Confessions of a Tableside Flambéur | Hacker News Reader

Confessions of a Tableside Flambéur

eater.com

62 pointsjseliger76 comments

>“Oh my God, I hate bananas,” she says, turning toward her tablemates, “but we should totally order it anyway!” They haven’t even finished their appetizers.

there is nothing wrong with talking about an exciting dessert before you've finished your appetizers, what is wrong with this person?

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now, I don't get many chances to tell my flambé story, it's not like the subject comes up very often.

I was at a ridiculously overpriced resort up around Santa Barbara, and we dined in the house restaurant. Mostly we order things compatible with red wine, and one of our selections on this occasion was the Filet Mignon; not my preferred cut at all but it was what they had.

So, it arrived tableside on a little cart, and the waiter proceeded to flambe it to within an inch of its life (by which I mean an inch past that boundary) and the whole performance, specialty of the really old waiter, seemed so old fashioned it jogged my memory I got to thinking "isn't this Steak Diane?" which I somehow remember from my childhood, along with rumaki.

It was late, kitchen was closing, too much other food, and we didn't want to make a fuss, so we let them serve us the piece of shoe leather. But I did ask to see the menu again just to refresh my memory and figure out what happened. And, there was the Filet Mignon, and there was the Steak Diane, and then it struck me! I know what happened.

When I ordered the Filet Mignon, they must have heard "I'd like the flaming one"...

Never heard of Steak Diane before, but it seems like it would be tasty.

But, using filet for the dish does seem like a waste, kind of like making a whisky and cola with Buffalo Trace or a cosmo with Grey Goose.

It's my understanding that the filet is preferred for dishes like this because it's not the 'top shelf' product that it is often made out to be

Steak au poivre, for instance, is traditionally prepared with the filet

Now using a ribeye, I would consider that a waste

it's because filet has very little flavor of its own

Try some A5 wagyu and report back on that.

That's totally different, comparing A5 wagyu filet to normal prime filet is ridiculous.

Oh. OK.

Especially when the grades+breeds you're using to describe the meats are specifically describing fat content.

It's like saying "I don't like slim milk because it's low-fat" and responding "try Whole milk". Yeah, no duh, that's the whole conversation.

Sigh. The term used was "filet." A ridiculous generalization was posted and corrected with a perfectly-cromulent counterexample, which was duly downvoted for triggering someone's cognitive dissonance. Life goes on.

Insult me however you’d like, but I’d almost always prefer a filet over ribeye (or any other cut).

It has become very faddish in the past ten years or so to claim that any steak without tons of fat has "no flavor" [sic].

Of course fine filet has tons of flavor – it's clean and intensely beefy and very tender – it's my preferred cut as well. But I don't need every bite of meat I eat to be drowning in fat.

it's not just fat, compare for example to an outside skirt steak, it is no more fatty but much more flavorful

>what is wrong with this person?

Two common kinds of foolishness are:

1. There is no right way to do a thing

2. You must never deviate from the right way of doing the thing

Many foodies derive a misplaced pride from preaching #2.

Some desserts need to be ordered ahead of the meal. The best chocolate soufflé in Chicago was served at La Sardine (now closed), but needed 45 minutes to prepare.

I suppose, then, that it really should be ordered ahead of the meal. Sounds like that would be the right way to do it.

To the #2 point, if the goal is to do a "fresh take on something," by all means, experiment. But if the diner expects exactly what's on the menu, say, traditional chicken pot pie, then I'd say yes; there's only one right way to do it.

Again, the whole issue can be avoided if the menu item reads: "Chef's take on traditional Chicken Pot Pie" Then you can add cumin or whatever.

I'm not so sure I agree with that. Even with chicken pot pie, there are absolutely a few different variations that (in my opinion) are equally valid- most notably, there's the question of whether it needs to have a crust underneath the filling or not. How thick should the filling be? I've had chicken pot pies where the filling is almost a soup, and ones where it's almost firm enough to pick up and eat a slice. Do you use traditional pie crust or a layer of puff pastry on top- or maybe nestle biscuits on top? Should I use potatoes or not, because that'll affect how hearty and filling it is? How about peas? I'll grant that if I use turkey I should call it "turkey pot pie", but what about Cornish game hen? What if I use parsnips instead of carrots?

Then there are different forms- what if I didn't make it in a pie tin, but folded the dough into a half-circle like a hand pie? Or perhaps a rectangle? It might be more accurate to call this a "chicken hand pie" but then you have the ironic problem that a diner might be more willing to order it if they understand that it's really a chicken pot pie in a different shape.

