Book Review: Unreasonable hospitality
Simply put, this book changed my life. In fact, I can pretty honestly state that I don’t take the leap with Parliament Roasting if it weren’t for Will Guidara and his mantra about hospitality. Although you’ll probably find this book in the Business section at your local Indigo. Truly it belongs beside other chef-type memoirs like Kitchen Confidential and Eat a Peach. It tells the true story of restaurateur Will Guidara’s climb from running front of house at various upscale New York restaurants to turning Eleven Madison Park into the best restaurant in the world. Guidara does a great job in making this book feel less like a business textbook and more like a revealing of what it’s like to work front and back of house in some of the greatest New York institutions.
From creating the menu program at the Museum of Modern Art, to having acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud cook him breakfast after a crazy night of partying, there are enough amazing culinary tales to keep you invested all the while building what the true centre of this book is all about. Will’s ethos is simple, if you can create an amazing experience for your diners that matches the amazing food coming from the dining room, you can become the best restaurant in the world. With a razor-sharp focus on hospitality designed to create memories, Guidara wants to give people more than they expect.
“If hospitality is about making people feel seen, the best way to treat them is not like a commodity, but as a unique individual. Unreasonable hospitality means that one size fits one.”
It’s about understanding that in order to be great you need to always, always, always over-deliver on service to your guests (or customers, or clients, or coffee fans). And attempt to make the experience feel bespoke to each individual. In what is a very memorable section of the book, Guidara talks about the “Dreamweavers” he employs at Eleven Madison Park. Essentially they are employees who’s actual job it is to create bespoke and memorable experiences for the diners at the restaurant. In one such interaction, he overhears a table of guests from out of town say was that regrettably the only thing they didn’t get to do was eat a New York-style hot dog. On the spot he secretly decides to send employees out to get several New York hot dogs from a vendor up the street, and then has the chef plate it as a special extra course for that table. (You might remember a similar scene involving a Chicago deep dish pizza on the “Forks” episode of The Bear that was inspired by this moment) Of course the table is ecstatic.
And it proves the point, if you can think about these little memorable moments and actually execute on them, you can go from your customers having a really good meal, to having probably the best meal of their lives and in a guarantee that they’ll tell everyone about it.
Throughout this book you also get a chance to read about what didn’t work for Will and his restaurants, it’s not always perfect, but it is about constant improvement. And the understanding that sometimes it takes four or five or six tries to get something right. As both Will Guidara and head chef Daniel Humm figure out, there’s a lot of greatness out there, and in order to be the best they need to figure out what can set them apart in the minds of food critics, Michelin guides and best restaurant lists. And spoiler alert, that completely in-sync absolute dedication to front and back of house ultimately creates an experience for diners that is unlike any other restaurant. Making sure that the memorable food matches the memorable experience and leaves the diners with something better than they could have ever expected.
“It feels great to make other people feel good.”
BONUS CONTENT: There’s a Netflix series from 2018 called “7 Days Out” that explores some of the most intense events and the preparation needed to pull them off. Episode 2 features the re-opening of Eleven Madison Park showcasing Will and Daniel’s partnership. It’s worth a watch!