Serving Up Four Stars

Any seafood lover has had an oyster. But have you had six oysters, each topped with a different pile of tiny gelatinous cubes, which must be eaten from left to right with a bite of a palate-cleansing cracker between every increasingly flavorful taste? How about for dessert—a perfect, unbroken eggshell, filled with layers of chocolate mousse, followed by a fig and caramel concoction with bacon ice cream. Pairings that no other, more conservative restaurant would imagine serving, Le Bernardin presents with impeccably timed service and a simple but comfortable ambiance.

Le Bernardin has been described by top critics as “nearly perfect,” “number one in the City,” and “the most influential seafood restaurant in America.” Opened in 1986, the restaurant immediately secured a four-star rating from New York Times critic Bryan Miller, and has maintained that rating since. To get a closer look at this infamous source of seafood innovation, I interviewed Alex Luppi, 27, who has worked as a bus boy and most recently a front waiter at Le Bernardin for the past two years.

A native of Sag Harbor, Luppi saw his father’s ups and downs as a restaurant owner from a young age. As he grew older, he realized that his vivid childhood memories of eating out and preparing meals had created in him a passion for the food industry. He worked at several places, including his father’s restaurant, before joining Le Bernardin.

“I used the avenue that had been created by my dad at arguably the best restaurant in New York,” says Luppi. Apparently Le Bernardin’s chef Eric Ripert frequented Luppi’s father’s Southampton restaurant,  so he offered Luppi the opportunity to interview for a position at Le Bernardin.

At traditional French restaurants, there are four positions amongst wait staff—in order, bus boy, back waiter, front waiter, and captain. After a long interview process, Luppi was offered a position as a bus boy, which was a demotion from his old job, but at a considerably more reputable restaurant. He accepted, and 14 months later, he was promoted to front waiter, skipping the position of back waiter altogether.

“The thing about Le Bernardin is, they only promote from within,” says Luppi. “So they hire front waiters but they don’t hire captains and they hire bus boys but they don’t hire back waiters.” Luppi’s promotion was fairly unprecedented, and he was warned to expect “ruffled feathers.”  But along with the pressure from his colleagues, Luppi also faced pressure from his new position. A change from the intense physical stress of busing, Luppi now had to experience the mental exhaustion of being a front waiter— learning to dynamically memorize the orders and courses of multiple tables simultaneously, and learning the management styles and expectations of the various captains.

“Some people think that we make like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars because they look at the check and they see how expensive it is,” he says. “The reason that it’s so expensive is it causes a lot of stress because of the extreme precision of what needs to get done.” For those of you who have not visited the restaurant—first of all, do it. It might cost you 4 paychecks of savings, but the culinary experience in itself is worth it. But more importantly, the service is like a dance—as Luppi points out, your water glass is never empty, your wine glass is refilled without your noticing, and the used plate from your just-finished course is whisked away just as you realize you no longer want it there. But this level of service requires perfect coordination and communication, which is understandably not without its share of mistakes.

However, at a four-star Michelin restaurant, there is unfortunately no margin for error, and mistakes are resolved quickly and ruthlessly. “There were points where I did something incorrectly and they just said, ‘All right, go home.’ It was very quick,” says Luppi. “You’re left in this ominous, like, ‘Oh my god, should I call? Will they call me? Should I go back for my shift tomorrow?’”

But the job also has it’s perks. “The think what I enjoy the most is the people who come there with a real bright-eyed, kid-at-Disney-World kind of enthusiasm,” says Luppi. “You can see they’re super excited to be there. You can see they’ve probably been saving paychecks for god knows how long and that’s the best.”

And while the average person may be overwhelmed or intimidated by the upscale atmosphere of Le Bernardin, Luppi offers some comforting insight. “People think that we’re judging them,  but honestly, the last thing on our mind is what we think about the people that are coming there,” says Luppi. “We’re really concerned about doing what we need to do correctly. There’s really no pretense.” Luppi says that in the last ten years, the “face of fine dining” has altered drastically—from the snobbish environment created by the stereotypical stone-faced Maitre ‘D, to a more relaxed atmosphere with a goal of making guests feel comfortable.

In fact, in this restaurant, Chef Ripert is not only known for actually being involved in the kitchen, but also for his accessibility to restaurant guests. “He comes out fairly often to do a round of the floor,” says Luppi. “He does the best he can, but he doesn’t take pictures in the dining room—he only takes pictures with people in the kitchen.”

Chef Ripert isn’t the only celeb in Le Bernardin. Luppi has seen—and served—a host of celebrities, including Woody Allen, Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese, Mic Jagger, Sean Connery, Alicia Keyes, the Dalai Lama, and President Sarcozy. “I just met President Sarcozy– either two or three times. I’m not even sure how many times,” says Luppi.

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