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I know I'm being a bit pedantic here, but here's the thing- you're not wrong in spirit. But I think it's overly reductive to say "yes; there's only one right way to do it".

IMO, it's sort of more like the difference between a cover of a song vs. a remix of a song. In the same way, there's a sliding scale here- a cover of a song might be an attempt to perfectly duplicate the original, or it might be similar but a different artist's take, or it might be a completely different genre (but preserving the song's structure). A remix is a different song entirely that borrows elements of the original.

> a half-circle like a hand pie

Interesting term "hand pie". Is that like a pastie[1]?

Here in Australia, a single-person pie is typically considered a hand pie because they are frequently eaten that way (holding the pie and taking bites out of it) for casual dining. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastie

[2] https://westsidetoday-enki-v2.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/up...

this isn't a "foodie" making some judgment of when you should order dessert, it's a restaurant worker dreading having to do the performance of the flambé for the nth time this week (or evening)

My mother does this every Christmas, a veritable highlight of the year when we were young. She would dose the Christmas pudding in Brandy and set it alight. No-one even really liked Christmas pudding, it was just the spectacle. It wasn't even that wild - it just kind of burned with a gentle blue light and we all just gathered around this mysterious glowing orb like cultists.

My dad also did this when we had christmas at his. The brandy does burn with a pale flame, but if you have the traditional sprig of holly on top of the pudding, and that spring is dry rather than fresh, that will go up like a rocket, with a bright yellow smoky flame.

Isn't holly toxic? I wouldn't want that anywhere near my food, or to be breathing in the combustion products.

Eating a bunch of the berries can make you nauseous but the poisonousness is widely overstated.

If you don't like Christmas pudding you must be eating the wrong sort of Christmas pudding!

Some might say anyone eating Christmas pudding is eating the wrong sort...

I suppose we all deserve a chance to gripe about our jobs in the relevant website or reading material of our profession. That is, to the extent of my capacity to tell, entirely what this article is. With some facts about Flambé sprinkled in. There aren't even really any "confession" anecdotes except "I wasn't trained and I messed up sometimes" and "this woman didn't like bananas but ordered it anyway".

I think i get where the rant of the author comes from, it’s the superficiality of it all, people didn’t order the dessert because they wanted to eat it but only because of the fire show which might make him feel like a circus act rather than a cook but that’s what everything seems to be today all show, no substance. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the food as long as it looks good in the pics, only the 5 seconds of fame matter.

It probably seems dumb if you do 6 flambes each night, but the patrons probably eat mostly for sustenance and taste 99% of the time and want a little show this once. It's not like every restaurant has tableside preparations.

It's also a fun party trick that can be done at home to impress guests, and it's not particularly hard to do.

All you need is a hot pan, some liquor with high alcohol content, and a long bbq lighter. Pour a small amount of alcohol into the pan and light it up from the side, obviously being mindful of your surroundings and keeping the pan horizontal as not to spill the burning alcohol.

And by all means don't do it under the extractor fan, it will suck in the flames and catch fire.

Also, don't do it with your head bent over the pan, it will singe your eyebrows off and give you what looks like mild sunburn.

the guests will be thrilled though

Also don’t do it on top of a frisbee in the middle of an Ultimate match. The frisbee’s downward-sloping geometry will cause the alcohol to fall off and the Observer will generally not take your side.

To add to this: I would strongly recommend against doing this at a fuel station. The flame may jump from the alcohol to petrol gases in the surrounding area, causing more than just the pan to flambe.

Do it in scoober position, silly.

I’ve used chef Jon’s bananas foster recipe to impress a few people in my times: https://youtu.be/yLLw-B-OR8U?si=GmC-neQ9eRDi__MK

If you try, keep some baking soda around just in case you have to put out the fire.

Not to be confused with potassium chlorate, which doesn't work as well.

native french speaker here : it should read "Flambeur". "Flambé" does exist. "Flambeur" does exist but not Flambéur.

“Flambéur” isn’t right but “flambeur” means something else entirely (gambler). “Flambéer” would be more legitimate but would be hard to decipher. The title tag plays it safe and uses “flambé restaurant server”.

Flambeur with this meaning is a metaphor (it can mean gambler, or just overspender).

Its literal meaning as "quelqu'un qui flambe" remains correct too.

like somebody who "burns through money"

"flambeur" means someone who sets things on fire. Either literally, as in this case, or metaphorically, as in money.

I read it as flâneur.

