From free labor at fine dining establishments to disrespecting the wait staff

The planned closure of one of the most coveted restaurants on the planet took the culinary world by storm. Despite being a five-time recipient of the “world’s best restaurant” title, Noma will cease its regular service by the end of 2024. That is until the New Nordic kitchen could reopen as Noma 3.0. The three Michelin-starred establishment, according to co-founder René Redzepi, will be converted into a “food lab.”

The focus of people and the media, however, is on René’s statement, the reason behind the rebranding, which is Noma’s “unsustainable” model. “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work,” he told Julia Moskin of the New York Times.

Little do diners know that behind beautiful dishes are toxic working conditions. Talk of the foodie town today is the service industry’s reliance on cheap labor and unpaid interns.

Food critic Pete Wells weighs in on the issue, saying, “Most of the overkill restaurants could not last a week without free labor.” London-based journalist Imogen West-Knights, on the other hand, wrote in the Financial Times that “two stories are being told. The first is in the dining room, a perfectly choreographed show of luxury and elegance, and the second, the one diners are never supposed to see is the story of what happens on the other side of the kitchen wall.”

As with pop culture, there is a golden age for a certain art form. In the ’50s it was paintings. The ’70s was all about cinema. In the 20th century, particularly from 2000 to 2010, “food took a quantum leap in quality and creativity,” according to Bryan Walsh in an article for Vox.

If there is one key takeaway from Mark Mylod’s dark comedy The Menu, it’s to never mess with the people who serve you.

The Philippines, slow on the uptake with trends, developed an interest in fine dining a few years later than the rest of the world. This meant that the sector is still booming and holds a lot of potential with the steady increase in the number of tasting menus and private dining businesses in the country. Will its market continue to flourish in the not-so-distant future? If the pandemic situation gets better, chefs persist to push the boundaries of their craft, and businessmen continue to invest in food, then more or less it will. This is, of course, wishful thinking.

Fine dining in the Philippines has its own challenges. Etiquette tops the list. Just recently, a friend and prominent restaurateur posted on her social media account about an encounter with an out of line customer. During a Sunday lunch service by chef X, a male Karen—which for the sake of this piece we shall call “Ken”—disses one of the FOH (front of house). The confrontation went:

Ken: I’m following up our food kasi gutom na nga kami (we’re starving). Mahirap ba ipasok yan sa kokote mo ha (Is that hard to understand)? Simple lang naman ’di ba? T**gina ilabas n’yo na kasi yung pagkain namin (bring out our food)!”

Chef X: Hi sir, I’ll be bringing out your food in a bit. Do we have a problem po?

Ken: Yes we do! We’re f**king hungry!”

Chef X: Of course you are, and so are the rest of the tables that were ahead of you. With all due respect sir, your ticket says that you only entered our front door and ordered 18 minutes ago and are also demanding that your six main courses be served all together. That includes a risotto. We are only cooks, not god.

Ken: Is 19 minutes of cooking supposed to be normal here?

Chef X: Yes it is. Unless you’d like me to serve your chicken medium rare.

Ken walked away while chef X was explaining.

This was not an isolated case. I asked chef D, another friend with a famous restaurant, about his worst service in the past. He narrates a couple of scenarios similar to chef X’s.

While we pay premium for quality food, it is not an excuse to treat restaurant staff badly. This is a friendly reminder that a tasting menu is prepared painstakingly, and that pacing is part of the experience.

There is a lesson to be learned from one of Heart Evangelista’s interviews that was recently rehashed, now making its rounds on TikTok. In the clip, the artist explains, “I would never snub or be bratty with anyone, especially if s/he is a security guard or a server. In fact, if I have a friend who is not nice to a waiter or would not say a simple thank you, I don’t appreciate them.”

Heart’s video came to light following a viral footage of celebrity Alex Gonzaga smearing cake all over a waiter’s head.

If there’s one key takeaway from Mark Mylod’s dark comedy The Menu, it’s to never mess with the people who serve you.