The view at the formal end of restaurant service

Giles (not his real name, but he prefers Giles to revealing who he really is) has spent the last five or more years working in upmarket, upscale hospitality. His journey has taken him to both hotels and restaurants, via bar, cafes and the like. He is no stranger to the strange world of luxury hospitality, even stranger guest requests, and the long hours and hard work that goes into formal dining or a great hotel stay.

It is that point of fine dining that has him annoyed as we meet. He (and a great many others in the industry) are formally and classically trained. Experience and in some cases education and training has focused on very traditional, upmarket guest service, and old fashioned restaurant skills. Crumbing down a table, or offering several different types of bread, sliver service come naturally to Giles and others- and indeed they are comfortable with it, and understand it.



Such skills are seen as part of their trade, and people like Giles live and work for that air of formality, and the finer aspects of fine dining. Not any more, apparently.

Recent Michelin stars and critiques of UK restaurants has shown a shocking reversal in that tend. This goes along with recent trends in the industry, and with a wave of new openings. Increasingly, customers don’t want or like that formal part of fine dining; rather like wanting to be a doctor, providing you don’t have to treat patients. With the boom in the service industry, eating out is on the rise- but although customers are becoming more discerning an conscious as regards what they eat, the formality of fine dining is not the menu of these new enthusiastic diners.

The chefs can create their masterpieces, with all the finesse and creativity that the top end of the profession demands- but is has to be served by waiters wearing chinos, treating the diners like friends as opposed to guests. Forget fiddling with tongs for silver service, razor sharp creases in napkins; those skills are no longer required.

Of course, if that is what the customer wants, then the customer shall receive. Much to the upset of professionals like Giles, who want to serve the guest with all the formality and attention to detail that they know how. Those experts of the catering world all of a sudden have to change into more casual versions of themselves. For some, that is a very hard change.

The good news is that that there is s still a class of diners who enjoys and wants the traditions of fine dining. As such, luckily the likes of Giles don’t have to replace their bow ties and waistcoats just yet. Some informal formal restaurants (indeed, such places do exist) have managed to reassert that formality which both diners and staff so crave, despite the protestations of the proprietor with the new ‘business vision’.

Whatever the up and coming trends in the UK restaurant industry, some things do not change. Informality, garden cuisine, open kitchens and so on may be all the rage now- but the archaic formality of the nineteenth century will never be totally absent from even the most informal of formal establishments. Indeed, as well as listening to their customers, sometimes managers and proprietors should listen to their staff in this regard as well.