Top tables
When Prime Minister Tony Blair celebrated his birthday last year by eating in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, London, the idea of the chef's table hit the headlines. There is now no doubt of the success of the chef's tables at Claridge's and the Connaught - both are booked for months in advance. And the concept, though not new, is fast becoming a trend in the UK, offering diners an exclusive insight on life in the kitchen - and encouraging them to spend more, too.
Most chef's tables operate on a set-price basis, with individual menus written daily according to available produce and requests from customers. The cost of a six-course dinner at the six-seat chef's table in Alain Ducasse's kitchens at the Essex house in New York is an incredible $500 per head, plus 8.25% sales tax and a 22% gratuity.
Gordon Ramsay's customers pay a set figure of £700 for booking the chef's table at Claridge's, which can accommodate as many as six customers. Guests are assigned a personal host for the evening, who guides them through the menu, explains the dishes and introduces the chefs. At Claridge's, the evening is as much theatre as it is a dining experience. Ramsay usually makes a point of greeting his guests, and during the course of the evening they are treated to a tour of the kitchen and are given a personal demonstration of the cooking of one of their courses.
At the nearby Connaught, where Ramsay has installed Angela Hartnett to run the hotel's food and beverage operation, the chef's table doesn't have a direct view of the kitchen, but captures the atmosphere via plasma TV screen and microphones. It costs £750 for dinner for as many as 10 covers.
Once wines and other drinks are added to the bill, the average spend per day for each chef's table, taking both lunch and dinner into account, is often £3,000, Ramsay says. One table turning over £21,000 per week is certainly not bad business. "I never set up the chef's tables with the intention of creating a huge revenue stream, but there is no doubt that that is what they have become," he adds. The tables are so successful that bookings for December are not being accepted until July, and an extra service has been introduced at breakfast.
Chef's tables have been around for a while, of course. Eugene Kauffler, chef des cuisines at the Dorchester in London for 28 years, was one of the first to use the concept when he personally entertained guests at a table in the corner of his kitchen. He used it as a place suppliers could show their produce, for tasting lunches or as a thank-you to a valued customer. Whatever the reason, meals were only ever served at the chef's table at the invitation of the chef.
When Anton Mosimann took over at the Dorchester, he continued to run the chef's table in much the same way. "It was a great PR exercise and quite unusual at the time," he says. "I invited people who loved food and it created a lot of excitement." Richard Nixon, Shirley Bassey, Danny Kaye and Jack Nicholson were just some of the famous faces who graced Mosimann's table.
When Mosimann left the Dorchester in 1988, he set up a chef's table in his private members' club, Mosimann's, in Belgravia, but was keen to make it available to a wider audience. "In fact, it was the very first part of the business that I set up," he says. "I opened the chef's dining room, with a one-way mirror looking on to the kitchen so customers could see the action, without being dominated by the noise. Right from the beginning, it has been booked up five times a week."
Mosimann's dining room, now known as the Davidoff Room, seats six people. Food can be ordered either from the à la carte or on a fixed-price basis, and average spend is £90-£100 per head, including wine.
Multi-million-pound, five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants are not the only venues with chef's tables, however. One has been operating in the Cavendish hotel in Baslow, Derbyshire, since 1986. For £125.50, a couple can enjoy a four-course meal at the table-for-two in the kitchen. Drinks are extra.
Eric Marsh, who runs the hotel on behalf of the owner, the Chatsworth Estate, says the chef's table came about by default. "We extended the kitchen and had a vacant space in the corner, so we decided to put in a table and two chairs," he says. "As someone who likes to find out what goes on behind the scenes, I thought it was a great idea, but the chef at the time, Nick Buckingham, wasn't keen. He thought the staff wouldn't like being watched. But it quickly became a success and has proved to be great for PR over the years."
Current head chef Chris Allison says the chef's table is great for breaking down barriers. "Customers are often surprised at how cool, slick and organised we are," he says. "And for the chefs, having to prepare food in front of customers helps boost their confidence."
The chef's table, which is better established in the USA and Continental Europe (see below), has also made an appearance in the Far East. The 300-bedroom Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong has no fewer than three. Two - one in the kitchen of the French restaurant Gaddi's (seating four) and the other in the kitchen of Spring Moon (seating six), the hotel's Cantonese restaurant - are open to the public on a regular basis. Their success, both with local residents and with overseas visitors, has led to the recent setting-up of a grand chef's table for up to 10 customers, marketed as Hong Kong's most exclusive table.
