Grace and the Importance of Consistency

Grace and the Importance of Consistency

One of my all-time favorite food quotes is from Mario Batali, as cited in Bill Buford’s excellent Heat:

“If someone has a great dish and returns to have it again, and you don’t serve it to him in exactly the same way, then you’re a dick.”

I thought about that sentiment last week at Grace, which is one of the most exhilarating restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.

But here’s the thing: they always have one word on their kitchen whiteboard: “Consistency.” I was talking to one of the chef’s about it, and he said, “That word is always there because it’s always all about consistency.”

I’ve been to Grace twice this summer and both times I’ve had the crème caramel with truffles, which is listed on the menu as “Australian Black Truffle, crème caramel, sherry, CHIVE BLOSSOM.” [Menu description includes those caps]



The first time I had it, I loved this dish and thought the creamy preparation with slight oniony notes and crunch was a perfect vehicle for truffles. At the time I wrote, “Rarely does a truffle dish deliver such deep and powerful truffle flavor: a crème caramel with crispy scallion, chive blossom, and, of course, a generous helping of the black diamond.”

I was knocked out by that dish.

The second time at Grace, when I saw this dish on the menu, I leaned over to Tribune Wine Critic Bill St. John and said, “This dish is going to breath-taking.”

But when the dish arrived, I was abashed. It was a different preparation and although quite good, I was let down, deflated…I think I may actually have sniffled a little. There were no chive blossoms, though that ingredient was FEATURED IN CAPS on the menu, no crunch…it was, finally, a different dish and that was disappointment.



And avoiding that kind of let down is the main reason a kitchen strives for consistency. You don’t want to set up the customer to expect one thing only to receive another.

Admittedly, there’s a certain attractiveness to inconsistency, to places that vary their menu based on “what’s best at the market” on any given day. And at small mom and pop joints or diners and other less formal places, if they’re out of the usual green pepper and substitute red pepper on the salad, fine. No more Swiss cheese, fine, go ahead and use cheddar on the burger. French fries were all used up at lunch – no worries, I’ll have American fries.

But the apparent inability of an exceptional restaurant like Grace to deliver a consistent dish during a single season did lead, in at least one case, to disappointment and honestly a little embarrassment.

The embarrassment was silly, I guess, and I’ll cop to that as my problem, but the disappointment, well, that was due to the kitchen’s oversight.

I understand that sometimes ingredients (like chive blossoms) are not available. In that event, the right response seems like it would be to either not serve the dish or, at the very least, to not feature that missing INGREDIENT IN CAPS.

At Grace, next to the word “Consistency” on the whiteboard, is a countdown of days to the next round of Michelin ratings. I think Grace will do well, and they’ll probably get a few stars, but still, if you have a watch word, watch it. Follow it. Or it’s just a word.

Interesting post. I think Batali's notion is flawed if you're cooking truly seasonal, fresh food; it seems more apt if applied to processed or commercial commodity based food/systems. (McDonalds has obviously gone to great lengths & expense to ensure consistency.) Your experience at Grace sort of bears that out - it's likely not possible for them to have fresh chive flowers year long (Doesn't excuse the menu listing though), or at least quite difficult. In the coffee business we wrestle with this all the time, and I usually end up explaining the seasonality and fickle nature of a hand-grown, hand processed, hand roasted and hand brewed product. We shoot for consistently delicious and honest. I guess is sort of a cop out - but in my opinion, it's not possible to be absolutely consistent when you are using hand-processed, hand-grown, seasonal, and agricultural products. The best consumers realize this IMHO and embrace the subtle changes and nuance of fresh ingredients. I would be interested to hear what the management has to say about the word on the whiteboard.

One of my pet peeves is when something is listing as an ingredient on a menu and it does not appear on the plate. It seems to be careless. Okay if chive blossoms are not in season, then change the menu.

toria wrote:One of my pet peeves is when something is listing as an ingredient on a menu and it does not appear on the plate. It seems to be careless. Okay if chive blossoms are not in season, then change the menu.

Agreed. If I take the time to read the menu then I want what I ordered.

Now, I understand that sometimes ingredients run out, but please tell me when I order so I can decide if I still want the dish, don't deliver the dish incomplete without a word of acknowledgement of the change. I've had this experience range form minor annoyance to cases where I would have ordered something different and now I'm unhappy with my meal.

