The Kyle Phoenix Blog: Kyle Phoenix Answers: Can an average person actually appreciate the type of food cooked in a high end restaruant?

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Kyle Phoenix Answers: Can an average person actually appreciate the type of food cooked in a high end restaruant?

It depends on your social class.
Poverty is quantity ----hence McDonald's value meals and oversized menu movies.
Middle class is quality---again McDonald's in its pictures and now sumptuous videos in the menu itself.
Upper/Rich is presentation and craft---hence not McDonald's because that's not where you're going for that level of service. No table cloth, no flat, silver or stem ware. No tableside service. No ability to extensively alter to taste or preferences. (McDonald's is not beef, strictly speaking, its an amalgamation. So too is the chicks and fish. Pressed parts fused and drowned in other flavors and fat to disguise the Frankenstein ation of it.)

When I take my mentored students to a minimum 4 star restaurant, they freak out. One because of the mannered complexity. Water glass, wine, port/sherry, liquor, coffee, espresso, demitasse. Multiple plates, three kinds of forks. Tongs. Rose petaled bowl of water. Linen napkins. Busboy, server, waiter, Captain, host.

And then the food!

There's usually a larger selection and an expectation of alteration from the customer because most meals at assembled right then, fresh. Rare, sans this, less that, add this, what does this mean? Languaged terms of how it might be prepared ceviche, braised, grilled, seared, baked, broiled, flambé,
I prep students beforehand and because I've done this for years at several places the staff know me and are very gracious towards my befuddled students. The mark again of class, not just that you present in a certain way but that you use your manners to overlook, help, compensate for someone else's.
My intent being you will one day go to a wedding , a business dinner, luncheon, conference, interview or be responsible for taking out a client, a special date, a spouses family dinner at home or out, etc....

Even if its not your norm, like another language you must have the manners to not only do it well but be comfortable and enjoy yourself. Then you can enjoy and recognize the complexity of the food served.

Most middle class and poor people have ruined their palette with sugar, salt, cigarettes so they can't taste five or six variations in an item. Its why lower class food is so flat, lacking In true taste. Its the difference between folk, rap, pop and a full live orchestra.

Weird aside was that in my late 20s temping, I worked for a Senior VP and would harangue him to take the project team out to Morton's for celebratory lunches every few months. People much older and senior position to me would ask me how to do things ---order, what drink to get, utensil usage. It always struck me how they were professionals but hadn't had the experience to not feel bewildered or overwhelmed.
I was lucky that my parents purposefully took themselves to high end restaurants as teenagers on dates to get comfortable.

My mother was a Francophile all through college. As an only child they refused to cook and just took me to 4-5 star restaurants because it was easier. My only uncomfortability was being served so attentively , staff fawning over my every whim and desire, the attention. But by the time I was a teenager I felt less self conscious.