Front to back
Overhearing Christoph Thuilot, restaurant manager of Aubergine, jesting about playing superchef for the day, Caterer decided to put a couple of front of house managers with culinary aspirations to a heat-of-the-stove test. Sudi Pigott watched the fun.
Christoph Thuilot was convinced that he wanted to be a chef when he started at catering college in Paris in 1990 but, after three months working almost entirely in a hotel kitchen, his resolve faltered. He admits: "I'd harboured the illusion that being a chef was much easier than the day-to-day reality. Irrespective of my passion for fine food, I'd underestimated the breadth of skill and level of consistency required in the kitchen, and realised that I wouldn't go far as a chef."
Still, 11 years later, the passage of time had mellowed his memory of the rigours, and Thuilot, who is now restaurant manager at London's Aubergine, was prepared to give it another go. Ambitiously, he chose a variation of a dish on head chef/proprietor William Drabble's current dinner menu - turbot poached in cider with apple, chives and a celeriac tagliatelle. To his consternation, he noted that the rest of the kitchen brigade, normally pretty punctilious about taking a post-lunch service break, were all conspicuously busy in the kitchen that day, waiting for the spectacle.
"I'd forgotten how intense the heat gets," commented Thuilot, wiping the sweat from his brows within seconds of beginning to cook off the fish. He welcomed Drabble's advice to keep the fish covered with the butter paper to keep the moisture in. "I'm out of touch with such technical know-how," he confessed, sheepishly, as Drabble bellowed at him to take the pan off the heat. "It's easy to forget that dishes cook far more quickly on a commercial range. I can see how much Drabble uses his intuition born of long experience," he said, reaching for a cloth to protect his hand while removing the pan from the heat - to jibes of "wimp" from the bemused brigade.
Drabble was impressed by both the taste and the presentation of the finished dish, but was forthright about Thuilot's chances in the kitchen. "He needs to be much more precise and far quicker," he says. "He was good at listening to and following instructions, but he simply wouldn't hack the pace. Cooking one order of turbot is all very well, but he wouldn't be able to cope with lots of different orders simultaneously. Customers come to Aubergine wanting to put the menu through its strides, and it's usual for every diner in a group to order differently. I'd be wanting to kill him during service - he should definitely stay front of house."
Thuilot concurs. "I was immediately reminded just how tough it is in a professional kitchen," he says. "The working conditions are very hard and I just couldn't tolerate the heat, nor the unrelenting early starts. I can appreciate you need to be totally dedicated."
Conversely, Drabble was adamant that he would be hopeless in Thuilot's domain, front of house. "If a customer winds you up, you have to be diplomatic," he notes, "but I couldn't be polite all the time. It's just not in my temperament."
Both are equally convinced, however, that it is their shared aim to work continually to improve on Aubergine's already high standards that makes them such a strong double-act. Says Thuilot: "We're both focused on what we are doing. The detail is important, consistency of quality is paramount, and we're never complacent. We respect one another's opinions even when we don't agree, and our efficacy is reflected in rare loyalty both back and front of house."
Simply not suited
A summer holiday job washing up in a restaurant kitchen convinced Graham Williams, restaurant manager of Bibendum since 1987 and managing director since 1996, that he was "simply not temperamentally suited to working in a professional kitchen, but the experience didn't diminish my love of cooking nor my desire to work in restaurants, so I started waiting".
He explains: "I prefer to stand back and assess how to deal with a situation calmly, remaining fully in control, rather than firefight. Although certain immature chefs still think all waiting staff are idiots, in general, service is taken more seriously now, and at Bibendum we certainly put considerable emphasis on developing our front of house team. Head chef Matthew Harris briefs us on the menu every day, and I organise frequent staff tasting competitions to broaden the palates and knowledge of my staff."
Williams confesses that, when it is extremely stressful front of house, he sometimes fantasises about being a commis behind the scenes, simply chopping vegetables.
In the kitchen, Williams radiated serenity and confidence. He prepared a simple leek vinaigrette finished with grated egg. Harris stifled a giggle at the hearty portion - "You'd send our cost control out the window," he said - but otherwise approved of the starter's appetising look and fresh taste, noting only that the leeks were slightly undercooked. Williams's adeptly prepared roast lamb stuffed with anchovy, garlic and rosemary - a Bibendum classic - was pronounced "perfectly cooked, with a good pinkness in the middle and excellent gravy".
Williams says: "I was very conscious of the noise level, which would quickly drive me mad. I could hear someone chopping lamb bones with a cleaver while I was cooking, whereas I like to cook with the radio on."
He adds: "Even though I'm always nagging the brigade to wear their hats, I found my toque annoying, uncomfortable and restrictive. I might be more sympathetic now. It confirmed that the life of a chef is hardly glamorous. It is terrifically hot, highly pressurised, and requires immense technical and creative expertise - I get just as much buzz out of a busy service front of house."
Harris confirmed that while Williams might be good at defusing stressful situations in the kitchen, he would need to get up to speed, and diplomatically concluded that Williams is "simply too polite for the kitchen and would miss the chance to chat".
However, Williams gamely reckons Harris could make a reasonable waiter. "He's methodical and tidy," he says, "but quite shy and wouldn't necessarily come across as being fully in control."
Both Harris and Williams have firmly defined roles, but consider that they know each other well enough, after working together for seven years, to stray on to each other's territory. Explains Williams: "I occasionally express doubts about the flavour combination of a dish on the menu and, after much discussion, Harris will usually tweak it. Similarly, Harris might raise concerns about how a new front of house person is settling in."
He concludes: "Ultimately, we share the same goal - creating a good atmosphere where customers enjoy fantastic food and service."
Aubergine
11 Park Walk, London SW10
Tel: 020 7352 3449
Seats: 45-55
Covers: 45-55 at dinner
Average à la carte spend: £80 per head
Staff: seven in kitchen, nine front of house
Bibendum
Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3
Tel: 020 7581 5817
Seats: 74
Covers: 100-110 at dinner
Average à la carte spend: £65-£70 per head
Staff: eight in kitchen, nine front of house
Change places?
Alloro
19-21 Dover Street, London W1
Tel: 020 7495 4768
Seats: 54
Average spend at dinner: £45
Staff: 10 in the kitchen, 10 front of house
Umberto Scomparin, general manager, and Marzio Zacctti, head chef, Alloro
"You need real passion and total dedication to survive as a chef," Scomparin says. "I love food and like to cook, but I couldn't take the hours and I certainly wouldn't want to work either in the kitchen or front of house in the shadow of a celebrity chef."
Although he and Marzio Zacctti have only recently taken over at London's Alloro, they have worked together over the past 10 years and "know each other's boundaries and treat each other's skills with respect", Scomparin says.
"I have developed a deep understanding of Zacctti's culinary style and can explain his way of cooking to the customers," he adds. "We believe in creating a genuine, friendly, comfortable atmosphere, where we are both flexible enough to change a dish or wine if the customer is unhappy.
"If I suggest to Zacctti that he might introduce a dish with a particular ingredient customers are asking for, he is happy to do so."
Lindsay House
21 Romilly Street, London W1
Tel: 020 7439 0450
Seats: 48
Average spend at dinner: £55
Staff: eight in kitchen, eight front of house
Thierry Talibon, restaurant manager, and Richard Corrigan, head chef/proprietor, Lindsay House
"I don't have the balls or the stamina to work under such pressure - I'm too old," laughs Talibon, at the idea of working in a kitchen. "I consider I have the knowledge and passion for food to be a head chef, but recognise that creating new dishes is hard."
He adds: "Corrigan and I have worked together for seven years now and enjoy a great exchange of ideas. It is important to gain the respect of the chef so that he listens to customer feedback, and occasionally I even suggest tweaking the presentation of dishes. In my role, it is important to be organised and anticipate tricky situations. Richard is wonderfully gregarious but I don't think he has the right kind of patience to work front of house."
Le Petit Blanc
Queens Hotel Promenade, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Tel: 01242 266800
Seats: 160 (including 80 private dining)
Average spend at dinner: £30 (including wine)
Staff: 15 in kitchen, 45 front of house
Belinda Martin, restaurant manager, and Susan Bell, acting head chef, Le Petit Blanc, Cheltenham
"I found the mentality of the kitchens in the UK very different to New Zealand, where I was a head chef for six years," Martin says. "Here, it seems far more rigidly hierarchical and macho.
"I decided I wanted to be where the customers would appreciate what you were doing for them, rather than removed from any interaction with the diners. My experience of managing a team, planning and controlling the day-to-day running of the kitchen, transfers well to my present front of house role, and having a detailed understanding of how the food is prepared is invaluable - and particularly helpful in advising on wines.
"The current female chef, Susan Bell, is open-minded and flexible enough to listen to my occasional suggestions of how to modify a dish, and the exchange of ideas works both ways."
