from behind the stove

Not so good...

I find myself, from time to time, perusing tripadvisor, yelp, urbanspoon, and other review sites reading reviews from top restaurants from around the world.  Recently I read reviews from the 10 best new restaurants of 2010 just announced by Bon Appetite magazine.  I usually don't read the great and good reviews; the 4 and 5 star reviews.  What I normally head straight for are the poor and terrible, 1 and 2 star, reviews, and then will take in a few of the average rating reviews.  I don't do this because I take joy in the failings of another restaurant but because I am facinated by those who just have not found said restaurant as amazing as the vast majority of the other reviewers.  I mean, why is it out of every 100 reviews there will always be around 10 who have deemed the dinning experience to be average to terrible?  It seems no matter how esteemed the restaurant, it will always have around 10% of the posted reviews come in at the average to terrible rating.  I have read reviews for the top 10 restaurants in the world from tripadvisor and yelp and found even these restaurants having around 6%-10% of said reviews in the average to terrible range.  Facsinating!!

Why?  Who makes up this 10%-ish diners who post such harsh reviews?  I'm sure some of this group is made up of those who want to be "the one" who found whatever top restaurant wanting, but these people really only make up a small minority of a already minority group and are not even worth the trouble thinking about.  There will always be those who want to be the one who calls the Emporer out for wearing no cloths.

 Others may have caught the restaurant on an off day.  Even the best of the best chefs and kitchens in the world have bad days where the mojo just isn't clicking.  And, very often the disappointing dinner may be a slip up amoungst a world of otherwise very happy eaters.  I'm not sure why this happens, but I have experienced it in my kitchens, having a table where it seems everything just goes wrong or at least not as spot on as it should be; where no matter how hard we try it just seems everything going on with a certian table, or even the single guest, just isn't what everyone else has experienced.  Where it seems all the small things begin to add up to a real disaster of a dinner.

I also have to wonder if some people just don't get what the restaurant is trying to do.  I've read some scathing reviews of Noma, El Bulli, the Fat Duck, El Celler da Con Roca, Mugaritz (the top 5 restaurants in the world) from tripadvisor reviewers who had nothing, and I mean nothing, nice to say about the food.  Is it possible that most of these reviewers just did not understand the food they were being served?  But the problem is this, not everyone who posted bad reviews are novice eaters.  Many of the posters are experienced at eating in top restaurants.

For me it is one of those things I can, and do, spend time mulling over.  What makes a great restaurant?  Is it inherently great or is it great because the vast majority of the diners who have eaten there say it's great.  Are there great restaurants in the world that are truly great but don't fare so well when it comes to review time?  You know, like someone who may do poorly on tests but great in the real world application.  How much weight should we put in those bottom 10% reviews.  How serious should we as chef's take the bottom 10% reviews.  I know I pay attention to them but I find myself wondering is there is really something to fix or is this a blip in an otherwise fine operation.  I don't think I'll ever figure it out, but it's fun to think about.

THE plan...(part 2)

I thought I had said all I wanted to say about the plan for the restaurant in my last post, but it wasn't more than a few moments after I hit the publish button I realized I had more I wanted to add.  Part one of "the plan" dealt with more mechanical aspects of the move; the outer reasons.  Here I want to talk about the inner reasons for the move and for me the most important part.

I've spent the better of 20 years asking the bigger questions of life.  I've read theology, philosophy, science, and literature. I've talked with poets, professors and priests, and everyone else in between.  I've scoured more websites than I can count.  I've spent sleepless nights, restless days, scraps of any moment I could mulling over the question of being.  In the past couple years I have settled on my conclusions and have prepared a pretty nice foundation to move on to other questions. 

Over the past few months I've turned my attention to what is means to be happy, which after all my previous study, seems to be the highest goal a person can have, and the true pressing issue in our move. 

A couple Harvard psychologists asked a group of students which of these options they would prefer: 1) to make $100,000 a year while thier peirs made $200,000 a year or 2) to make $50,000 a year while their peirs made $25,000.  The group as a whole said option #2 was the option they would take.  Interesting, they would take a $50,000 cut in pay as long as they made more than their piers.  There have been other studies that have found the same results.  People are happier when they make more than those reference group around them.  And, if they make the same amount as those around them, they typically try harder to make more.  It seems that the old adage of keeping up with the Jones' holds some water.  The funny thing is, even though the average family in the US makes twice as much as they did in the '50's, people are no more happier than they were then.  Why?  Because everyone else is also making twice as much and so just because we all have more money, we still compare ourselves to those around us who may be making a little more or the same amount. 

So how does this tie in with the restaurant.  Simple, we are small, and even with the upcoming move, we will remain small.  I have fallen victom to the thinking that the students above fell for.  I compare my meger 25-30 seats with other restaurants that may have 70-150 that are in the same area as we are.  I'm comparing sizes (typical male, huh?), and in the comparison am getting caught up with a false sense of what it is to be happy.  I've mistaken bigger and more with happier.  I've thought that just as long as I keep with the Amical's, the Red Gingers, the Mario Batalis, Andre Rochats, etc I would be happy.  I thought my sucess as a restaurant and chef could only be truly mesaured by comparison.  I am wrong.  I don't need to compare myself to anyone.  My happiness is defined differently and it is about time I admit to that.

To get down to the nuts-n-bolts of the issue, we have two restaurants and that looks and sounds great.  Isn't that every chef's dream to have his/her own little restaurant empire?  If you were to look around at today's high powered chef the answer would seem, "yes", but for Jen and I the answer is really, "no".  We have no desire for empires and big restaurants.  We have no desire for riches, fame or the big time.  We just want to cook.  The past couple years have been very difficult on both of us; this running two restaurants.  We have lost our focus on what makes us happy.  We are cooks, not restaurateurs.  This moving the two restaurants back into one is the biggest step we can take to get back to what we love; cooking.

We have chosen to do away with the unnecessary expenses that come with bigger restaurants and multiple restaurants.  We are only going to open 5 days a week so we may have more time with our families, which is something I have put off for to many years, and more time to just fiddle around in our kitchen coming up with new ideas and new directions.  We are choosing to lose all that extra income for the sake of more happiness.  We know we could make much more money by having two places that are open for more hours but at the end of the day, we spend more time running restaurants and much less time cooking than we would like.  We realize we may lose some of our guests who may not like the direction we are going but in the end we have decided that is just something we have to do.  We are confident once all the dust settles and we have worked out all the kinks, the restaurant will be even better than it is now with the add bonus of us being happier.

THE plan...

My wife and I are huge fans of Frank Herbert's "Dune" series.  We love it so much we quote it constantly to each other and even to those who have no earthly idea what the hell we're talking about.  We have read all the books and watched both movies.  Now, when it comes to the movies, we agree that the more recent one that was put out by the Sci-Fi channel follows the story line closer, but we enjoy David Lynch's 1984 version much better.  One my favorite scenes the Lynch version is when Piter De Vries has been summoned by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to explain how they are going to over throw House Atredies.  The conversation goes something like this:

Piter, "As you instructed me, I have enlightened your nephews on my plan...."

The Baron, "MY plan!"

An exasperated Piter, "the...plan, to crush the Atredies."

So, here is "the" plan for The Cooks' House.  As most of you have probably heard, we have been told we can't allow wine to be brought into the restaurant anymore.  It has thrown somewhat of a monkey wrench into the cogs but it's not going to slow us down.  We have adapted and most of our fine guests understand it wasn't our idea.  So, we are applying for a liquor license but do not expect to see this until March or so.

We are going to be applying for a DDA license but currently state law requires a restaurant to have at least 50 seats, but with the help of Senator Allen we are trying to get this changed to a more do-able number.  I'm not sure what said number of seat will be but whatever they (the law makers) settle on it will be what we need to get our license. 

With that said, whatever the number of seats will be, we are sure the current location of the restaurant is not big enough.  We have jumped through every hoop, looked for every possibility, begged for any exemption we could to stay in our current location but everything we tried was met with a resounding, "NO!" leaving us with no other option but to move The Cooks' House into the space our other restaurant, The Wellington Street Market, is.  We are planning to take all the best of market and incorporate it into The Cooks' House while keeping The Cooks' House as our flagship.  We will still offer the curries, our most popular sandwiches and other plates, the take out dinner, etc. while also bringing to the table everything people love about The Cooks' House. 

While we were not so hot on the idea in the beginning we have actually started to look forward to it.  I have believe that what is necessary is often also the right thing to do and if we follow the same thinking we did when we opened The Cooks' House, that is, to allow events to unfold naturally without us getting in the way then what comes out in the end will be the right path for to follow.  The trick is to not get in the way of the natural progression of change that is the one constant in the universe. 

What we are looking forward to is making The Cooks' House an even better restaurant than it is now.  We will have the room to improve many aspects of the restaurant that we can't do in our current location simply because of the lack of space.  Most important is Jen and I will be able to cook together again in the same kitchen.  Over the past couple years we have not had much of a chance to cook together and we miss that part.  We look forward to refocusing our efforts together to draw the strings tight and present an improved version of our food.  We are always looking for ways to make the restaurant better and with this new direction we have been pushed in, we think we will come out even better than we are now. 

 We have lots of plans for our new space.  People already identify that space with us anyway and so we don't think the shock will be to great.  We plan on transferring the feel of The Cooks' House over to our new space and all the things you love about us now will be there.  And as an added bonus, the things we have discovered we don't like about our current space, ie. the guest going home smelling like dinner, the smoke that accumulates when we are busy, the damned heat of the restaurant when it is hot outside (we have already contracted to have central air put in the new location), and well, you all know the draw backs to our current location so fill in the blank___________________________________________.

So that's THE plan.  The Cooks' House may have hit a bump in the road but it is only a minor one.  We will remain the restaurant you have grown to love but with the added bonus of bettering ourselves.  Hope you come along on the ride with us.

chef eric