Top Of The Table

Caroline Barden

Sept. 23, 2001

This week there is good news and even better news, which do you want first?

The good news is that yours truly managed to really piss off that venerable institution of fine dining and cuisine, The Culinary Institute of America. Aren’t you proud of me?!? The even better news is that there is something being done to raise money for the restaurant workers who perished while working a one day gig at Windows on the World. As I wrote about last week, most were from Mexico and Ecuador, were among the lowest paid people in the building, and they sent almost all of their meager earnings back to their families in their native country. Let’s start with how you can help them.

On Thursday October 11th, restaurants around the country are sending a portion of their proceeds to the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, c/o
the Beacon Restaurant
25 W.56th St.
New York, NY 10019.
The owner of this restaurant used to own Windows on the World and knew a lot of the people who worked there and perished in the tragedy. If you can’t get your restaurant to donate, pass the hat amongst your fellow servers, and send it to them. I will be going on all of my local radio stations to get restaurants and waitstaff to donate to this cause. The count is 77 restaurant staff missing and presumed dead.
C’mon guys, let’s help out.

Actually, I will be working this week to get the Culinary Institute to part with some cash for this cause. Two days after the bombing, I went to dinner there and while the food was good, let me tell you about the service.

It sucked. It sucked big time.

Now they bill themselves as a training school for chefs. But it’s not like when you go to a beauty school for a haircut and they charge you less. At the Culinary Institute of America, with their arrogant, nose in the air, we walk on water attitude, they charge you double. And the server couldn’t even open the bottle of wine.

There were eight of us, it was a special occasion and our bill, before tip, was over five hundred dollars. It took us 3 hours and 54 minutes to have dinner, 28 minutes to get our first drink, and one hour to get the appetizers, of which we all got a spoonful. Our eighty dollar bottle of wine sat on a tray stand for sixteen minutes, and if I’d had my wine key on me, I would have opened it. Actually, it wasn’t just me, the gal I sat next to used to work in restaurants and that’s why we started timing things. It got painful after awhile, and this was at the Culinary for petes sake!

So how did I get in trouble? I called to complain. Okay, so I train servers for a living and there was my livelihood to think about along with my three hungry kids, but ya know, I felt I had to do something. My date for the evening was totally mortified, it was his boss who paid the exorbitant tab. I was supposed to just be quiet and look pretty. But I couldn’t, it was so obtuse. Here we were in these opulent surroundings, being served by someone who should have been saying, "Do you want biggie fries with this?" And then there is the rest of the story.

As a nonprofit organization, The CIA doesn't pay school or land taxes on prime river front property. This really ticks off a lot of homeowners are paying through the nose in a large part because this venerable institution doesn't have to. Tuition is now at 22 grand , so add that up with the proceeds of four restaurants where THE SERVERS DON'T KEEP THEIR TIPS!!!. That’s right, tips go back to the school. For their scholarship fund I was told. So, they pay students seven bucks an hour to serve thirty dollar meals and hundred dollar bottles of wine. No decent server would work for that kind of money. Now do you understand why I’m angry?!

It’s an insult to those of us who bust our butts to give good service to ignorant people. At the Culinary, the ignorance is on their part when they actually believe that good food is enough to satisfy the discriminating diner. We know it isn’t and now it’s going to be easier to convince the rest of the world. Actually, there was in interesting article in The Daily News about in light of the recent bombings, those upscale, arrogant restaurants are empty while the friendly neighborhood bistro is booming. Not to be mean, but it’s about time they fell off their pedestal. People want to be around comfortable, close surroundings these days. The end of the arrogance is coming to a restaurant near you very soon!

The upshot of this whole deal is that when I told the big mucky mucky that I wrote for waiters-revenge.com, boy did he get scared! Actually we are supposed to go to lunch next week and talk about what I could do to help the Culinary Institute create the level of excellence in service that would match their superlative food. Film at 11, I’ll keep you posted.

Are you a manager who is a little frustrated with your staff? Okay very frustrated! Why not try calling in a consultant? We are those quirky people who can focus on what needs fixing and then proceed to make you look really good to your boss. We have ways of helping your staff work better together so they make more money for themselves and for your establishment. They also tell us things they wouldn’t dare tell you! For a free consultation you can contact me at this web site, I would be happy to troubleshoot with you. Let’s all raise the standards in this industry together!

Caroline Barden Restaurant Consultant.