We had the great honor to host the great French Chef - Paul Bocuse, owner of ' Les Chefs de France' at Walt Disney's Epcot French Pavilion at a press luncheon right after the hotly anticipated opening of the restaurant.
At the time Bocuse was world famous, top of his game and the restaurant he opened at Epcot was considered world class. Our restaurant, Jordan's Grove, was a farm to table American restaurant, with a menu that changed every day depending on what we got from our local suppliers. It was great opportunity for us to cook for the world renowned chef, especially since our style was a world away from the classic French cuisine that 'Les Chefs de France' offered. That and Paul Bocuse was revered as a chef worldwide.
The lunch menu included Tallahassee farmed white tailed venison, lightly smoked then grilled with a Zellwood blueberry and Zinfandel demiglace, sautéed Ponce Inlet Yellow Edge Grouper with a caper and seared banana compote, a decadent flourless chocolate cake with a raspberry coulis and a plate of Turtle Creek goat cheeses. Michael Davis, one of our very best staffers, serviced the table. Michael also spoke fluent French in case there were any difficulties in communications.
The lunch seemed successful from several viewpoints...the Orlando press got great stories from the Chef, which fueled a feature from the local newspaper and continued the focus on bringing more customers to try the restaurant at Epcot. We got to cook for an iconic culinary legend and gauge our abilities.
At the end of the meal, felt that we had hit it over the fence. Plates came back clean, there were smiles around the table and the atmosphere seemed almost electric. We came into the room to be introduced to Chef Bocuse and to thank him for coming with hopes that he enjoyed the afternoon. We got the menus signed as a memento of the visit, and went back into the kitchen thinking that we had indeed made an impression...until we talked to Michael, who had served the group. Most to the discussion was in English, as the press got their stories from the chef. There were some asides in French, which Michael overheard.
Michael communicated to us what he had heard...That the chef liked the venison dish, which was described as simple and straightforward...not classic but still good. Dessert was also good - again, simple but delicious. He also liked the Florida goat cheeses, especially the accouterments that included orange blossom honey and a smoked white peach jam. The choice tidbit was about the grouper course. Michael said that Bocuse leaned over to a colleague and said a bit sarcastically 'Only an American would serve fruit with fish'. We were crestfallen at the comment and that we may have left a bad impression with that course. We talked about that lunch for quite a time, wondering if perhaps in our efforts to do something different we had somehow crossed a culinary line. We liked the combination, but still, this was Bocuse!
Years later I saw another great chef cooking on a morning news show...It was Claude Troisgros, part of the famous Troisgros family of French chefs, who prepared a dish on NBC's Today show in New York in 2016. Troisgros had been cooking in Brazil, and had a tropical bent on his preparations...and on the show he was...wait for it....sautéing Grouper with bananas !!! Instead of capers he used achiote and raisins, but banana was the star. The Today cast raved about the dish....and I remembered the luncheon so many years ago with Bocuse and felt a bit redeemed, even if it was years in coming.
What did I take away? It's all about knowing your customer. We were trying, all those years back, to serve what we wanted to serve to impress a great chef with our style of cooking. We could have been better served to understand more what the the chef liked and use our style to compliment his taste. Even if the bananas and capers were delicious to us, it would have been a better result for everyone if we thought more about what the customer would have liked or accepted and give them what makes them happy. Isn't that the key to great hospitality?
