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Logical or not ...thoughts about gastronomes... Words such like gastronomy and gastrology are seldom used in the American English. Yet they are common in Europe. Restaurant owners are gastronomes, waiters who don't want to disclose their job title might rather say "I work in the gastronomy!" I remember when I told the mother of a date that I'm a Kellner-lehrling (waiter apprentice) how her face dropped and her tone towards me became suddenly much less inviting as she told me "My daughter doesn't want to see your kind!" If I would have known what I know now, I would have told her that I'm a future gastronome and certainly she would have treated me like an aristocrat. "Gastronomy Fairs" are food and wine shows. Traditional gastronomy is used to refer to local food. The word gastronomy fills in where one might want to say gourmand. And where ever words like French culture, the word gastronomy is never far away, and finds it's climax in "Haute Cuisine." Waiters (the word waiter includes waitress as much as writer includes male and female writers) are the Ambassadors of the house, of kitchen and cellar. Waiters explain the often difficult wording on menus to the guest. Waiters do the direct selling one on one and are the first to be blamed for mistakes as goods and services are expected as ordered but delivered as different label or quality. Waiters are expected to be true gourmands by the guest who thinks the server knows what's in the soup, what's in the sauce, what's in the recipe. Have you ever thought about how little we really know about some of the food which is not made in the restaurant kitchen? How often do we get to read the real ingredients of food made somewhere in a prep kitchen and shipped to the restaurant. How many of us are aware of this trend which as part of the American principle called outsourcing is changing the way we eat. (Outsourcing = If it's cheaper to be made somewhere else don't make it at your place). How many restaurants have chefs, how many use "Warmer Uppers" a person who heats it up and plates it? Can you trust the menu? Ever looked at some of those words used to describe food? You better be able to trust your waiter, the true gastronome, for otherwise how would you ever know what you eat?
01/09/09 |
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