Here's a new video from this year's MAD Symposium featuring legendary maître d' Silvano Giraldin, who worked at London's three-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche for 37 years before retiring. Giraldin reflects on the cultural changes he witnessed over his decades in the front-of-house, which was once entirely focused on table side trolley service known as "l'art de la table." "Fifty years ago when I started, you never saw the chef," Giraldin says. "The master of the house was not the chef, it was the maitre d'... the chef was in the background."
Giraldin also provides a master class on what makes "good service" — basically, servers should seamlessly blend into the dining experience. "What is service? Can you take a picture of service? Of course, you cannot," he says. "You can only see the service when you're missing it.... the waiter should be invisible." Watch the entire talk above.
