Clockwise from top left: the Titanic dining room; restaurant name plaque; lounge and bar area; Eton mess; roast rack of lamb a la Dijonnaise; prawn cocktail, marie rose sauce.
Restaurant success
White’s reputation in the emirates is on the line with this restaurant, so how will Titanic meet his expectations when he won’t even be there himself to dictate them?
“Consistency is [achieved] by starting in a very simple way and building your foundation, getting to know the staff, the staff getting to know yourself and slowly building that jigsaw, building that team and as a team’s confidence grows and understanding of each other grows, then you can start to evolve.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about trying to be clever, I’ve been to restaurants sometimes and chefs where they fail is they try too hard a lot of the time and therefore yes they can do it, can the other 10 chefs in the kitchen who are working for them do it?
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“There’s not one chef in the kitchen, there’s 10, 12, 15, 20, it’s about getting them to understand your philosophy, to understand your want, to understand what is expected day-in day-out, month-in month-out, year in year out.”
His advice is: “Don’t be greedy. Don’t take too many covers. Build your systems slowly. It’s about being kind to the client. At the end of the day, there’s nothing worse than feeling rushed. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’ve been turned off your table…you’re being pushed in and you’re being pushed out”.
Service to smile about
This brings us to the topic of service and again, White’s approach is far removed from that which he had to adopt two decades ago. There’s two things he hates: having to wait for a table, and being rushed once he’s there.
“For me the most important aspect of service is a smile. It’s friendliness. Nothing is too much trouble. You must have witnessed it in your life before where service is very formal, it’s very professional, it’s quite soulless and it makes you feel quite intimidated.
“It’s too professional in a way where they make a point of showing off their technical ability – that’s when I don’t enjoy service. It’s when they are showing off their technical ability, they’re very slick but they’re soulless, there’s no personality there, there’s no smile there, there’s no welcome there.”
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