For the past six months I have been committed to an exercise regimen thanks to my Apple Watch. Closing the rings of movement, exercise, and standing has been a goal since I first strapped on the watch, a goal that consumes my attention and cannot be broken for fear that I will simply fall off the pattern if the rings fail to close for one day. The commitment has become a habit that I don’t intend to break. So, I began to think about patterns and habits of this type and how my exercise goal might serve as a model for restaurants seeking to find a formula for success.
How powerful is a complete dining experience and what exactly is it? An owner for whom I worked years ago referred to it as the Total Dining Experience and I have held on to this concept ever since. The Total Dining Experience or TDE is a focus on the five human senses (with one addition for good measure): Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste (and the bonus of Context). So, what if we defined these for a restaurant operation (their meaning will vary to some degree depending on the concept of the restaurant) and built them into the same ring model used on my Apple Watch? Let’s define them first:
SIGHT: Most positive experiences have a visual component. The human brain is tuned into how things look and will, sometimes erroneously, establish value based on that. It has been demonstrated that we buy books by the look of the cover, determine how “cool” a person is by how they dress, find initial attraction to another human being based on their physical appearance, impulse buy things that we don’t need based on color, shape, or packaging, and in the case of restaurants – find a link between hunger and how a plate of food is assembled. So, it would make sense that the visual impact of food, the dining room ambience, the tabletop, and the appearance of service staff is very important. How much time and effort are placed on this?
Have you established a uniform and grooming standard in your restaurant and is it equitably enforced? How much time is spent on making sure the dining room is pristine, the windows spotless, tables level, flatware, and glassware free of water spots, living plants cared for, artwork dusted, brass railings polished, and even exterior landscaping and signage immaculate? How much effort is placed on the design of plated foods, the contrast and complement of colors, shapes, and assembly? Are you consistent in how all of this is managed every day with every plate? If yes, and you have developed a method of assessing this in every moment, then congratulations – your SIGHT RING is closed for the day.
SMELL: Our olfactory receptors can distinguish nearly a trillion different smells using two million olfactory receptor cells. That’s a load of SMELL horsepower! Now, obviously, each of us has a different sensitivity to these odors, but the important point is that we have an ability to differentiate and thus smell is important. We smell much more intensely than we taste and taste and smell together have a huge impact on the larger assessment of flavor. What are the smells in your restaurant and how much attention are they given? How about those ambient odors that are impacted by cleanliness and ventilation? Who are your odor police? Have you paid adequate attention to the smells as a guest walks through the front door? Maybe consider planting fresh herbs outside the entranceway or inside the vestibule to set the stage for a welcoming aura of odor (fresh rosemary or mint are great examples). How much attention is paid to your restrooms, and to the selection of decorative plants from a smell perspective? Is your ventilation system designed to push positive kitchen odors to the dining room or outside the entrance? The smell of sauté onions and garlic, fresh baked breads, simmering stocks, or grilled meats can pull guests in and push their hunger buttons. When planning menu items how much attention is paid to the combination of smells on the plate? Are you meticulous about changing the oil in your deep fryer, or filtering out the smell of carbon build up on burner grates and broiler grids? Smell counts BIG in the TDE – make it a priority and then you can close the SMELL ring on your experience measurement.
SOUND: Now, this is a sense that can build a platform for a tremendous dining experience or ruin all the efforts placed on Sight and Smell. Most of us are oblivious to the need for a professional sound plan in our restaurants. Before a professional musician plays in a new venue, they want to assess the acoustics of the space. These acoustics are measured in an empty house and then again when it is filled with people. Modern technology will allow for some correction even if the bones of the venue are less than perfect, but unless acoustic optimization is addressed, even the most accomplished musician will not sound good, and the listener experience will suffer. Yet, we often design restaurants with little or no consideration for acoustics. We want our guests to enjoy themselves, to laugh and story tell, but we also want the table next to them to carry on a quiet conversation. We know that music can enhance a good time out on the town, but have we paid adequate attention to the type of music and sound level as it applies to the menu concept? Did you just spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a dining space and then a few hundred on a cheap sound system expecting it to do the job required?
What about the sounds of the kitchen? Are we promoting the subtle background noise of sizzling steaks, a few dings from pots and pans, and the expeditor calmly coaching the team of line cooks? Or have we ensured that the “always on the edge of chaos” language of the kitchen is filtered from the guest experience? The right balance is critical and worth hiring sound technicians to design early on. If you approach this correctly and like the musician, measure before and during a performance then you can safely close the SOUND ring on your success scale.
TOUCH: A fifty-dollar steak on inexpensive plates, or plates with chips or hairline cracks, glassware quality that fails to match the quality and price point of your wine list, uncomfortable chairs, carpets that are worn and void of an appropriate spring, or inexpensive stainless flatware in a top-priced fine dining environment, will leave the guest wondering about your TDE approach. Think about how everything fits a concept and consider the FEEL of your restaurant experience. Apply the same to the textures on the plate. Are vegetables prepared with the same attention to texture as that expensive steak? Are your soups and sauces evaluated based on their texture and viscosity as well as flavor? If you pay adequate attention to this, then close your TOUCH ring – congratulations!
TASTE: Ah…yes – taste. Now this is one that chefs love to focus on. This is the one sense that everyone understands, but do we? There are five components (that we know of) to taste which is a physical sense, just as is touch. We have approximately 10,000 taste receptors, or buds (they diminish in number as we age) that are able to differentiate SALT, SWEET, SOUR, BITTER, and UMAMI. These buds are distributed on all parts of the tongue and the roof and walls of the mouth. Strategically placed, and spread over varying area size, they help us to distinguish what we like to taste and what is less enjoyable. SWEET and SALT seem to be the tastes that are most universally craved from birth on and as such what chefs tend to focus on. But those chefs who hope to find a unique niche, seek to differentiate themselves from the pack and build a reputation for something special will push the envelope and explore those other receptors to build complex flavors that excite and surprise. If you are building menus that demonstrate an understanding of this balance and pull away from the COMFORT of a focus on salt and sweet, then close your TASTE ring and take a bow.
CONTEXT: Context is the one component of the TDE that is very difficult for a restaurateur or chef to control, however we can encourage it. Context may just be the most important TDE component BECAUSE it is difficult to control. It refers to interactions with people and events that sit forever in our memories. That 10th anniversary dinner was incredible enough to still savor years later, yet trying to re-create it with the same menu, even in the same restaurant may be impossible because it will never be the 10th again. The bottle of wine that a guest felt was “the best I ever had” will never taste the same in your home purchased from a local wine shop because the people who gathered and raised a glass are not present.
What restaurants can do is to create environments that encourage people to get together, to relish each other’s company, to raise a glass and laugh, to interact with knowledgeable and fun service staff, to listen to their favorite music, or to watch their meal being cooked in an open, display kitchen. Context is all about people and a lot about theater. This is where the restaurant experience becomes a source of entertainment, and “breaking bread” is a social event that allows people to put aside the challenges of the day and enjoy the company of others. It is the hospitality in the restaurant experience.
Collectively, all these TDE components build the FLAVOR of the experience. When we speak of flavor, those engaged in creating the TDE are talking about a collective experience and not just taste. So, work on closing your TDE rings and create a model that builds on this flavor – your restaurant flavor.
“Food is one part of the experience. And it has to be somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the dining experience. But the rest counts as well: The mood, the atmosphere, the music, the feeling, the design, the harmony between what you have on the plate and what surrounds the plate.”
– Alain Ducasse, Chef.
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