Lavinia's

[brk-lnt]

Originally Posted by Eric Weiss

Again, i think most of you have missed the point. Perhaps, poorly worded, but i was merely try to correct the misuse of the term "Executive Chef".
In no way is this an attack on a competitor, their product or skill set.. as i stated earlier, best of luck an hope they have a productive run...

Fact is, what the Lakes Region needs is competition and friendly rivalries in the food industry. From what i have read over the last few months is that as a whole, the last several years in this area, the restaurants in the Lakes region have become complacent.... perhaps they should step up their game a bit. Competition = Creativity!!!

For what it's worth, I didn't think your initial message that set off this storm was all that bad. In fact, I found it kind of helpful.

For my wife and I, we enjoy trying new places. I've been to several 5 diamond places, and a ton of ghetto joints that would scare many people away. Much of it is "setting expectations". If a restaurant is billing themselves as having an "Executive Chef", I'm going to set my minimal expectations higher than maybe some place that doesn't call attention to the kitchen staff, or lists "Head Cook", or "Head Chef", etc.

I understand the perspective of titles being earned, but from the angle of the guy eating there, it's all about the food. If a 10 year old prodigy can hook up some foie gras and sweet breads like nobodies business, then I'm not going to question them being presented to the diners as an "Executive Chef" on the restaurant menu or whatever (yes, they might not have the business sense of a "true" exec chef, but as the diner, I don't care about that).

So, if someone wants to call themselves the executive chef they are, IMO, setting a higher level of customer expectation. If they can deliver on that expectation, then I have no issues. But, if they're still perfecting their craft, it might be wise to tone down the titles and leave a little more margin for error in a sense.