Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Product Information

Fair enough, but Daniel and I weren't laughing. It was an honor to be recognized as one of the fifty best restaurants in the world; we knew that. Still-in that room, we had come in last place. Before we brought out their final savory course, I admitted to the guests that I’d been eavesdropping: “We’re thrilled you chose us for your last meal in New York, but we didn’t want you to go home with any culinary regrets,” I said, as the kitchen servers set the artistically plated hot dog sections down at each place. They freaked out.

We had a radical idea of what the guest experience could be, and our vision was unlike any other out there. "You're not being realistic," someone would invariably tell us, every time we contemplated one of our reinventions. "You're being unreasonable." But before I had the experience to let the conversation flow, one of my favorite questions to ask was, "What's the difference between service and hospitality?" Unfortunately, these skills have never been less valued than they are in our current hyperrational, hyperefficient work culture. We are in the middle of a digital transformation. That transformation has enhanced many aspects of our lives, but too many companies have left the human behind. They've been so focused on products, they've forgotten about people. And while it may be impossible to quantify in financial terms the impact of making someone feel good, don't think for a second that it doesn't matter. In fact, it matters more. Daniel's food was extraordinary; he was undeniably one of the best chefs in the world. So if we could become a restaurant focused passionately, intentionally, wholeheartedly on connection and graciousness-on giving both the people on our team and the people we served a sense of belonging-then we'd have a real shot at greatness.Chefs at the finest restaurants in the world had long been celebrated for being unreasonable about the food they served. At Eleven Madison Park, we came to realize the remarkable power of being unreasonable about how we made people feel. I'm writing this book because I believe it's time for every one of us to start being unreasonable about hospitality.

Guidara explores how innovation and investing in teams can have a profound affect on the experiences of those within an organisation and who are served Essential lessons in hospitality for every business, from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park. Most of the chefs on the 50 Best list had made their impact by focusing on innovation, on what needed to change. But as I thought about the impact I wanted to make, I focused on the one thing that wouldn't. Fads fade and cycle, but the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world

We called it the Welcome Conference, and it was an instant hit with restaurant people. Dining room professionals from all over the country attended lectures, networked over drinks, and went home reinvigorated. Except we weren't celebrating. We were at the very bottom of the list! Mortified to see our dejected faces on the thirty-foot-tall screen, I elbowed Daniel, and the two of us mustered a smile and a wave, but it was too little, too late: an auditorium filled with the most celebrated chefs and restaurateurs in the world-our heroes-had already borne witness to our devastation. The night was over for us before it had even begun. Guidara makes his nonfiction debut with an enthusiastic guide for leaders [and asserts] sage advice about leadership.”– Kirkus Review By the conference's third year, though, when we looked out into the audience, we saw sommeliers and servers sitting next to people who didn't work in restaurants at all: tech titans, small business owners, the CEOs of huge real estate companies. These people believed, as I do, that how they served their clients was as valuable as what they served. And they knew that what they could learn from leaders in my business could supercharge how they ran theirs.

We hadn't done that yet. We'd worked our butts off to earn a spot on that list, but what, really, had we done that was groundbreaking? The more we talked, the more it became clear: nothing. Will gives us the best reason to be unreasonable—the people we serve. His approach to hospitality is novel, noble, and not at all exclusive to the restaurant industry. If you want to revolutionize the way you do business, you need this book!”— DaveRamsey, bestselling author and radio host On one level, it's absolutely ridiculous to call any restaurant "the best restaurant in the world." But the importance of the 50 Best list is that it names the places that are having the greatest impact on the world of food at a given moment in time. There's a long-standing debate in my profession as to whether hospitality can be taught. Many leaders I respect believe it can't; I couldn't disagree more. In fact, in 2014, I founded a conference for dining room professionals with my friend Anthony Rudolf, who was at the time the general manager of Per Se, with the intention of doing just that.

In dining rooms, in conference rooms, and in all corners of hospitality, Will Guidara has made a career out of going above and beyond, giving people what they want, even when they don’t know they want it. This book puts his story, and more than a few of his trade secrets, in your hands.”— Questlove My leadership in education is grounded in building a “culture of culture”, which is so resonant in this book, as Guardia so engagingly reflects on the impact of investing in people I read this out loud to a friend at the airport while we waited on our flight and some people nearby were listening and they all bust out laughing. One guy said “my parents ran restaurants. That was ridiculous what you just read.” I want to do some more reading or listening or learning about Guidara, but overall, I was impressed by the practices in this book. I am ecstatic to begin to look at moments through this lense. While I am not a Michelin rated restaurant, nor do I run one, I find myself with opportunity to create moments often. What might I do to elevate them?That word "unreasonable" was meant to shut us down-to end the conversation, as it so often does. Instead, it started one, and became our call to arms. Because no one who ever changed the game did so by being reasonable. Serena Williams. Walt Disney. Steve Jobs. Martin Scorsese. Prince. Look across every discipline, in every arena-sports, entertainment, design, technology, finance-you need to be unreasonable to see a world that doesn't yet exist. Is it good that a fine-dining restaurant breaks the tradition of not allowing their staff to dine there because a lot of old ones are elitist and awful? Of course, but I'm not giving gold stars to basic human decency. Treating people decently? It's okay. Could use improvement. I had given away thousands of dishes, and many, many (many) thousands of dollars’ worth of food by that point in my career, and yet I can confidently say that nobody had ever responded the way that table responded to that hot dog. In fact, before they left, each person at the table told me it was the highlight not only of the meal, but of their trip to New York. They’d be telling the story for the rest of their lives.”