Gastronomic narratives: telling stories

Image by Edward Howell via Unsplash

A restaurant experience truly sings when the diner understands the philosophy and it is up to the chef to ensure the story is compelling.

What does it mean to have a successful gastronomic narrative? For me it is when the food served in a restaurant tells a story beyond the plate – when the chef achieves that connection with the diner on an emotional and intellectual level and the experience becomes about more than filling the belly.

So, how do they do this? The menu clearly has to have a coherent and natural structure – whether your mission is zero waste or the promotion of a regional cuisine, this has be conveyed in the food and the communication from front of house staff. But beyond that, the messaging has to be clear – in interviews with press, on websites and menus and even by partnering with non-profit organisations or launching community initiatives. Social media plays a clear role, but in a world that makes it possible to connect with a huge audience so directly you can’t send mixed messages.

For example, you can’t preach staff wellbeing without putting it into practice too. You’ll get found out and it takes nothing for a narrative to be shot to pieces. It has to be genuine, heartfelt and, to use a word that is much overused, authentic.

My favourite example of a strong narrative in a restaurant is that of Aponiente in Cádiz. Everybody knows that Ángel León is the chef of the sea – El chef del mar – and that he is fisherman first, chef second. The menu is coherent and matches the narrative coming out about finding undiscovered, underused products from the sea to stop us eating the same products, depleting sea life and ruining vital biodiversity along the way.

The food served in the old mill building on the edge of the Guadalete River speaks clearly to the diner, from the charcuterie based on marine off-cuts to the plankton used in dessert. Without even getting near to educating and informing about all the research and investigation his team carries out, or why, the diner is in no doubt that this is a place that urgently wants them explore the bits of the sea that we don’t normally eat.

Another restaurant with a clear mission and a perfectly told story that I admire very much is Kol in London, the first restaurant from Santiago Lastra, formerly the project manager of Noma Tulum. Santiago has found great success with the perfectly unique concept of serving Mexican flavours and textures using British ingredients. His uncompromising approach means that some ingredients we see as indispensable to Mexican cooking, such as limes and avocados, are off the menu. It is an ingenious and refreshing approach that is carried through to the finest detail and it works.

I first met Leonor Espinosa in Madrid in 2017 when she was taking part in the brilliant InResidence programme at NH Eurobuilding hotel. Having kicked off with Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago in 2016, the series is an annually recurring event where some of the world’s best chefs fly in to cook at the Madrid hotel for a few weeks.

Leo was part of the year, which saw 4 of the best chefs in Colombia travel to Spain where they presented their food. In the years since she has scaled the heights on her mission to tell the world about her country’s cuisine.

She is another chef who has crafted a narrative perfectly, her cuisine developed from a wish to support indigenous tribes and take advantage of Colombia’s amazing biodiversity. The result is a truly singular menu of dishes that would be unfamiliar to most people outside Colombia, very much practicing what she preaches. It is obvious that the philosophy came before the food in her Bogotá restaurant Leo and I am sure she will continue the work with the people of her country long after she packs away the kitchen knives.

Today we have so much information at our fingertips and a wealth of options when it comes to choosing where to eat our dinner. Diners don’t want to just eat food presented on a plate – they want an experience, they want to be told a story and it feels so good when they can be a part of the story because they know it and they understand it.