Page 44 - foodservice magazine April 2019

8
FINE DINING
SALLY RAINBOWS, 30, DON PEPPINO’S
Sally Rainbows says fine dining sucks. Yeah, he loves to eat good food and he wants good service wherever he goes, but the term itself is problematic. It gives us the idea that one kind of restaurant is better than the others, he says. “I think it’s important for the industry to make every quality level more accessible and more engageable to everyone.”
In fact he doubts anyone will open a “full-fledged table cloth style” fine diner in Sydney again.
Few would call Don Peppino’s a fine diner, but Rainbows doesn’t care what it’s called. What he wants is for their service style – where waiters have a personality and there’s less of a hierarchy of customers and waiters – and their quality to be as valued as a restaurant
A. with a degustation and a wine pairing.
And, he says, his job should be the same,
B.
regardless of the venue’s level of dining. “Have a convo, have a personality, look after your guest and actually give a fuck.”
VANESSA KIM, 27, BANKSII
In the last five years Vanessa Kim has
had to adapt. The ex-Sokyo and current Banksii waiter is now spending a lot
more time talking to customers about provenance. “With the emergence of food documentaries and the internet, people are more aware than ever of the food industry, and have forced restaurants to be wary of their produce and if it’s sustainable,” she says. “I am definitely more informed of our produce, how they were raised and where they come from. I also know a lot more about the agricultural and farming side.”
She doesn’t call Banksii a fine diner, but it’s part of a movement (along with fine- dining leaders Quay, Momofuku Seiobo and Sepia, she says) that has largely discarded French cuisine and formality for a more multicultural understanding of dining, and a more casual service style. “Premium service these days is having a good rapport with customers and being knowledgeable of the product you are selling.”
That also makes it a lot easier to forge
a career in the front end. “If they are passionate about the industry and are eager to put in the effort, it is easier now to get into this side of fine dining.”
RACHAEL TREWIN, 28, A1 CANTEEN
While a lot of the front-of-house guns foodservice reached out to were eager to
“In a world where you don’t need someone to scan your groceries, check in your luggage or book a car, the very best at customer service will be the last ones standing.”
C.