Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Will Guidara
- Language: English
- Genre: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
WELCOME TO THE HOSPITALITY
ECONOMY
AT HOME, WE WERE ON top of the world.
Our restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, had recently received four stars
from The New York Times, and a couple of James Beard Awards, too. But
when my chef-partner Daniel Humm and I arrived at the cocktail reception
the night before the awards for the 2010 World’s 50 Best Restaurants, we
understood: this was a whole different ball game.
Imagine every famous chef and restaurateur you’ve ever heard of
milling around, drinking champagne and catching up with friends—and not
one of them was talking to us. I’d never felt so much like a freshman at a
new high school trying to figure out where to sit in the cafeteria, not even
when I was a freshman.
It was a huge honor to be invited. The 50 Best awards had begun in
2002, but they’d become immediately meaningful in the industry. First of
all, they were decided by a jury of a thousand well-regarded experts from
around the world. And nobody had ever considered before how the best
restaurants on the planet ranked against one another. By doing so, the
awards gave these restaurants a push to become even better when they
might have been content to rest on their laurels.
The awards ceremony itself was held at London’s Guildhall, so regal
and imposing it might as well have been a palace. As Daniel and I sat down,
more than a little intimidated, we foolishly tried to gauge where we were
going to land on the list based on where we were sitting relative to chefs
like Heston Blumenthal of England’s Fat Duck, or Thomas Keller of Per Se,
both of whom had been in the top ten the year before.
I guessed forty. Daniel, always more optimistic, guessed number thirtyfive.
The lights went down, the music played. The emcee for the night was a
handsome, debonair Brit. And while I’m sure there were all the usual
formalities and introductions and “thank you for comings” before the bomb
dropped, in my memory there was little preamble before the man said, “To
kick it off, coming in at number fifty, a new entry from New York City:
Eleven Madison Park!”
That knocked the wind right out of us. We slumped over and stared at
our feet.
Unfortunately, what we couldn’t have possibly known (because it was
our first year at this event, and because we were the very first restaurant
called) is that when they call your name, they’re also projecting your image
onto a gigantic screen at the front of the auditorium, so that everyone can
see you celebrating your win.
Except we weren’t celebrating. We were at the very bottom of the list!
Mortified to see our dejected faces on the thirty-foot-tall screen, I elbowed
Daniel, and the two of us mustered a smile and a wave, but it was too little,
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB