(and why we should fight for it before it disappears completely!)
Handwork. – We are losing it…
There was a time – not even that long ago – when the table wasn’t just where you ate. It was where the craft happened.
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High ceilings, heavy drapes, walls that have seen centuries.
A maître moving slowly, never rushed, wheels of a gueridon whispering across wood floors.
Crêpes Suzette flambéed tableside – the smell of caramel, orange, butter rising like a promise.
Service wasn’t a performance. It was a ceremony.
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Bare feet in warm beachside chiringuito sand, plates clinking, the sea only a few meters away.
A waiter carrying a salt-baked fish that came out of the water that same morning, cracking the crust beside your table.
You watched the steam escape.
You tasted the fish before you even tasted the fish.
This was hospitality you could feel – before a single bite.
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And then there is the Beef Wellington – maybe the most iconic stage-piece of all.
Wrapped, rested, carried with both hands.
The moment it arrives, every guest falls quiet.
The first cut reveals the blush inside – that perfect line between craft and courage.
A dish with British roots, French technique, and decades of being the centerpiece of grand dining rooms.
Not just cooked.
Presented.
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Today? This magic is disappearing…
Time got faster.
Staff got fewer.
Budgets got thinner.
Skill stopped being passed down.
Training became “luxury.”
And slowly, the work moved off the table and back into the kitchen.
Not because chefs don’t want to do handwork.
But because the industry made it almost impossible.
And that’s such a loss.
Because table-work creates something that no Michelin star, no Instagram video, no plating trick ever will:
Connection.
Suspense.
Memory.
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I’m a huge fan of table-work.
Always was.
I carve Wellingtons in front of guests.
I gut fish salt-baked right at the table.
I break open whole truffled poulards.
I serve desserts like Baked Alaska flambéed on the table.
Not to show off.
But because this is hospitality.
Craft you can watch.
A moment you’re part of.
A dish that arrives alive.
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We talk about “experiences,” “storytelling,” “connecting with guests”…
but we slowly removed the most intimate experience of them all –
craft done right in front of them.
We watch this craft die.
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Are we really improving hospitality…
or are we quietly deleting the magic that made it worth loving in the first place?
Because once handwork disappears,
it won’t come back easily.
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If you need support by crafting exactly this – the old classics, staff teaching and implementation – you know where to find me.
