In the early morning hours, long before the sun breaks the horizon, a seasoned bread baker feeds his sour dough starter (the mother) that has been kept alive and active for more than five years now. He pulls the most recent batch of dough from the bowl and dough hook onto the floured four-inch-thick maple tabletop, pulls and folds the living mixture with hands that are rough and knowledgeable from decades of the same tireless work. His experience has shown that aggressive kneading does not yield the finished bread with the right crumb, crisp exterior, and chewy interior with the tang of the starter that he has kept alive for so long. So, his hands work the dough gingerly, and with love.
The bakeshop is filled with the essence of flour drifting through the air and the sweet, nutty smell of loaves just peeled from a 550-degree oven. The fresh dough is ready for the next step now as this artisan portions and shapes the mass into two-pound balls and gently places them in floured banneton baskets where they will proof before sliding onto the oven’s hearth. This is a process that he lovingly undertakes every morning and has done so for decades. This is his life’s work, a passion that sometimes gives him pause. He thinks how fortunate he is to do what he loves.
Across the street, in a boutique restaurant owned by the same family for three generations – a young chef is engaged in pre-preparation for today’s excited diners. This restaurant means so much to the community – a place where many have celebrated marriages, graduations, birthdays and anniversaries. This is where the regulars on Tuesdays and Fridays enjoy that special treatment they have come to expect over decades of service. This is where Saturday nights are community nights – a place and time ripe with tradition and totally dedicated to representing the exceptional food brought to this town by the current owner’s grandparents and parents.
Marlene, the newest family member chef, grew up watching her parents put their hearts and souls into this business, the food they prepared, and the service they provided. She knows the weight of her responsibility to maintain the connections built over decades and respects the time-tested preparations that go way beyond what she learned in culinary school. She is putting the finishing touches on a chicken stock and fish fumet – foundations for the rich, luscious sauces that remain a trademark for this 60-seat food establishment with its hundred-year-old brick walls, antique wrought iron sconces that shed light on handcrafted wooden tables made by a local cabinetmaker, and creaking hard wood floors that have been part of this building since the early 1900’s. These stocks are a key to the experience of dining here, one of the many reasons that locals and visitors flock to their door, hoping to gain a reservation.
She slides her razor-sharp knife through the fresh fish that arrived just moments ago, releasing perfect fillets with barely a trace of meat left on the bones. Those bones have already become part of the fumet simmering on the stove top. The chef is working to prove herself to the family and the community, prove that she is an artisan, a proper craftsperson worthy of the title of chef for Bistro Twenty-Two – named for the year 1922 when it first opened its doors.
At nine-thirty in the morning, an alarm clock rings “time to wake up” on the nightstand of Phillip Marquis – a thirty something wine lover and recently certified sommelier who stretches and plants his feet firmly on the ground. It was a late night at Bistro Twenty-Two; a night of great revelry and happy guests enjoying food and drink. He pours a cup of coffee, and then another before opening the link to the latest edition of Sante Magazine. His education never ends, wine is such a wonderfully complex and detailed beverage that must be felt to be known and experienced to be understood. Yet, it is visceral enough to be enjoyed even with the most basic knowledge of what it is. Every day he pours over articles that reflect a certain year’s vintage, changes in climate that impact terroir, and how each winemaker builds a palate of flavors through blending and barrel aging. He is as aware of his role in the dining experience as the bread baker and the chef.
Such is the daily activity across the country and throughout the world as individuals completely dedicated to their craft reflect on what they know and eagerly pursue increasing their knowledge and skills. These are not simply employees, or for that matter – just cooks, bakers, wine stewards, bartenders or servers. These are artisans who identify with what they do, work every day at getting better at their craft, and who see this work as their purpose. Not everyone who ties on a kitchen or bistro apron feels this way; not every restaurant or bakery is blessed with artisans who are ambassadors for the craft but those who connect with those individuals so dedicated see the difference in the eyes of their team and the smiles of their guests.
A restaurant where artisans work is an operation that has built a culture of artisanship – a learning organization where knowledge, dedication, passion, and craftsmanship abound and where it is encouraged and expected. These are the restaurants worth protecting and supporting and these are the people worthy of our praise.
It’s time for all of us (owners, chefs, bakers, bartenders, servers, managers, and guests) to strive for artisanship as core to what we do and what we support. Restaurants without artisans who respect tradition and seek to grow their skill set and improve their base of knowledge are simply transactional businesses exchanging product for money. There is certainly a place for both, but it is the haven for artisanship that highlights the very best of this business. It is this respect for the artisan that will attract exceptional people to a career in food and beverage. It is this respect for artisanship that will define a restaurant worthy of patronage and destined to thrive. It is this artisanship that pays respect for one of the oldest professions known to mankind; an important profession that is core to gathering all people to the table – literally and figuratively.
A restaurant that seeks to emphasize artisanship is one that invests in training; a business where a core understanding of food and beverage, the source of ingredients, the processes used in preparation, and the shared passion for service are paramount to their existence. The experience at Bistro Twenty-Two and the experience at thousands of exceptional restaurants of all types from coast-to-coast is driven by this commitment to living the passion of the artisan. The more passionate our people are, the more dedicated to learning the ownership is, and the more connected everyone is to the traditions of artisanship, the more every stakeholder benefits. We should never forget this.
Invest in training, invest in learning, invest in building competence. Competence builds confidence, confidence builds trust, and trust is core to a culture of winning.
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