GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
Are you being served?
Chefs might be at the top of the heap in kitchen but without the right staff in their restaurant, they are nothing. To prove the point, the Gourmet Glasgow festival invited local food critics to take on the role of maitre d’ at various city restaurants. Our Food & Drink Editor, Donald Reid, was one of them
‘I s everything OK with your meal?’ I heard the words and they seemed to have emerged from my lips.
I was trying to do what maitre d’s do. With little else by way of qualifications, talking the talk seemed a good start. Reassuringly the team at Cafezique, Mhairi Taylor’s laid back corner bistro on Hyndland Street in the West End, were walking the walk. Or walking as best they could with me hovering around by the bar getting in the way.
Good staff don’t get in each other’s way. Cafezique packs a kitchen, bar, mezzanine and 40 covers into a small, occasionally awkward space, but Mhairi and her team of three working front-of-house glided around like mercury in a tube. I heard no ‘excuse me’s or ‘pardon’s or ‘sorry’s, and the job was getting done. Or lots of jobs, at lots of tables. Far too many for me to keep in my head.
Effective teamwork and good systems – evident even in a place with the casual air of Cafezique – are important. Most of all, a good front-of-house operation is about good communication. The staff were all talking to each other and to the kitchen, but I wasn’t following it at all. I wasn’t tuned in. Occasionally I was given an exaggerated nudge to help me realise there were some prospective diners at the door. This was my role: meet and greet and find a seat. The maitre d’hotel was the high heid yin in classical French restaurants. Master (literally) of
SIDE DISHES News to nibble on
WHICH ONE OF THE 30 THINGS TO BE DONE SHOULD I DO FIRST?
all he surveyed on the floor of the restaurant, he held sway over all the waiting staff and more often than not the kitchen too.
A head chef might regard himself as equal, but during service it was the maitre d’s responsibility to keep customers satisfied, and the kitchen was merely a cog in that well-oiled machine. Without the duck-like qualities of a professional to maintain the calmest of demeanours, mixed with chatty bonhomie, while paddling furiously underneath to keep everything ticking along, I was far from masterful. Which one of the 30 things to be done should I do first?
GOURMET GLASGOW Donald Reid was at Cafezique as part of Gourmet Glasgow’s Critics Challenge. Proceeds from the evening, as well as the fee for this article, are being given to the Camphill Village Trust. Camphill communities are places where adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems are given fulfilling work, training and education. Many are linked to agriculture and food production with farms, organic gardens, bakeries and dairies, including the fantastic Loch Arthur creamery and farm shop near Dumfries which produces some of Scotland’s finest artisan cheeses. www.locharthur.org.uk
‘Is everything OK with your meal?’ They said yes. But should I really believe them?
■ THE OLD CLAREMONT
Bar at 133-135 East Claremont Street (near Powderhall) is now a bar/ diner called Elbow. Behind it is a team including Wendy Schofield (aka Trendy Wendy
of club Tackno) of The Street on Broughton Street. It’s serving breakfast from 9am, dinner till 10pm and big roasts on Sunday. 0131 556 5662 ■ SOMETIMES an event catches your eye just because it has a great title. Step forward the ‘Dauner up the Douro’ being held (where else?) but The Ubiquitous
Chip on Monday 31 August. It’s a Portuguese tutored wine tasting of six wines and ports with Miguel Roquette of Quinta do Crasto and a three-course dinner. More at 0141 334 5007 or ubiquitouschip.co.uk ■ THE FIELDS are golden, fruits are ripening and the forests are filled with mushrooms. Scottish
Food Fortnight is underway from Saturday 5 September with various seasonal food events under its umbrella as well as dedicated promotions and events. Find out more at scottishfoodanddrinkfortnight.co.uk
6 THE LIST 27 Aug–10 Sep 2009