Book Review: Unreasonable hospitality
Simply put, this book changed my life. In fact, I can pretty honestly state that I wouldn’t have taken 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 story of restaurateur Will Guidara’s climb from running front of house at various upscale New York restaurants to turning Eleven Madison Park in NYC into the top ranked restaurant in the world in 2017. Guidara does a great job in making this book feel less like a business textbook and more like a revelation of what it’s like to work front and back of house in some of the greatest New York culinary institutions. From creating the menu program at the Museum of Modern Art, to having acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud cook him omelettes when he was in school after a crazy night of partying, there are enough amazing tales to keep you invested all while building what the true centre of this book is all about – how the act of true hospitality can make your business great.
Will’s ethos is simple. If you can create an amazing experience for your diners that matches the amazing food coming from the kitchen, 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 custom made for each individual. In what is a very memorable section of the book, Guidara talks about the Dreamweavers he employed at Eleven Madison Park – employees whose actual job is to create bespoke and memorable experiences for the diners at the restaurant. In one interaction, a dreamweaver overhears a table of guests from out of town say that they regretted that the only thing they didn’t get to do was eat a New York-style hot dog. On the spot he 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 up 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, which was inspired by this moment.) Of course, the table is ecstatic. And it proves the point, if you can uncover these little memorable moments and actually make them come to life, you can take your customers from having a really good meal, to having probably the best meal of their lives and 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. Every exciting new idea isn’t necessarily going to work. It’s not about perfection, 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 to be the best, they needed to figure out what could set them apart in the minds of food critics, Michelin guides, and best restaurant lists. Spoiler alert: A completely in-sync, absolute dedication by the front and back of house to improving and refining every detail and interaction, ultimately created an experience for diners that is unlike any other restaurant. Making sure that the memorable food comes alongside a memorable experience leaves the customers – and the entrepreneurs -with something better than they could have ever expected.
“People will forget what you do; they’ll forget what you said. But they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
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!