Tips for Cooks and Waiters
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Victor Brown demonstrates serving from the right.
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy GLENN COLLINS
Published: November 10, 2009
SO exclusive is this restaurant on an industrial stretch of Queens Boulevard in Long Island City that it isn’t open to the public and it doesn’t even have a name.
But: linens? Check. Floral centerpieces? Check. Sleek gold-ish décor? Check. Daily printed menu? Why certainly: a recent luncheon offered white bean soup with Parmesan crisps and grilled salmon with ratatouille sauced in Provençale herb emulsion.
This restaurant’s existence goes to the heart of an issue that could dominate New York’s first major restaurant labor donnybrook in years: the capability of the staff at Tavern on the Green, members of New York Hotel Trades Council.
All the cooks and waiters in the 60-seat dining room and kitchen at the union restaurant are workers in New York hotels, receiving instruction in fine-dining serving skills and high-end culinary techniques at a two-year-old training kitchen and restaurant.
The diners are exclusively employees of the union’s large health-and-welfare building there. They pay only $10 for their fancy lunches. “We want our members to have the highest understanding of their professionalism,” said Peter Ward, president of the Hotel Trades Council, which represents some 400 employees at Tavern.
The union is facing off with Dean J. Poll, the restaurateur to whom the city Parks Department awarded the Tavern operating license starting Jan. 1. Mr. Poll, who runs the non-unionized Boathouse restaurant in Central Park, has notified the union that he will push for a new contract that would nullify the current agreement. If he perseveres, Mr. Ward has said, the union “will strike this guy for a hundred years.”
While Mr. Poll has mainly addressed work rules, pay and other costs, many Tavern watchers — including operators who chose not to pursue its license — said the staff was just not up to the needs of a contemporary fine-dining restaurant.
While some readers of The New York Times who commented online about previous articles on Tavern said they enjoyed their experiences there, others said its kitchen and service left much to be desired. One reader recalled “undistinguished food, served with cold indifference.”
To elevate the skills of union members, the Long Island City training center spends $1 million to teach some 800 students a year in eight courses in food service, hotel engineering and information systems. Costs are shared by the union and the employers’ bargaining group, the Hotel Association of New York City.
Restaurant instruction includes a 48-week course teaching the versatile position of tournant, sometimes called roundsman or swing cook: those skilled at working at all kitchen stations. There is also a 24-week à-la-carte server course, and an 8-week banquet server course.
And so, on a recent morning, eight students were navigating the restaurant’s bright, well-appointed 2,000-square-foot kitchen.
“I just try not to make mistakes,” said Peter Komninos, a 34-year-old student who is a bellman at the Belvedere Hotel in Manhattan.
Mr. Komninos was the pastry chef du jour, and Pablo Trobo, the chief instructor, schooled him in making crème caramel. “I never made flan before,” Mr. Komninos said. Now he was arraying 32 portions in bowls known in the trade as “monkey dishes.”
“You heat it up too much, it burns,” Mr. Trobo said. “It has to be at the perfect temperature.”
Course graduates receive a certificate “that they can use to improve their station,” said Joseph E. Spinnato, president of the hotel association. “The goal is for employees to better their skills and move up the ladder.”
In a city abundant with trained waiters and cooks looking for work, the course “is laudable, and adds to the students’ value, but so would work experience at Gramercy Tavern,” said Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant based in New York. “Restaurateurs are looking to match their service with their customers. And it’s the person that matters, as much as the training. Just because you’ve completed a course doesn’t mean you can cook.”
Maria Ortega, a 27-year-old hostess at Adour Alain Ducasse in the St. Regis New York, said she took the à-la-carte waiter course “because I’m interested in management, and I want to know all the jobs.”
Carlos Ramos, 46, a hotel bartender, said he hoped the courses would lead to a job as an “A-list waiter.” Bartenders make $48,000 to $52,000, he said, but “an A-list waiter could make $85,000 to $100,000 if you are willing to work hard — 5 a.m. to midnight on three functions a day.”
So far, 51 Tavern employees have taken, or are taking, one of the culinary-program courses. One of them, Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, 46, is a dining-room captain at Tavern who took the tournant course because, he said, “I want to learn about every aspect of the business.”
Another, Francis Butters, 44, also a captain at Tavern, said that in this economic climate, “it helps to be as knowledgeable about your job as possible.”
Next Article in Dining & Wine (6 of 14) » A version of this article appeared in print on November 11, 2009, on page D6 of the New York edition.
