Relevance
Who gets to tell you you no longer matter?
Alinea lost their third Michelin star. This is perhaps the definition of a First World Problem - a restaurant that charges $400+ a person and has been atop the food scene since they opened twenty years ago. One could even say - meh, they’ll be fine. It’s more than stars, and it certainly touches on hyperbole - but Alinea’s very relevance is being questioned.
We also just went thru Christmas Hallmark movie rom com season - time for the time honored hate-to-love trope. This is actually not that odd, since the opposite of love isn’t hate at all, the opposite of love is apathy. Or, dare I say, being considered irrelevant.
As I am hospitality obsessed, The Bear is one of my favorite shows. In reruns I skip the family drama episodes and go straight for “Forks”, or “Scallop”, where the magic happens. If you’ve read Unreasonable Hospitality you know where the Pequod’s pizza storyline comes from - I actually did the same thing in 1992 at Ruby Tuesday at Woodfield Mall - my table didn’t want dessert (we used to carry a tray full of plastic dessert models to every table) but commented to each other how good Fannie May peppermint candy sounded. I, of course, slipped a few doors down, got the candy and plated it for a surprise dessert.
I think a lot about hospitality and higher education - that was really what I started this Substack on. For me, it’s not about making it Michelin or Four Seasons worthy. Hospitality is about being seen and valued as a person, as a guest. It’s having the experience be intentional - like when you go to an elaborate Chicago winter gala and they remember to have a coffee cart near the exit - when you’re awaiting a cab in -10, that late night latte really hits. Hospitality is actually the reason that Outlook asks you if you want to cut meetings to 45 minutes - no one can really be back to back all day long, so why pretend? Give yourself [and your colleagues] the grace of a buffer.
How does this relate to education? I’ve worked with a college that had summer MBA classes on campus - and exactly zero on campus dining/coffee/take out/convenience store options are open in the summer. Imaging working a full day, driving through traffic to campus, getting ready for 3 hours of class and not even having a vending machine option. Valued guest? Not a chance.
I don’t know how Trader Joe’s trains their employees, but they are masters. When you ask for help finding something, the person puts down whatever they’re doing and walks you to the item. The cashier will ask to see dog pictures if you’ve buying dog treats. If you’re having a horrid day and maybe go the day your mom died, the employee is empowered to hand you a bouquet of flowers and wish you well (yes, I actually know this first hand). Talk about feeling relevant.
Why do people open restaurants? It can’t be for the great hours, the amazing pay and benefits and how gentle it is on your body. It’s not for the vacation time and the ability to work from home. I guess it could be for accolades, but there are fewer Michelin 3 star restaurants than there are NFL quarterbacks, so those odds don’t seem good. “Restaurants are special places - people go to restaurants to be taken care of.” [The Bear] They go to restaurants to celebrate, to relax, to not have to think about anything else for a moment. People go to restaurants to feel less lonely - to be relevant, even if just for that hour.
Last week I was on a campus doing team building sessions for new MBA students. Team projects are notoriously the worst part of MBA programs - perhaps the worst part of everything, frankly.
We started team building with one simple question - what is your unfair advantage that will make everyone want you on their team? Next was your 3 greatest strengths and also your 3 biggest weaknesses, as they relate to a team. And then they worked with a partner to overcome those weaknesses. Ensuring the relevance of everyone - before they even met with each other. Is it going to help? I certainly hope so. Will there still be complaints about “that guy” not pulling their weight? Most definitely.
Maybe we actually need more group projects - maybe that is the way to prove that all 4 members of a 4 member team are relevant. And maybe Grant Achatz, 20 years in to one of the most storied restaurant careers ever, still can surprise us all. If he brought in 3 more folks to think about the dessert course, would it still include an edible green apple balloon? We’ll have to wait and see.
