Hell's Kitchen has it all, including a lesson or two
There's a notice outside a roadside restaurant on the edge of Alligator Alley in Florida. "Thirty-two ounce steaks" it proclaims. This sounds preposterous, but it's obviously not enough to satisfy some customers because, half-a-mile down the strip, there's another notice declaring: "Seventy-two ounce steaks. Chips for free. Finish the steak, keep the plate."
To many, this would seem typical of the food and ethos of eating in North America. The casual observer is likely to say food in the USA is cheap and abundant, but lacks finesse or subtly, and is often on the wrong side of healthy - a case of quantity, not quality.
This may be correct for the vast hinterland of the continent, but it's not true of everywhere. This week, a prominent Sunday newspaper in London issued free copies of Zagat's restaurant guide, drawing attention to the culinary delights of New York. And, as the first of a series of articles by Michael Raffael suggests in Caterer, the Big Apple is on a roll.
This isn't surprising. New York has enjoyed a long history of immigration and different ethnic influences. European, particularly Italian, as well as Asian and Latin American, have played their part in forging some exciting menus.
So, New York is booming. Does that mean that London has been toppled from pole position on the grid of culinary excellence? No, probably not. Not yet.
The problem with New York is that it remains one of a kind. What happens on the east coast might transfer to other international hubs such as Chicago and San Francisco but, for the most part, its ideas become diluted long before they reach the Bad Lands of the Mid West.
Britain, being a smaller, more accessible country, absorbs the ideas of London much more readily. There might be signs in the provinces that say "Seventy-two ounce steak and kidney pie" but top-quality food can be found in high-class restaurants everywhere, from Bristol to Birmingham, Nottingham to Newcastle. London is more influential in its sphere than New York.
Before we get too smug, however, New York has a few tricks to teach us. Dining out is recognised as an important industry (the average New Yorker eats out 7.1 times a week) and it's not uncommon for head waiters at top restaurants to be earning $100,000 (£62,348) a year. Tips for waiting staff are usually based on twice the cost of state purchase tax - about 20% of the food bill. And customers nearly always tip.
It's said that what happens in the USA is a prelude to what happens in the UK 20 years later. If this is the case, then couldn't we - customers and operators - start recognising the importance of the game in the way New Yorkers do? The food may be finer in London, but we should learn a lesson or two before the centre of gravity begins to shift.
Forbes Mutch
Editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper
