Fine dining refers to the cuisine and service provided in restaurants where food, drink, and service are expensive and usually leisurely. Turnover per table can be less than a year per 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 usually found in enclaves of wealth and where business is done, 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 fewer than 100 seats and owned by owner partners. The economy of fine dining differs 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 budgets for public relations are common. Because of the experience 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 gastronomic experience.
Tables, china, glassware, silverware, and linens are often expensive, and arrangements can be expensive, often including paintings and interesting architectural features. Menus often include expensive imported items such as foie gras, caviar and truffles. Only the most tender vegetables are served. The colorful embellishment is part of the presentation. Delicious and interesting flavors are incorporated into the food, and the entire gastronomical 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 trends change, and high-end restaurant operators need to stay on top of the changes.
Heavy sauces have given way to light ones, large portions to small ones. The restaurant must be kept in public view without seeming so. Given a choice, the restaurant operator selects only those guests who are likely to be greeted 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 off 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 was trained in a prestigious restaurant. and that has dominated French cuisine. Prospective restaurant operators should dine at some of these restaurants, however expensive, to learn the modern meaning of elegance in decor, table setting, service, and food.
(To avoid paying the higher prices, go for lunch and skip the wine.) Better yet, anyone planning a restaurant career should take a job in an upscale 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.