find either uninspiring or inspiring but too "off" for your customers? For example, Middle Eastern flavors with a frequent inclusion of sweet and savory? I can imagine that people might envision falafel or hummus and think it's too "down scale." Or, as with the sweet and savory, are their taste combinations that people don't accept?

Many thanks,

Rien

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Again, there will always be things some guest will not accept. Like I said, it comes down to them trusting me and me trusting them. If I choose to do exotic flavors the dish as a whole needs to balance and go forward in the same direction as the meal. Flavors and styles are subtle but there none the less. Its all part of personal style and learning who I am as a chef, my boundaries and abilities as a flavor builder and who my guests are. In a week, at least at our restaurant, I find the guests very differnt from days to weekends. For example, the weekend guests almost always go for a very exotic tasting menu and the weekday guests will almost always go for shellfish and kobe or lamb entrees. There will always be exceptions to this but we have a trend that I try and follow what they order and are looking for. But of course I will always include oposites to both for the people looking for something else.