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Chef’s Tables

Written By Scott Joseph On March 9, 2012

This week on WMFE-FM, Scott chat’s with 90.7’s Nicole Creston about chef’s tables. Here’s some of what they talked about. You can hear Scott’s radio segments Fridays at 5:45 p.m. and again Saturday mornings at 9:35. You can also click this link to hear Scott’s podcasts.

It used to be that when you said “chef’s table” you meant one thing: a table set up in the kitchen that was set aside for a dining experience apart from the dining room. Depending on where you rank yourself on the Foodie Scale, the notion of dining in a kitchen either thrills you or brings on a yawn.

For me, I love being able to watch a professional culinary crew work. And the extra attention that the chef pays to the table, often with extra little bites and favors, makes it extra special.

But it’s getting harder to find a chef’s table that is in the kitchen any more. There is still the chef’s table at Victoria & Albert’s, which is arguably the finest foodie experience anywhere in the Southeastern United States. One of the costlier ones, too. Dinner with wine pairings will run you in the mid $200s. Per person. But in terms of bang for buck, you get a decent amount of bang. Wait, that didn’t sound right. What I mean is, you go in at about 6 p.m. and leave four or four and a half hours later, after well over 10 courses, each prepared by Scott Hunnel, one of our top chefs, and his able crew. V&A’s chef’s table is also one of the toughest to book — expect a wait list of several months.

As far as actual in-the-kitchen chef’s tables, Vicky & Al’s is the only one I can come up with now, at least the only one with a single table experience. There’s also the aptly named Chef’s Table at the Edgewater, the Winter Garden restaurant where it’s difficult to determine whether the dining room is in the kitchen or the kitchen is in the dining room. Whatever, there are more than one table, yet you still get the extra attention from the chef as he delivers the courses.

There’s also La Coquina Chef’s Table, a Saturday-only dining experience that also has multiple tables assembled in the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress’s professional kitchen, the same space that the following morning is reconfigured for the restaurant’s Sunday brunch stations.

But then there are other restaurants that have designated a space in the main dining room as the chef’s table. At Norman’s at the Ritz-Carlton the large table in the center of the octagonal room, set off by wine cabinets, has been appointed as the chef’s table. Citricos at the Grand Floridian has a table behind a glass wall. You’ll get a special dining experience at these tables, but I would miss the theatricality of the kitchen.

For a compromise, some restaurants, such as Luma on Park, consider a food counter overlooking the open kitchen to be their chef’s table experience. I suppose that’s better than nothing, but I’d prefer that special table away from the other diners where only you and your guests get to see the kitchen.

Do you know of others, or do you have a favorite chef’s table? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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