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Making dining complicated
Here is Grant Achatz, now blogging:
Each guest at a table gets a card with four rows of six words. The rows are defined by characteristics. In the example below, from left to right: Row one is flavor, two is texture, three is emotionally driven, and four is temperature. As a group, the diners have to select one word from each category or row. Once the group has made a decision, they turn in their choices to the waiter. The waiter hands the choices to the kitchen, where we create a dish based on the guests' four choices. Soon after, the result of their choice--their exercise in limited free will--is served. Or will be.
As Arnold Kling has noted, I am interested in the issue of the efficient delegation of choice. So very often the theatrical presentation of "the feeling of being in control" conflicts with the efficient delegation of choice. If I ran a restaurant I would be embarassed by this practice, not proud of it.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 17, 2009 at 10:26 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink
Comments
I'm a huge fan of Achatz, but had no idea that he had started a blog. Thanks!
Posted by: Andrew C at Apr 17, 2009 10:31:18 AM
You will the be pleased to know that I, not even an economist, usually provide the waiter with the minimum parameters for my guests and then let him/her chose the menu.
Consider also that this is more common in Chinese restaurants.
Posted by: Patrick at Apr 17, 2009 10:34:56 AM
Interesting. This seems like an ideal way to shift the blame on the table if dinner is less than remarkable. And in turn the table can internally blame those most vocal about their preferences in "flavor/texture/..."
Posted by: joanne mcneil at Apr 17, 2009 10:35:20 AM
I'd assume at Alinea, like most restaurants, they don't then improvise the dishes. They have a set dish prepped and ready to go in response to the diner's choice. Is this 4 x 6 card any different, really, than a menu listing each of these choices?
This seems a bit too much Emperor's new clothes, or at the least needlessly complicating something only for the sake of complication.
Posted by: Brian O at Apr 17, 2009 11:08:51 AM
It's worth noting that this is done for one course of a 25(ish) course meal. So the impact of the diner's choice on the overall experience is relatively small.
If you're in Chicago, and you have the means, I can't recommend his restaurant enough. Most fun meal of my life without question.
Posted by: harryh at Apr 17, 2009 11:21:43 AM
You'd be wrong to make that assumption about Alinea, which is by far the most interesting restaurant in the US right now. Because this is such a minor component of a long meal, I think it's a fun way for the chefs to be creative. The rest of their dishes are exceptionally complex, precise, and regimented.
And you don't get the menu until after the meal, at least when I was there; you just get the courses brought out until the meal is over (which in our case took over 5 hours).
Posted by: 99paa at Apr 17, 2009 12:19:36 PM
If most people, given choice, inefficiently restrict their options to the familiar, then downweighting consumer preference in favor of randomness and objective quality (which is what this is) dominates letting the customer choose their meal.
The theatrical element lets the consumer feel more in control than under more direct forms of delegation, which may be necessary to maximize the restaurant's popularity.
What you see as inefficiency may just be a psychologically-driven technique to maximize efficiency.
Posted by: mk at Apr 17, 2009 12:36:47 PM
I run a wine shop in an cute, 30yr old creative yuppie neighborhood in Brooklyn, and I use a flowchart I've memorized that breaks down what they want by:
Red or White?
If red: Thick or Juicy... then lush/fruit or funky/earthy... $15 and under or $25 and under?
Everyone ends up with the same three wines, but it makes them feel like they've successfully chosen from amongst a selection of over 300 bottles.
Posted by: Cole at Apr 17, 2009 1:23:28 PM
http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/2009/04/the_problem_of_free_will_comes.html
Posted by: Marcin Tustin at Apr 18, 2009 5:36:44 PM
I'd assume at Alinea, like most restaurants, they don't then improvise the dishes. They have a set dish prepped and ready to go in response to the diner's choice. Is this 4 x 6 card any different, really, than a menu listing each of these choices?
Posted by: AST Laptop Battery at May 18, 2009 10:51:17 AM
