High-End Hospitality Confessions

Tales of Taboo

Ali Weiss

Society & Culture

4.8 • 725 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

$10,000 bottles of wine! 15 hour workdays! All-night cocaine benders! Psychotic head chefs! It's Season 4 of Tales of Taboo!

This week, we're exploring the high-octane world of high-end dining: the kinds of establishments that (literally) inspire books like Sweetbitter and movies like The Menu, where reservations are impossible and Chef is spelled with a capital C.

I kick us off by telling MY most absurd tales as a diner in fancy restaurants: a college friend's outpatient rehab in Chicago, the development of a weird friendship with a 69 year old British man, doing edibles with famous restauranteurs at the Beatrice Inn...

Then (starting at 11:43), we hear from current and former employees on the other side. In New York, confessors include the former events manager at a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Flatiron, a former waitress at another 3 Michelin star restaurant in Midtown, a former hostess at The Standard and Bowery Hotel's restaurants + The Waverly Inn, a former champagne slinger for a downtown cocktail group, and a line cook at a Lower East Side restaurant owned by a very young celebrity chef. In London, confessors include the former sommelier at Daniel Humm's Davies and Brook + another unnamed 2 Michelin star establishment, and a former waitress at two different Michelin star restaurants in Mayfair and Shoreditch. Elsewhere in Europe, a former assistant manager tells tales about an abusive executive chef at a Japanese Michelin star spot that was the first in its country.

Fine dining is controversial and divisive. It's glamorous escapism with a very grim underbelly; a way to create community, yet isolate a huge number of people who cannot afford it; facilitate artistic expression and pump pretentious bullshit. These nuances are why this world is so taboo - and enticing - and deserves to be discussed. Welcome back.

Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Isabel McMahon & WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. GOT A SECRET TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST? Share your own confession - or thoughts and feedback - at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Ali Weiss and I'm obsessed with the people, ideas, and experiences that break the rules,
0:27.6	beat the odds, or are considered socially unacceptable. And this is season four of Tales of
0:34.8	Taboo. Each week, I gather anonymous confessions from my listeners around the world
0:40.2	who've existed in elusive subcultures, ventured down the road less traveled, made serious
0:46.2	mistakes, and achieved extraordinary victories. Some of them call my hotline, and others will
0:52.5	send written stories for me to read.
0:55.0	These confessions are raw.
0:56.7	They're honest.
0:57.5	They're even downright shocking sometimes.
0:59.9	But they always deliver the most incredible life lessons,
1:03.7	and encourage us to consider why we're all so afraid to be different.
1:08.0	And for season four, I'm introducing a brand new twist. I'm starting each episode
1:13.4	with my own, no holds barred, on the record confession about the topic we're discussing.
1:19.5	This week, it's the world of high-end hospitality. Let's get into it.
1:25.8	The first important memory I have that took place in a fancy restaurant was the night I found out I got into college.
1:32.6	My family was eating at a place called Pasadice del Pepp, a seafood restaurant found at the end of
1:38.0	Barcelona's old city's most famous corridor. The walls are made of centuries old stones and covered in oil paintings and
1:45.9	there's no menu. You sit and they serve whatever the kitchen feels like serving, stopping
1:51.6	only when you're too full to breathe. The beautiful ambiance and the novelty of the experience
1:57.6	significantly amplified what otherwise would have been truthfully a mid-level
2:02.5	reaction to the good news. I was thrilled to be accepted because my grades were not good,
2:08.8	that college definitely wasn't my first choice. Pasadis del Papp turned a night a fundamental
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ali Weiss, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ali Weiss and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.