Time Marches On: The Restaurant World is No Different

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Lutece (left) when it was the culinary catherdral for New York and beyond under the guiding hand of the masterful Chef Andre Soltner.

A visit to New York and that part of Manhattan allowed for a quick stroll down memory lane and here the building as it looks today (above). With the opening of Lutece in 1961, founder and chef Andre Soltner helped elevate dining in New York to new heights.

Proclaimed the best restaurant in the United States by Zagat and others, Lutece continued on a culinary run for some 30 years with Andre Soltner at the helm, until he sold it in 1990’s and eventually it closed for good in 2004.

Back in the late 1980’s and into the first few years of the ‘90s, we remember the kindness that Chef Andre Soltner showed a young tabletop aficionado by granting him a few minutes to discuss tabletop and its role in the fine dining experience. Over a coffee, the master explained to the student that it really wasn’t about plates, forks, and glassware. It was so much more than that…..it was about something called the dining experience.

Photographer Eric Futran’s photo of the the forks of Lutece remains one of our favorites. Why arguably the best chef in New York at the time (ok, we can argue about Jean-Jacques Rachou and a few others…) would offer to sit with someone so uneducated in the culinary world…who barely had heard of his home region of Alsace, cannot be answered. But, what is remembered is that it was done…and done on several occasions. And always it was done with the friendly courtesy of an enthusiastic and experienced professional – a director in his own Carnegie Hall – and someone who knew that tabletop played an important part in his theater. 

We can only say that the lessons were  appreciated and are remembered…..Je vous remercie beaucoup.

Time marches on.