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Victor Brown demonstrates serving from the right.
Sign In to E-Mail
Reprints
Share
Close
LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy GLENN COLLINS
Published: November 10, 2009
SO exclusive is this restaurant on an industrial stretch of Queens Boulevard in Long Island City that it isn’t open to the public and it doesn’t even have a name.
But: linens? Check. Floral centerpieces? Check. Sleek gold-ish décor? Check. Daily printed menu? Why certainly: a recent luncheon offered white bean soup with Parmesan crisps and grilled salmon with ratatouille sauced in Provençale herb emulsion.
This restaurant’s existence goes to the heart of an issue that could dominate New York’s first major restaurant labor donnybrook in years: the capability of the staff at Tavern on the Green, members of New York Hotel Trades Council.
All the cooks and waiters in the 60-seat dining room and kitchen at the union restaurant are workers in New York hotels, receiving instruction in fine-dining serving skills and high-end culinary techniques at a two-year-old training kitchen and restaurant.
The diners are exclusively employees of the union’s large health-and-welfare building there. They pay only $10 for their fancy lunches. “We want our members to have the highest understanding of their professionalism,” said Peter Ward, president of the Hotel Trades Council, which represents some 400 employees at Tavern.
The union is facing off with Dean J. Poll, the restaurateur to whom the city Parks Department awarded the Tavern operating license starting Jan. 1. Mr. Poll, who runs the non-unionized Boathouse restaurant in Central Park, has notified the union that he will push for a new contract that would nullify the current agreement. If he perseveres, Mr. Ward has said, the union “will strike this guy for a hundred years.”
While Mr. Poll has mainly addressed work rules, pay and other costs, many Tavern watchers — including operators who chose not to pursue its license — said the staff was just not up to the needs of a contemporary fine-dining restaurant.
While some readers of The New York Times who commented online about previous articles on Tavern said they enjoyed their experiences there, others said its kitchen and service left much to be desired. One reader recalled “undistinguished food, served with cold indifference.”
To elevate the skills of union members, the Long Island City training center spends $1 million to teach some 800 students a year in eight courses in food service, hotel engineering and information systems. Costs are shared by the union and the employers’ bargaining group, the Hotel Association of New York City.
Restaurant instruction includes a 48-week course teaching the versatile position of tournant, sometimes called roundsman or swing cook: those skilled at working at all kitchen stations. There is also a 24-week à-la-carte server course, and an 8-week banquet server course.
And so, on a recent morning, eight students were navigating the restaurant’s bright, well-appointed 2,000-square-foot kitchen.
“I just try not to make mistakes,” said Peter Komninos, a 34-year-old student who is a bellman at the Belvedere Hotel in Manhattan.
Mr. Komninos was the pastry chef du jour, and Pablo Trobo, the chief instructor, schooled him in making crème caramel. “I never made flan before,” Mr. Komninos said. Now he was arraying 32 portions in bowls known in the trade as “monkey dishes.”
“You heat it up too much, it burns,” Mr. Trobo said. “It has to be at the perfect temperature.”
Course graduates receive a certificate “that they can use to improve their station,” said Joseph E. Spinnato, president of the hotel association. “The goal is for employees to better their skills and move up the ladder.”
In a city abundant with trained waiters and cooks looking for work, the course “is laudable, and adds to the students’ value, but so would work experience at Gramercy Tavern,” said Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant based in New York. “Restaurateurs are looking to match their service with their customers. And it’s the person that matters, as much as the training. Just because you’ve completed a course doesn’t mean you can cook.”
Maria Ortega, a 27-year-old hostess at Adour Alain Ducasse in the St. Regis New York, said she took the à-la-carte waiter course “because I’m interested in management, and I want to know all the jobs.”
Carlos Ramos, 46, a hotel bartender, said he hoped the courses would lead to a job as an “A-list waiter.” Bartenders make $48,000 to $52,000, he said, but “an A-list waiter could make $85,000 to $100,000 if you are willing to work hard — 5 a.m. to midnight on three functions a day.”
So far, 51 Tavern employees have taken, or are taking, one of the culinary-program courses. One of them, Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, 46, is a dining-room captain at Tavern who took the tournant course because, he said, “I want to learn about every aspect of the business.”
Another, Francis Butters, 44, also a captain at Tavern, said that in this economic climate, “it helps to be as knowledgeable about your job as possible.”
Next Article in Dining & Wine (6 of 14) » A version of this article appeared in print on November 11, 2009, on page D6 of the New York edition.
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