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Dan
Casual Kitchen

But in the end, no matter how much I understand and appreciate Lieber’s point of view, I have to say that as much as he purports that the chef was being a jerk and being disruptive to the dining room, the only way I can read the situation is that Lieber is a narcissist.

Because here’s the thing. No matter what’s going on, walking into the sanctuary of the kitchen and telling off the chef is NOT going to diffuse any situation. It’s only going to piss the chef off all the more, and it’s going get the chef so furious at both Lieber, and the initial employee, that there will be no good outcome.

Lieber should have understood this. It’s just human nature. You, as a complete stranger, have VERY little sway on someone else’s emotion. If something is going on that is causing a scene in the dining room, then notify the manager, or someone else in authority at the restaurant and let them know it’s unacceptable. But don’t presume that YOU have some magical power to make everything better. Because you don’t.

And, just for the record, I have never worked in the restaurant industry.

To make it worse, that poor person then has to go out, put on a brave face, and serve customers who they know heard the chef who obviously has no self control humiliating him in front of the staff and restaurant goers.

I understand your point that patron’s shouldn’t go back in to the kitchen. It is dangerous back there, and just from a liability point of view, rather silly. The best thing honestly would have been to request to talk to the chef, and chat with him by the bar.

I hope this doesn’t get your back up, because it is certainly isn’t meant to – but in my mind certain chef’s out there need to realize that this is a customer service business. They also need to realize that the atmosphere of a restaurant is really what sells the place. I have heard chef’s rip in to staff before in restaurants, and have never gone back. I have also always left a note with my check saying so, and why. I would certainly never dream of storming in to a kitchen to talk with the chef however, unless I really felt like someone was about to be physically attacked.

I think at the end of the day there are two sides to take here. Most people that work in restaurants are going to typically take the “this customer was out of order” side, while most people with no restaurant experience (myself) are going to generally take the side of the NYTimes writer. Glad to read your very objective and smart post on this one Brooke!

Huh? What does a finance reporter HAVE to know about that, since that wasn’t the topic? The topic was disturbance in the dining room that emanated from the kitchen.

After 15 years in restos, you know by now that the money-generating dining room trumps the special world of the kitchen. It’s about the revenue, not about sacred hearts. And the best chefs understand that — and so do the best leaders. One “praises publicly and criticizes privately,” something this stressed chef didn’t do.

Bringing the berate debate to the dining room was this chef’s second mistake.