Would you like some fresh ground pepper with your meal?
Fine dining is a truly unique experience. For the majority of people it is an unusual treat, one that often accentuates a special occasion such as a birthday, anniversary, achievement or a first date even. The song and dance are well rehearsed by the staff that tend to your every need. The menu selections are often exquisite food items that are rare and some are even hard to pronounce made with ingredients no likely to be found in your local grocery store. You eat at this restaurant because of its reputation for excellence, perhaps its ambiance and your confidence that it will live up to its expectation.
I’m no cook. My culinary schools might equal those of a college student at best. Sure I can throw some chicken on a grill or cook a steak just the way I like it. Sauté some spinach? I probably can do it without burning it too much. What I do know is that there are those recipes that I’ve come to perfect after years of practice. They are the old standbys for occasions where I can’t fail. The precise amount of each ingredient has been memorized. There is no guess work.
Much is the same when eating out at a fine restaurant. The Chef, after years of education, trial and error and imagination has concocted a superb meal for your consumption and delight. When it arrives the anticipation as you prepare for your first bite is at its peak. You wait for everyone to be served out of politeness and good manners…unfortunately this is often when that terrible question is asked that changes the tune of the finely orchestra. This is the question that makes you wonder why you came here, the question that makes you wonder if you are missing something.
The waiter or waitress will often ask, “Would you like some fresh ground pepper with your meal?”.
This is when the music stops like a DJ scratching a record on a turn table and the speakers go dead. Why on Earth would I want pepper to be added to my meal? and why has it be introduced as part of protocol at these fine establishments? Is the Chef, management or the wait staff with no culinary skills whatsoever trying to tell me something is lacking from my meal? Are they so bold that they must insinuate that the flavors and spices I am about to enjoy are not quite enough? or worse yet are they telling me that I should add additional spices to mask the flavor of whatever I am about to eat?
This aspect of fine dining is something I fail to understand. When everything is so perfectly crafted, why must I be made to wonder about what I am missing or what I should be afraid of at this critical and high point of anticipation? Are my confidences misplaced?
