Affirmative Use of Video Monitors

[cabrales]

Leslie -- Your book confirms that there are a number of video monitors in the Daniel dining room, through which members of the kitchen team chart the progress of diners. Have you witnessed instances where the apparent enthusiasm of a diner towards presented dishes, or other aspects of the appearance of a diner or his interaction with the cuisine, have resulted in the kitchen sending out complimentary extra dishes, or otherwise conferring special treatment on the diner?

[Kim WB]

Wow, what a great question!!

[Leslie Brenner]

Cabrales, that is a very good question. As you mention, there are a number of video cameras in the dining room at Daniel. There's a bank of monitors just next to the "pass," the area where the orders come into the kitchen. I have never seen the chefs trying to discern the apparent enthusiasm of diners. That doesn't mean it necessarily never happened, but in actuality, the black and white images on the monitors are a bit blurry. Usually the chefs used them to focus on plates, to check the progress of diners through their courses. (I.e. Are they halfway through their appetizers?) That would help them know when to "fire" the next course. Occasionally they used them if they thought they knew someone at a table, and they were trying to figure out if the diner was indeed the person the chef thought it might be, whether a friend, an ex-employee, a chef at another restaurant, etc.

I do know that when William Grimes, the New York Times restaurant critic, was known to be in the restaurant the last time he came, Daniel Boulud was trying very hard to focus on him at his table. But somehow, he couldn't get a good angle. Oddly, the video system is at the same time very sophisticated and much less sophisticated than you might think. It was one of the earliest systems of its kind, and I imagine the images on the newer ones might be somewhat better.