Meet the ‘unreasonable hospitality’ master who inspired The Bear
Meet the ‘unreasonable hospitality’ master who inspired The Bear
by TimesandSundayTimes
7 Comments
TimesandSundayTimes
* Back in 2010 Will Guidara set himself the mission to make his restaurant the best in the world. Daniel Humm, the chef at Eleven Madison Park, would keep perfecting the Michelin-starred food, but as the front-of-house maestro, Guidara would provide service so extraordinary, so memorable and so bonkers, frankly, that the restaurant would become the most talked about triumph in New York
* EMP, as those in the know call it, rose to the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, the first New York restaurant to do so. People from all over the world came to enjoy lavender honey-glazed dry-aged duck, but also for Guidara’s flourishes — the backstage kitchen tours, the liquid nitrogen cocktails, the hand-written notes and personalised surprises
* Years later, Guidara’s by now legendary more-is-more approach provided inspiration for The Bear, the hit Disney+ TV drama about Michelin-star ambitions, family meltdowns and people finding their purpose through perfect patisserie, all set around a restaurant similar to EMP
Had a holiday party in the private room upstairs about 8 years ago. Our company enjoyed good food but not necessarily high end service. The wait staff recognized this and loosened their ties – by the end of the meal they were doing shots with us and a couple of our team and couple of the wait staff went outside to smoke weed. It was perfect.
minttwea
Nice. The guy that’s the front of the house was even in an episode in S3, he was one of the guests on the table along with Syd
jm44768
Yes. Pre vegan it was a good as you could get in the US. Now.., maybe not that?
HereForFun9121
Can they inspire next season to be better
coffeeobsessee
EMP pre Will departure was incredible.
I genuinely do not like the current food. I’m from a country with great vegan (temple) food and the Vegan EMP menu cannot measure near causal temple buffets. The service post Will is more performative than it is a good conversation about great food. Now it’s sort of like they’re a great pretender.
Lyin-Don
Guidara, Tosi and the rest sitting around stroking each other in that final episode was fucking painful.
I live in restaurants and appreciate everything they do for us, but ffs. You’d think they’re solving cancer. Comically pretentious.
7 Comments
* Back in 2010 Will Guidara set himself the mission to make his restaurant the best in the world. Daniel Humm, the chef at Eleven Madison Park, would keep perfecting the Michelin-starred food, but as the front-of-house maestro, Guidara would provide service so extraordinary, so memorable and so bonkers, frankly, that the restaurant would become the most talked about triumph in New York
* EMP, as those in the know call it, rose to the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, the first New York restaurant to do so. People from all over the world came to enjoy lavender honey-glazed dry-aged duck, but also for Guidara’s flourishes — the backstage kitchen tours, the liquid nitrogen cocktails, the hand-written notes and personalised surprises
* Years later, Guidara’s by now legendary more-is-more approach provided inspiration for The Bear, the hit Disney+ TV drama about Michelin-star ambitions, family meltdowns and people finding their purpose through perfect patisserie, all set around a restaurant similar to EMP
Read more: [https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-sunday-times-magazine/article/will-guidara-hospitality-the-bear-tkgzqz33w](https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-sunday-times-magazine/article/will-guidara-hospitality-the-bear-tkgzqz33w)
Did you ever visit EMP?
Had a holiday party in the private room upstairs about 8 years ago. Our company enjoyed good food but not necessarily high end service. The wait staff recognized this and loosened their ties – by the end of the meal they were doing shots with us and a couple of our team and couple of the wait staff went outside to smoke weed. It was perfect.
Nice. The guy that’s the front of the house was even in an episode in S3, he was one of the guests on the table along with Syd
Yes. Pre vegan it was a good as you could get in the US. Now.., maybe not that?
Can they inspire next season to be better
EMP pre Will departure was incredible.
I genuinely do not like the current food. I’m from a country with great vegan (temple) food and the Vegan EMP menu cannot measure near causal temple buffets. The service post Will is more performative than it is a good conversation about great food. Now it’s sort of like they’re a great pretender.
Guidara, Tosi and the rest sitting around stroking each other in that final episode was fucking painful.
I live in restaurants and appreciate everything they do for us, but ffs. You’d think they’re solving cancer. Comically pretentious.