People who yell at the waiter

Ron Lieber, a writer for the New York Times, got kicked out of a restaurant for confronting the chef about the way he was treating his staff. I think he did the right thing and would like to think I’d have the courage to do the same.

As someone who cares about food and thinks about food a lot, I cringe when I hear these stories. I worry that we’ve elevated this basic maslovian need to cult status, that the high priests are above reproach as long as they get results. When millions of us sit down and watch Gordon Ramsay swear his way through an hour of competitive cooking, what does that do to our expectations? Did no one else at the restaurant stand up to say anything because that’s how we expect chefs to behave now? Were they even entertained by the spectacle, a bloodless gladiatorial pre-meal show complete with free dessert for anyone whose sensibilities may have been offended?

Precision and even art are worthy goals in any endeavor, cooking is no exception. When that drives us to the point where we forgo basic decency and humanity, it’s gone too far.