Haute cuisine restaurants

Fine dining refers to the cuisine and service provided in restaurants where food, drink, and service are expensive and generally leisurely. Turnover per table can be less than a year at night. Many of the clients are there for a special occasion, such as a wedding or birthday. Many clients bring business guests and write off the cost of the meal as a business expense. Guests are often invited because they can influence business and other decisions favorable to the host. Good food is generally found in enclaves of wealth and where business is conducted, cities like New York, San Francisco and Palm Beach.

Las Vegas has several fine-dining restaurants that cater to tourists and high-stakes gamblers. The restaurants are small, with less than 100 seats and owned by owner partners. The economics of fine dining differ from that of the average restaurant. Food prices, especially wine, are high. The average check costs $60 or more. Rents can be quite high. Large public relations budgets are common. Because of the expertise and time required for many dishes, and because highly-trained chefs are well paid, labor costs can be high. Much of the profit comes from wine sales. Style and panache in the service are part of the dining experience.

Tables, china, glassware, silverware, and linens are often expensive, and arrangements can be costly, often including interesting paintings and architectural features. Menus often feature expensive, imported items such as foie gras, caviar, and truffles. Only the most tender vegetables are served. The colorful ornament is part of the presentation. Delicious and interesting flavors are incorporated into the food, and the entire dining event is calculated to excite the visual, auditory, and psychological experience of the guests. Expensive wines are always available, offered on an extensive wine list. Dining fashions change, and high-end restaurant operators need to keep up with the changes.

Heavy sauces have given way to light ones, large portions to small ones. The restaurant must be kept in public view without appearing so. Given a choice, the restaurant operator selects only those guests who are likely to be received by the other guests. Doing this helps create an air of exclusivity; One way to do this is to park the most expensive cars near the entrance for all to see (Rolls-Royce does this well). It also helps to have celebrities in prominent places at the table. Very expensive restaurants turn away many wealthy guests and make others uncomfortable when they feel they don’t fit in or don’t like the implied snobbery of guests or staff.

Luxury hotels such as the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton chains can be counted on to have restaurants staffed by a well-paid chef who understands French, Asian and American food, who likely attended an American culinary school or trained in a prestigious restaurant. and who has mastered French cuisine. Prospective restaurant operators should dine at some of these restaurants, however expensive, to learn the current meaning of elegance in decor, table setting, service, and food.

(To avoid paying the higher prices, go for lunch and don’t order wine.) Better yet, anyone planning a restaurant career should take a job at a fancy restaurant, at least for a while, to get a taste of high quality.

food service, even if you have no desire to emulate what you see.