You’ve just had your 11 course surprise menu with paired wines in that hypothetical restaurant awarded with three Michelin stars. It’s located hundreds of kilometres from the (hypothetical) nearest city but it’s still full booked for every single service. The food was great if not amazing, wines were well-paired and the company was even better. Now, after platter full of mind-blowing petit-four, it’s time for the espresso.
Despite my lousy story-telling you probably guessed what’s going to happen next. That’s right – your coffee is not Square Mile nor Intelligentsia (and even if it was it most likely wouldn’t be drinkable). Not even Illy. It’s something you avoid like plague outside that restaurant.Having left your Aeropress & Skerton combo at the hotel you really don’t have any option now. ”This is a three-star place with amazing food, the coffee can’t be that bad…”
How wrong can you be after those 11 glasses of wine.
The whole restaurants & coffee -situation is quite unbelievable. Some of the world’s best restaurants, for example El Bulli that’s chosen as the number one establishment in the world several years in a row, use Italian bulk coffee roasted some six months ago. They keep talking about supporting local producers and using organic products while buying coffee from a gigantic roaster far away. I mean, isn’t that a little bizarre? Why couldn’t they really support the community and buy their coffee from a local (or nearest) micro-roastery? Establishments like El Bulli would have resources to hire a full-time barista to create something new, just like they do with the food or ”food”((1)) .
El Bulli’s chef Ferran Adrià wearing Lavazza’s jacket… (photo courtesy of Tim Varney)
Even if the restaurants used good-quality freshly roasted coffee, the preparation of it is the next stumbling block. My friend studies in the most recognized cooking school in Finland and his stories about how the waiters are taught to make espresso are quite horrifying, something I wouldn’t expect from such an institution. In my opinion that just tells us that restaurants don’t really expect any kind of coffee making skills from the graduating waiters and cooks. The situation is utterly inexplicable. So much attention is given to small details such as discarding the tiny veins from whole foie gras (not my favourite task) but why is the coffee, finishing touch for the dinner, left out of this list?
While most restaurants really don’t want to put resources in making good espresso (empirically tested) then why not to brew good filtered coffee? Good brew coffee would be great instead of astringent and watery espresso but a bit boring. Chemex or syphon, on the other hand, would besides making great coffee also make a nice show. In restaurants environment it is very difficult to brew espresso of consistent quality during the whole service but filtered coffee would be less sensitive and tricky and thus more consistent. It would also be easier to train a waiter / sommelier to brew filter than espresso.
Though this post turned out to be bit of a bitter rant my hopes are high when it comes to future of restaurant coffee. My prediction is that within the next couple of years we’ll see revolution in the restaurant world. I hope that chefs and owners would realize the importance and potential of quality coffee and put some effort in it. I believe that it won’t take long before some restaurant hires a full-time barista who would brew all the coffee and make something innovative with it, such as cocktails or desserts. I am really looking forward to finishing a nice dinner with something new, imaginative and delicious made out of coffee.
- I’ve also had a few good espressos at certain restaurants but certainly just few! [↩]
11 Comments
I guess the coffee starts to be important when the Michelin inspectors start to rate it…
On the other hand what is their (inspectors) knowledge of coffee?
That’s a really good point – something I haven’t thought of. But still, it’s the taste that matters, was it a Michelin inspector or a mortal customer. If an inspector is trusted to rate the food etc. mostly by taste (please correct me if I’m wrong), he or she can surely differ a good, balanced and sweet espresso from watery and astringent one.
Thank you for ranting, please keep it up.
A rant not very dissimilar from yours was delivered by Karl Purdy from CoffeeAngel a while back. It resulted in this: Chapter One, A Michelin Starred restaurant in Dublin starting to serve matched coffees sourced by Coffeeangel and HasBean brewed on Hario V60 with their Chef’s Table menu. Coffeeangel also took charge of educating the restaurant staff on the coffee:
”Staff will be briefed on the coffee prior to service and provide guests with detailed tasting notes, flavour descriptors and origin information during the brewing process. ”
Perhaps we could find a restaurant in Finland that would like to team up in a similar way with some competent enough roastery, like Kaffa perhaps?
I read his blog and was really impressed – I sincerely hope that some Finnish chef would pick this up and be the forerunner.
They rate everything from interior design to service and look and taste of the food.
Don’t feel like you’re ranting here. If anything, there’s not enough ranting going on about this very sore subject. Believe it or not, even the most quality-focused restaurants want coffee service to be ”Easy.” When they learn how much attention and training it takes (nothing compared to a good cooking school), they balk. Your suggestion of a full-time barista (or mixologist trained in coffee/espresso) is exactly what restaurants need at this point, if even on contract temporarily. As chefs and servers become more coffee-educated, this need will shift to a more well-rounded education for everyone making and serving food in these restaurants. Brewed coffee is the ”wedge” we have as a compromise between their need for something that’s easy (what they really mean is ”approachable”) and our need for good coffee with a good meal. French Press/Eva Solo is the easiest I can think of, the process and equipment being elegant and simple. After that’s learned and accepted, we’d be in a better position to introduce the huge world of hand-made coffee to them.
This is the best I’ve been able to come up with so far. I’d love more suggestions.
I love French Press but when it comes to fine dining restaurants I think the sediment in the bottom of the cup is a bit of a problem.
One quite comprehensive solution would be a micro-roastery, just like Coffee Angel did, offering a complete coffee-package for restaurants – coffee, equipment, training, information. At least restaurants should have one person, probably a waiter, who would answer for brewing all the coffee served.
isn`t it most of the starred restaurants in helsinki (finland) do serve kaffas coffee?
haven`t been dining in em though.
That’s right, at least double-starred Chez Dominique and Postres awarded with one star are using Kaffa. Others could do the same…
Another gourmet restaurant has started paying attention on coffee, this time it is the Eeven Madison Park in NYC.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/ristretto-coffee-cart/
Excuse me for flooding here, but it just dawned on me: What is needed here in Finland is some of the food journos to take interest in this and do a story about coffee in restaurants.
Or alternately an established enough paper/magazine hiring a freelance coffee geek to do it – Kalle, didn’t you do a feature in Nyt about the quality of coffee in cafés? Should you attack restaurants next?