When a restaurant and chef both lay claim to a signature dish, who reserves the right to continue serving it?
During his time at Thomas Keller’s famed three-Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry, a young Grant Achatz created a cantaloupe and caviar gelee dish for its tasting menu.
As Achatz recounts on an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table docuseries, Keller asked him: “If this dish goes on the menu, it becomes a French Laundry dish. Are you okay with that?”
The bright-eyed apprentice said yes.
Today, Achatz is a celebrated chef behind his very own temple of gastronomy, Alinea. This time around, it is his turn to sound the same warning to one of his sous chefs.
The man in question happily agrees to let the restaurant claim ownership of the dish, and the said creation – an edible helium balloon – is now one of the restaurant’s signatures. It no doubt helped the restaurant win its coveted trio of Michelin stars.
As far as accolades go, the most prestigious award in the culinary industry is awarded to restaurants, rather than chefs. The Michelin Guide assesses a restaurant in five areas: quality of the products, mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, personality of the chef in his cuisine, value for money, and consistency of the restaurant between visits.
When conferring stars on deserving restaurants, the Michelin Guide states that the “decoration, service and comfort levels have no bearing on the award.” With the cuisine, rather than the service or ambience, at the centre of the judging criteria, it begs the question of why chefs – the masterminds behind the products on the plate – are not awarded stars to their name.
Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guides, offers this insight: “The cooking is the result of a team effort – the chef is the boss in the kitchen, but usually he or she oversees a number of people. Hence, the stars are awarded to restaurants rather than chefs.”
These sentiments are echoed by Paul Longworth, chef-partner of one-Michelin-starred Rhubarb Le Restaurant: “A good restaurant cannot operate without collective effort from the entire team, so the star belongs to all of them.” Keeping in mind that a chef’s individuality is one of the criteria sought by the Michelin Guide, Ellis adds: “A change of chef is always taken into consideration for reinspections.
SIGNATURE DISHES AS AN EXTENSION OF THE CHEF
If the authorship of a dish belongs to the culinary team of the restaurant, why do we see head chefs bringing their signature dishes with them when they move to another establishment?
Take, for example, French chef Julien Royer, the former chef de cuisine of Jaan, who carried his famed smoked organic egg dish to Odette, where he presides as chef and co-owner. Notably, Jaan has continued to serve the dish – albeit presented differently – under the stewardship of current chef de cuisine Kirk Westaway, who believes that the dish definitely belongs to the chef. “If a chef wishes to take it to new locations, I believe the dish brings with it a level of comfort for the chef and the customers testing the new restaurant.” Royer declined to comment on the issue.
Local chef Sebastian Ng, formerly of Restaurant Ember, has also brought over signatures such as his Chilean sea bass with bacon ragout, to his new restaurant, Venue by Sebastian. However, in Ng’s case, his former restaurant is now shuttered.
“I would have had reservations in bringing over the old signature dishes if Restaurant Ember was still in operation,” says Ng, despite feeling a sense of ownership over the dishes in question as the menu at Restaurant Ember formed part of his identity.
He adds: “But when I was working on the menu for Venue, Restaurant Ember had already gone through a revamp and an overhaul of its menu.”
CULTURE OF SHARING
Within their kitchens, chefs are constantly talking to their team as they research and develop new dishes, thus making it much trickier to ascribe one individual as its architect. It is thus easier – and more accurate – to have the restaurant’s name on the dish.