Amen. There's a dish at Bar Toma--the kale salad--that was fantastic the first and second times I had it. The third time? Not so good, clearly someone in the kitchen didn't understand how to make it. (Hard boiled eggs instead of soft boiled, the kale wasn't massaged as well and the garlic bread crumbs were lacking.) I chalked it up to being made by the lunch crew and not the dinner shift. Went there for dinner recently and it still wasn't made as well. Six months ago, I couldn't imagine *not* ordering the kale salad, now I'm just as happily skip than play "which version will I get today?"

chgoeditor wrote:Amen. There's a dish at Bar Toma--the kale salad--that was fantastic the first and second times I had it. The third time? Not so good, clearly someone in the kitchen didn't understand how to make it. (Hard boiled eggs instead of soft boiled, the kale wasn't massaged as well and the garlic bread crumbs were lacking.) I chalked it up to being made by the lunch crew and not the dinner shift. Went there for dinner recently and it still wasn't made as well. Six months ago, I couldn't imagine *not* ordering the kale salad, now I'm just as happily skip than play "which version will I get today?"

And you have every right to expect better at a Tony Mantuano production.

Normal restaurant consistency = Make the dish your menu describes to the highest possible standards, day in, day out.

Elevated tasting menu restaurant consistency = Make the dish the chef wants to make that day to the highest possible standards day in, day out, with an accurate description of what you're serving (so that I can know what it is that's blowing my mind ).

Obviously, Grace is in the latter category and I wouldn't have a problem with them changing up the dish, even if I happened to prefer a previous rendition. I guess I expect constant change and experimentation from those types of menus. But the description, both in writing and, especially, in service should be accurate.

I'm good with either definition.

boudreaulicious wrote:Obviously, Grace is in the latter category and I wouldn't have a problem with them changing up the dish, even if I happened to prefer a previous rendition. I guess I expect constant change and experimentation from those types of menus. But the description, both in writing and, especially, in service should be accurate.

I am in favor of constant change and experimentation, and I believe a good menu should change regularly, but as I believe we agree, the exact same dish, described in the exact same way on the menu, shouldn't look and taste radically different from visit-to-visit within a single season...and certainly not at a restaurant that has on its whiteboard the one word that allegedly says it all about their operation: Consistency.

If the description includes or omits ingredient that are/ are not in evidence in the dish, then certainly. If the description is technically still correct but the rendition is different, I'd like to think that since they know I dined 3 weeks earlier (we do know they know this ), they'd take the time to describe how the dish will differ. They may only do it upon serving the dish but that's the kind of service"extra" that a place like Grace should deliver.

And, in your scenario, if the "CHIVE BLOSSOM" stated on the menu is no longer incorporated into the dish, it's inexcusable that they not explain that. Did they not even mention the omission when they delivered the dish???

boudreaulicious wrote:And, in your scenario, if the "CHIVE BLOSSOM" stated on the menu is no longer incorporated into the dish, it's inexcusable that they not explain that. Did they not even mention the omission when they delivered the dish???

No, the omission was not mentioned, and as you can see in the photo, it wasn't merely the absence or presence of chive blossoms that was different dish-to-dish. The dishes contain several different ingredients and because of that they look -- and taste -- like entirely different dishes.

This is a small thing, admittedly, but I raise it because the importance of consistency is an interesting issue to me, and especially at a place like Grace where consistency is allegedly everything.

At Grace's level, I don't think it's small.

I swear I've been tempted to print pictures to bring with me and hand to the server saying "Tell the chef I want this."
One example is Katy's. The Oak Park location seems somewhat confused about what is served at the Westmont shop.

I agree. Don't have different dishes with the same name on the menu. It's not like there are limited names to pick from.

I love Vera and go there often, but one thing they did that I find highly disappointing is that they made big changes to their papas bravas and bread with butter, dishes which are technically still on the menu, but in forms so inferior to their original forms that they make me sad when I see people I take to the restaurant order them. The old papas bravas was similar to what you'd find in Spain- delicious crispy cubes of perfectly cooked potatoes with lemony aioli and rich bravas sauce. The new? Irregular giant chunks of undercooked potatoes with an over-spiced sauce. The old bread service was fantastic, mainly because of the creamy butters served with them like one with savory roasted garlic. Now it's just a round of cold hard butter with salt and pepper on top. I understand the original dishes were time-consuming, but I'd rather pay more for them or not have them on the menu than have these imitations linger.

Interesting topic - the one thing that comes to mind is one of my favorite movie quotes of all time, from the movie Parenthood when the grandmother explains to Steve Martin's character her love of roller coasters:

I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.

I too prefer the roller coaster. I appreciate a chef always wanting to improve upon a dish, even if all patrons do not agree that the dish has improved.

Now David, I'm not trying to suggest that Grace improved upon or even equaled the quality of the dish you had tried, but at a fine dining restaurant, I don't think I would appreciate a paint by numbers approach, and I don't know that that's how Grace interprets the word "consistency." Nor do I subscribe to Batali's interpretation to the extent it suggests chefs shouldn't always be striving to improve. As for the missing chive blossom, it's hard to say whether this was the result of inconsistent attention to plating, lack of the ingredient at the level of quality desired or some other change that was made after printing the evening's menus. I wish you would have asked, because it is an interesting question, and it would be nice to know what the kitchen thought about your having liked the dish in its prior form.

BR wrote:I wish you would have asked, because it is an interesting question, and it would be nice to know what the kitchen thought about your having liked the dish in its prior form.

Exactly. Curtis Duffy is an incredibly nice and approachable guy and I'm sure he would have provided an explanation (or, at the very least, appreciated the feedback for the apparently missing garnish).

Also, I feel the need to step in here a bit because I recently had an absolutely phenomenal dinner at Grace with my family. My grandparents who had just been to Per Se the week before even pronounced Grace the better experience. Now, I'm not sure if there were other factors that influenced what went on at David's dinner, but my experience at Grace left me nothing short of blown away. It was even "consistently" on the same level it was the last time I ate there in March.

ETA - I'm almost positive on the rare occasion that I've been to Alinea twice in one "season" that a dish can have the same components but actually be a different dish. When done well, I appreciate the effort at innovation/evolution.

Can't speak for David but I can tell you what I picked up on as a possible issue from David's description of his experience. It wasn't that the dish was changed--it was that the description didn't change and the dish did--drastically. Not only was the highlighted ingredient removed (it wasn't a "garnish"--it was the "all caps" highlighted ingredient on the menu) and other important ingredients added (morels by the look of the pic), but there was NO explanation of the change--not in the written menu provided to the diners or by the delivering server. This strikes me as a bit odd, since I would expect the Grace servers to provide the typically detailed explanations of courses that most tasting menu focused restaurants provide. Maybe this was an anomaly and I'm sure if David had asked for an explanation he would've been provided one. But it would seem to be a reasonable impression that the kitchen's "Consistency" watchword was, at least in that case, compromised. This doesn't mean that Grace hasn't provided a wonderful dining experience for you Josh or, actually, for David. It may have been a total one-off. Probably only demonstrates that nobody's perfect

boudreaulicious wrote: Not only was the highlighted ingredient removed (it wasn't a "garnish"--it was the "all caps" highlighted ingredient on the menu) and other important ingredients added (morels by the look of the pic),

Pretty sure those are truffle slices, not morels.

BR wrote:Now David, I'm not trying to suggest that Grace improved upon or even equaled the quality of the dish you had tried, but at a fine dining restaurant, I don't think I would appreciate a paint by numbers approach, and I don't know that that's how Grace interprets the word "consistency."

I wish you would have asked, because it is an interesting question, and it would be nice to know what the kitchen thought about your having liked the dish in its prior form.

This is an important point, balancing consistency and innovation. I believe, though, that this dish we're referencing here was simply a mistake and when people make mistakes, I tend not to ask them to explain themselves; I simply accept that they screwed up.

rickster wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote: Not only was the highlighted ingredient removed (it wasn't a "garnish"--it was the "all caps" highlighted ingredient on the menu) and other important ingredients added (morels by the look of the pic),

Pretty sure those are truffle slices, not morels.

Ha! They certainly are--helps to look at pictures with my glasses on

So it looks like the dish was reconcepted with the same basic ingredients, minus the chive blossoms. Maybe " consistency" means consistent with chef Duffy's vision or commitment to only serving the freshest, most perfect ingredients. Regardless, small missing ingredient gaffe aside, I would be disappointed if "consistency" meant executing the same ingredients in the same way day after day at Grace. In a way I wouldn't be at, say, Chaparita where I want my crispy tripas taco to taste exactly as delicious as I remember from the last visit EVERY time.