We stepped into the restaurant's kitchen, where a dozen cooks were working frenetically.
In the center of the kitchen, amid the heat and frenzy, was a lone round table. It was set with white linen, silverware, and crystal , and around it were four chairs. The maitre d' pulled one out and motioned for me to sit.
This table -- positioned squarely at the heart of the restaurant's nerve center, where multi course dinners for more than 120 customers would be prepared that evening -- was ours for the next four hours. We were the guests of honor at Second Empire's chef's table, which meant we would dine in the kitchen alongside the executive chef and his staff, eating a meal designed for us.
Chef's tables are occasionally found at high-end restaurants and typically reserved for VIPs or special guests. But Second Empire's executive chef, Daniel Schurr, began offering them to the general public about four years ago, and they quickly took off.
He now hosts chef's tables four or five nights a week for anywhere from two to 14 people. At $110 a head, they include a custom-tailored menu of four courses, including dessert and matching wines. Patrons often book them to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries, while businesspeople schedule the tables to entertain clients.
"It exposes the customer to something different," said Schurr, 43, with a graying crew cut and a surfer's laid-back demeanor. "People are more exposed now to finer food, and the Food Channel scratches their curiosity about what really happens in restaurants, so this gives them a chance to see what they've read about and watched on TV."
Chef's tables are also a treat for the cooks, he added, because "they love to show off their skills, and this lets them rub elbows with the people they're cooking for."
Our evening behind-the-scenes at Second Empire, where we witnessed the big, busy staff operate as a well-choreographed team, gave me new appreciation for the difficult work, critical timing, and unrelenting pressure involved in running a successful restaurant.
