The link here will take you to an article that appears in the current issue of ‘Food & Wine’ Magazine. It was written by my friend and colleague Greg Baker. He is a long time veteran of the restaurant world. Here he takes his pen to paper to assess the landscape of dining in these dark days, (and cold nights). It is both harrowing and hopeful to read with various voices offering theirs, (and my) respective takes on things as they are and as they might be.
Greg, along with his wise and dedicated wife and partner Michelle are people I got to know when Greg first volunteered his cooking skills to do a dinner with our NORMAN’S Orlando team and also a host of visiting guest chefs. It was emblematic of the generosity and humility that are part of the beautiful nature of Greg. Over the years Greg and Michelle did a number of dinners with us and for that I’m grateful for the friendship that was formed in the teamwork of those times. I’m very happy to see Greg published in this national magazine and I hope he continues to share his hard earned wisdom. We need voices like Greg’s in the dialog we must have to find a way out of this chaos and back to the beauty and love of presenting our restaurants in full flower. Independent restaurant owners are the life blood of the hospitality industry at large. It is imperative to find economic help from our government so we can go forth and return to feeding our guests and creating the economy for our teams.