Such exclusivity is expected to be the hallmark of the chef's dining room reopening, in conjunction with Krug Champagne, at London's Dorchester hotel on 19 May. Executive chef Henry Brosi will personally cook for guests, and the dining room will be sold on a limited availability basis, probably twice a week. Situated in the heart of the kitchen, behind a glass wall, the venue will feature a bespoke glass table, taupe leather-panelled walls and a contemporary chandelier.
For Ramsay, having customers in his kitchen has given him the opportunity to show the public the pressures that chefs work under, and to quell the image that kitchens are places of abuse. "It's also helping to develop chefs' social skills," Ramsay says, "something that's not normally considered in their training."
Further chef's tables are to open within his expanding London empire under the direction of Marcus Wareing - one at the Savoy Grill, currently under refurbishment, and one at Pétrus, which will relocate to the Berkeley hotel in July (Caterer, 17 April).
A Menu from the chef's table at Claridge's
Champagne reception with canapés
Vichyssoise with oscietra caviar
Terrine of foie gras and confit duck with toasted pain Poilâne and a Barolo reduction sauce
Red mullet with tomatoes, basil and sauce vierge
Risotto of white Alba truffle chat
Ravioli of lobster and langoustine with olive tapenade and a piquant lobster glaze
Saddle of lamb stuffed with chicken and herb mousse served with a panache of seasonal vegetables, confit potatoes with pancetta and a rosemary lamb jus
Selection of French and English cheeses
Compote of blueberry and blackberry with basil cream
Passion fruit tart with caramelised bananas and chocolate sauce, or assiette of orange with blood-orange sorbet
Coffee, teas and infusions served with petits fours
The world of Chef's Tables
In general, the concept of the chef's table has been slow to take off in the UK, being better established in the USA and Continental Europe.
One of the first chef's tables to open to the public was in Belgium, at Pierre Wynants's three-Michelin-starred Brussels restaurant, Comme Chez Soi. The table, originally installed in the kitchen to feed the restaurant's staff, became a commercial venture in 1984. "At first, friends came there to eat, and then customers asked if they could book it, too," says Wynants, who runs the kitchen with his son-in-law, Lionel Rigolet.
"At the time," he adds, "the kitchen was regarded as being no place for customers, but I like having customers in my kitchen and enjoy working in front of them. There shouldn't be a separation between chefs and customers. Sometimes, people ask about the noise in the kitchen, but to be honest the customers make just as much noise."
Wynants calls the table his table d'hôte, or host's table. Larger than most, it can seat as many as 32 covers, but more usually accommodates about 20.
A unique feature of the table at Comme Chez Soi is the decor - which includes signatures on the surrounding wall of the famous people who have eaten in the kitchen. "It started when a group of some of Europe's top chefs, including Paul Bocuse, Fredy Girardet and Roger Vergé, came to eat at the table," Wynants says. "Bocuse asked if he could leave his signature, and since then so has everyone else, including members of the Rolling Stones and Woody Allen."
The USA's Charlie Trotter, Spain's Ferran Adrià and France's Alain Ducasse have all cottoned on to the revenue you can earn by offering customers a behind-the-scenes dining experience. And in New York, Daniel Boulud runs a chef's table at his restaurant, Daniel, along similar lines. Called the Sky Box at Daniel, the four-person, glass-enclosed table overhangs the 1,800sq ft kitchen. It's used by invited friends and colleagues, and gets much publicity as a prize in charity auctions.
Trotter set up his kitchen table in 1987, soon after opening his 90-seat restaurant. He initially put a table in the kitchen as somewhere his chef friends could eat after service, but it has since developed to become the restaurant's most-requested table and is booked four months in advance. Trotter now operates two sittings for dinner, at 6pm and 9pm.
While foodies generally dominate bookings for the table, chief executive officers and presidents of multi-billion-dollar companies are also regular guests. "They are interested to see how the chefs communicate with one another and what kind of strategies they employ to keep the service running smoothly," says Trotter's director of marketing, Mark Signorio. "From our point of view, too, there is an opportunity for the chefs to learn something. They get to serve at the table, and by doing so gain a better understanding of customers and what they want to eat."
Trotter serves a different set menu at the table each evening - about 15 courses. His intention is to achieve a total balance of flavour and portion sizes throughout the meal. To ensure customers don't leave feeling overladen, Trotter sauces his dishes with vegetable juice-based vinaigrettes, light emulsified stocks and broths, and herb-infused meat and fish essences.
One of the most impressive tables currently operating is Ducasse's in New York. Guests sit round a 200-year-old, seven-and-a-half feet long oak table, surrounded by an antique collection of mustard pots, vintage wine carafes and Ducasse's personal library of cookery books.
