Eating Out?

Whenever I think of times that I've gone to a restaurant to eat, I hardly recall it being solely about just that, eating. Yes it is a guiding factor, but I can just as easily eat at home. Eating at a restaurant seemed to me as a child and even now as something you do on special occasions to celebrate or commemorate something.

For this reason, the meals I've eaten at restaurants (always as a small or large group) are more memorable to me, including the situations surrounding that meal and who I ate with.

On the other hand, "eating out" also means eating food you haven't prepared and paying for it, which is what I've found myself doing much more frequently every since starting Cegep. Eating out was not a special occasion, it was a matter of commodity and time constraints. It was easier to buy a slice of pizza with a drink than to think about preparing a lunch before heading out for school.

In contrast to restaurants which are designed for people to spend a longer amount of time in them, consider numerous aspects of the decor. Fast Food places tend to be designed not for comfort but functionality. For example, in restaurants chairs are soft and sometimes large. In a Fast Food place they are usually small and hard.

These observations of the environment tend to affect the value and experience of the food being eating.

Specifically I have chosen a meal that I had in Florence with a few people who were also sharing a month long 6 credit drawing class in Italy this past summer.

It was the first time I was fully aware of the interior design of a restaurant and how it enhanced my eating experience (not to mention being in Italy was already enough to swoon me). Since then I have been much more observant of the environment around me as I eat and I see how it truly does have an effect.

The restaurant was called "Quanto Basta" and was a random find. During our first night in Florence we thought it a shame to waste the evening with unpacking and resting. We were equiped with a few suggestions from our teacher but gave up on our third try of finding one of the places listed and decided to go anywhere.

Luckily we landed on a (sort of pricey but affordable) goldmine!

When first entering, I had the impression that it was quite small and though it was a deli or pastry shop, a few steps further and the space suddenly opened up, now lookign like a fancy coffe shop with large white lounge chairs with striking pillows. At this point we were led by a waiter all dressed in black to the very back of the restaurant which looked more like the idea of a restaurant, however right in the middle of the classic tables an chairs was a high marble square table with high black chairs and right behind us was an open kitchen! We could see the chef at work!

Although I had absolutely no idea what I would eat or what it would taste like, I was salivating already. The menu was very simple and easy to read but the choice was difficult to make. With the waiter's reccomendation I chose the squid platter.

As we all waited for our plates we were gawking at the tableware, the lighting, the black and white framed movie screenshots on the wall, the polish constructivist poster in the kitchen, the crisp and white clothes of the 2 chefs behind us, the list goes on. Eventually the decor became an intruisic part of our conversation, the significance of how a restaurant is designed and how it can enhance an experience and render the food more enjoyable as well as the company and conversation.

When I received my plate, I had not even realized that time had gone by, I was completely immersed in my surroundings, in a way I was devouring the room with my eyes, there was so much to feed on. When I looked down I saw my food as a work of art such as I had been admiring the space. It became a sculptural element of the the environment. The food was familiar, I had eaten squid before and red and yellow peppers before, but when I took my first bite it was as though it was my first time ever tasting these ingredients.

I cannot say that the explosion of unknown flavours in my mouth was exclusively due to the talents of the chef, it was very difficult to pin point. The environment became a part of my meal as opposed to just a setting or backdrop, I can't help thinking it affected the way my meal tasted, although I know it my heart it was the chef's doing. I feel that the environment represented the degustation so well that it made it difficult to distinguish one from the other.

What was amazing to me is that with each bite I felt like I was taking a bite out of the room and because of my impression of it, my tasting experience was greatly affected in an unforgettable way.

I've also had some bad restaurant experiences in Italy (so few I think it was only one) but I don't only consider that the food itself wasn't to my taste but I recall certain aspects of the environment negatively.

It is undeniable that the two go hand in hand.