In Louisiana, might it be flambeaux?

that means torch (the traditional kind, not electric)

And more specifically, torches (plural). A single torch would be "flambeau"

This article isn't in French, it's in English.

Tout le monde connait Bob le Flambeur.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047892/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_le_flambeur

Sort of a French Ocean's Eleven in the 1950s.

I was expecting some fire story. Earlier in the year, in Madrid[1], a flambéed dessert created a fire in a restaurant that resulted in 2 people dead and 10 injured.

1. https://www.telemadrid.es/noticias/madrid/Un-postre-flameado...

Yes, I also read the article. But, as an English speaker, I found their link to the BBC coverage of the same incident more useful.

The only flambéed dishes that spring to mind are "volcano chicken", a staple at a Thai restaurant near me (not where this film was shot):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSjJFOgBFNY

And the "cobra coffee" at the former Bombay Brasserie, where there is some complex manoeuvre involving lighting some spirits on fire, trickling them down an orange peel, then using them to burn sugar into caramel or something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXg1VZD5lZ0

Apparently also available in Washington, D. C.:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2014/12/19...

There are quite often flaming beverages at Tiki-themed bars; they seem to involve burning high-proof alcohol along with sugar and dehydrated citrus slices.

Typo: omit the accent aigu, this means: flambeur instead of flambéur!

Alternatively, flambéer or flambé-er, since by the time you're using "flambé" as a present-tense verb you're already in mangled culinary-loanword territory.

not a grave mistake

Sacrebleu!

Typo: sacré bleu!

In French, it is a big one ;-) It changes the pronunciation of the word from \flɑ̃.bœʁ\ to something like \flɑ̃.be.yʁ\

They were joking--"aigu" (é) is "not grave" (è).

Hey, this is no place to circon-flexe that you know fancy names for little extra bits on letters.

This series of puns is macron me ill.

My only real experiences with tableside fire are in New Orleans.

At Brennan's, we always get the Bananas Foster. It's SO GOOD, even if you don't like bananas (and I don't). The presentation can get dramatic, for sure:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chetman/8225606480/in/album-72...

At Galatoire's, do yourself a favor and enjoy Cafe Brulot for dessert, or with dessert. It's a flaming coffee cocktail prepared tableside and, as per the thread, set aflame (sometimes on the tablecloth!).

Growing up, when going to restaurants when in the US, I loved the ones serving so-called ‘Continental’ food. The Haute Cuisine pretensions, puddings on fire, coq au vin, old-fashioned service and the rest—all wonderful!

I LOATHE these newer restaurants with casual service yet high prices, garlic aioli, Sriracha sauce, and ubiquitous and awful comfort food. I also loathe the new breed of garish, high end restaurants.

> I also loathe the new breed of garish, high end restaurants.

We have a trend of high end restaurants being what I view as night clubs. If your steak restaurant has a DJ, you're doing it wrong (IMO). It all feels Vegas-y to me, and I'm not a fan of Vegas.

> garlic aioli

Is there any other type of aioli?

My understanding is the only controversial part, source if the "real aioli" great schism, is egg yolk.

Presumably serving dishes with with sauce.

I misread the title thinking it would be some sort of indoor flâneur, but instead it was the opposite — less surprising, perhaps, but a delightful little essay.

Plum pudding on fire was a Christmas staple growing up, and I kept up the tradition when I moved out. I will say the traditional Christmas dinner makes more sense in the northern hemisphere winter!

Looks like they're running cherries jubilee instead of bananas foster this month:

https://thegrillnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/THE-G...

No matter how technologically advanced our society becomes, humans will always be captivated by fire. Yep.

Thankful to have a Greek restaurant that serves saganaki down the street. If only we had a restaurant that served real raclette.

Funny enough, Saganaki is an American creation. Invented in Chicago in 1968.

https://www.oakpark.com/2021/09/09/flaming-cheese-its-how-a-...

And I do love raclette.

My mom used to do this at home for example when cooking rognons de veau flambés au Cognac (works with Armagac too.) She managed to briefly set fire to the kitchen wallpaper once.

My kids feared I lit the house on fire when I showed them how I did my flambées bananas. The flamme was indeed impressive.

There's a roast chicken recipe we do occasionally, where you flambé the chicken in brandy (towards the end of roasting) and then add a load of cream.

It is really quite epicly good.

In some Portuguese restaurants, chourico is another variation. It's fun. The true art of great service is to make diners think it's the chef who is responsible for their enjoyment.

flaming drinks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_drink

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