With today’s consumers increasingly demanding not just a meal but a mindblowing experience from their restaurants, the answer may lie in giving theatre kitchens an interactive twist
You know, I can still remember my first visit to a theatre kitchen.
In actual fact, it wasn’t a theatre at all, more of a peep-hole into the pass of the kitchen of this tiny restaurant, just off Soho Square in London.
Peep-hole or not, I can remember thinking how awesome it was to be able to look in at the service, to spy on chef and see what life was really like behind the swing door.
Sure, this set-up may be passé nowadays, to the point where we have travelled full circle and are asking for the chef to be hidden away again.
But perhaps we have missed a very, very exciting concept; one that takes the theatre kitchen, boils it, bakes it and then flambés it into a new radical offering…
Please think hard and try to remember the last time you went to a restaurant with friends specifically for the food, as opposed to the experience or the interaction.
You see? It’s hard, isn’t it — and this has got my mind racing, thinking about a potential design and operational idea for a new breed of restaurant.
I’m going call this new concept SLOTS — as in, the restaurant ‘slots’ into the kitchen.
Imagine the scenario: you want to take some friends out and arrange to meet them at 8pm, to eat around 8.30pm.
At SLOTS, you as the host would arrive at 6pm to prepare and cook the meal for your friends, who would be arriving later.
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You would be assisted by a chef from the team and having pre-ordered the food stuffs you would begin the whole process, preparing things just how you like but with the added expertise of the professional chef to assist you.
Wow, I love this idea completely. Suddenly I can invite friends out to a great restaurant and enjoy all the traditional bonhomie, but with this extra angle that allows me to be in control of the menu for the evening; and then have the added glory of preparing and cooking the whole thing.
This would fly, I’m sure it would. It has everything: interactivity, education, professionalism, excitement, uniqueness and above all, glory!
You’ve invited friends out, you’ve greeted them, had a drink with them, joked with them, eaten with them and cooked for them but without any of the disruption of doing it all at home.
I imagine this kind of ‘entertain-them-yourself’ dinner scheme taking place in a big, baroque-themed room, stripped back but with big banquet tables, drapes and curtains, giant candles and a four-piece chamber orchestra playing classical versions of favourite modern songs. Awesome.
I see the whole design as being quite dark and sultry — like from the Greenway movie, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. I think drama is the key word here. A truly dramatic backdrop to a dramatic evening out.
We have to be realistic at this point; not every night will be a success. Since you have the power, you and your culinary choices may still be the cause of an almighty muck-up in the kitchen, and what would happen then? Could you bear the shame?
I suppose this situation is easily solved. Those unsure of their culinary prowess should simply have the option to give more power to the personal chef, who is there not only to assist, but ultimately to save us from ourselves.
So there you have it — SLOTS, a sure-fire winner, in my humble opinion. Next time you book a meal out or Google ‘fun places to eat’, consider this: is your restaurant serving you well or could it do with a bit of DIY?
Aidan Keane is the founder of specialist leisure and retail design firm Keane; for more information, visit: www.keanebrands.com
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