|
HOME PAGE |
LUXURY NOW |
WINDOW SHOPPING |
BRAND GALLERY |
CITY GUIDE |
LUXURY TRAVELER |
ARTS PORTFOLIO |
The kitchen has moved to the center of the dining stage as guests vie for front row seats to the culinary action.
Forget that cozy table in the corner with a contemplative view. The hottest seats in the house are where it sizzles, steams, stews and snaps.
Sustenance has surfaced as one of the leading cultural and social obsessions of the 21st century. Chefs have become pop icons, subject to paparazzi flashes, red carpet entrances and person-of-the-year awards, while amateur cooks polish up their skills and culinary vocabulary in an effort to emulate their favorite stars.
As food reaches the center of the social stage, the kitchen has become the lead protagonist in the dining out experience. For the culinary-curious, part of the thrill of dining out is watching the meal come together: witnessing the stages of creativity, from the snap of the pan to the sprinkling of seasonings.
Joining together to satisfy customers' craving for mouth-watering entertainment, the worlds of gastronomy and design are updating the restaurant blueprint.
Initially intended for VIPs avoiding the public eye or friends making social calls, chef's tables (tables located within the kitchen or close by) are being rethought, redesigned and remarketed. At Daniel, chef Daniel Boulud's eponymous New York restaurant, the former chef's table has been transformed into a glass-enclosed suspended cube. Dubbed "The Skybox," it is now one of the most coveted coves in the city, a private inner sanctum perched above one of New York's most legendary French kitchens, replete with the authentic sound effects of clashing dishes and chefs sparring.
If you've got your own special soundtrack in mind for an evening of cooking spectatorship, Park Avenue Autumn (Winter, Spring and Summer—the name, décor and menu change seasonally) is the place for you. Designed by AvroKO, the award-winning design collective responsible for some of the most trendsetting restaurants in New York, the Park Avenue chef's table is a "cozy soundproof living room within the kitchen," explains AvroKO's Adam Farmerie, where guests can take turns cuing up their iPods while watching the chefs prepare dinner through a large bay window.
The Big Apple isn't the only city bitten by the chef's table craze, however. At Maze in London, an elegant chef's table has been nestled into to the kitchen, allowing an intimate group of 6 guests to get a first-hand experience of Jason Atherton's cuisine. Also in London at the Dorchester is the original Krug room, dedicated to the art of sipping the peerless quaff. Behind the opaque glass wall, priveleged diners watch head chef Henry Brosi create his gastronic dishes behind the glass wall. The champagne house's concept has since sprung forth in Tokyo, Hong Kong and the latest in Lausanne. In Paris, chef Jean-François Rouquette of the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme guides diners at his table through a gustatory promenade, creating a meal that inspires the eyes as well as the palate.
"Today our clients are more and more interested in cooking because they're part of a generation that didn't learn how to cook at home, and they no longer have their grandmothers around to pass that information along," explains Cédric Béchade, whose immaculate, state-of-the-art kitchen is the centerpiece of Auberge Basque, the 30-year-old chef's exceptional restaurant and inn in France's Basque region. Béchade, who worked at Alain Ducasse's Plaza Athénée for a decade, sees the trend in kitchen transparency as beneficial to both chef and diner. "One of the reasons I decided to open an auberge," says Béchade, "was because I wanted to be in greater contact with my clientele. I wanted to know who I was cooking for. The transparency also allows me to show my guests a bit of what it's like to be in the kitchen, to show them that our profession is not as complex as one thinks."
By leading guests into the kitchen, or conversely - and more democratically, perhaps - extending the kitchen into the dining room, the divide between chef and diners dissolves, bringing the two complementary halves together in an enriching creative exchange. But with all trends, there is always a counter-current, one that celebrated designer Patrick Jouin is quick to seize. "Since everyone is focusing on showing off what the chef is doing in the kitchen, we are focusing on the opposite," explains Jouin of his latest design for the restaurant at the Dorchester in London, Alain Ducasse's most recent tour de force. Defying all expectations, Jouin has placed the chef's table nowhere near the kitchen, but inside a crystal chandelier that sits in the center of the dining room. "It's a play on light and spectacle, seeing without being seen." So who's hiding now?
You May Also Like
But Where Is Ze Best Chef Hiding?
The Art of Fine Dining
Dessert Delirium