Every fine dining restaurant (especially if it’s French) has a Maître d’.  What EXACTLY is a Maître d’, you may ask?  And what is his or her role?  The Maître d’ is short for Maître d’hôtel, a French translation for “master of the hotel.”  Whereas in a small restaurant where you would see a host or hostess, in a more elegant setting, you would see a Maître d’.  For simplified purposes (and the fact that I’m tired of copying/pasting the word), let’s just call this position MD.

The MD is responsible for the overall dining experience.  This includes, but is not limited to, managing the wait staff, assigning sections, and dealing with any customer issues.  He or she serves as the liaison between the kitchen and the dining room and makes sure that everything is running well.  Because I am the Queen of analogies, let me explain it to you this way:

In any successful company, you have many parts that make up the body.  I am the face and the voice of Green Mangos Catering.  I am the person you’ll see when you look at our website and the person you’ll talk to when you call to discuss an event.  Our staff (culinary and wait staff) are the limbs.  They assist in the production and execution of the event.  Tom, however, is the heart of our company.  Similar to the actual bodily organ itself, you don’t necessarily see it, but you definitely can feel it and you know it exists.  And if it doesn’t exist, neither would the living body. 

Tom is my “Front of House” manager.  He is the Maître d’, if you will.  I never realized how important this position is, until recently.  At each and every event, you will see Tom work a room.  You’ll see him do it in such a way that will make the event seem flawless.  He will make sure your food is the right temperature.  He will make sure the servers will flow out like butter melting from a pan.  And IF he perceives there may possibly be an issue forthcoming, he is all over the situation before anyone will know that one might even exist. 

My favorite thing to tease Tom about is the fact that you will, more often than not, see him schmoozing with the client and the guests at some point through the night.  Don’t get me wrong.  Tom is the first person who will wipe up a spill or pick up broken glass due to a guest who may have had one too many cocktails (things that I feel he should not be doing and should be delegating…), but he’s not above doing any of these tasks.  Besides, when he does schmooze, it usually brings us future bookings.  Bottom line, my MD does what he has to do to ensure we cater a successful event and I love him for it.

However, Tom is not Superman and he has his limitations.  Currently, he has a full-time job and has demands that may not always allow him to have excessive energy to cater an event at the end of a long day.  In an effort to maximize his resources and what he has to offer, we’ve decided to back him off of weekday events.

I’ve catered a number of events now without Tom and I’ll tell you one thing.  Although those Tom-less events are still very successful, they lack the spark that is usually accompanied when Tom is actually working an event.  You won’t notice it on the floor because we have an excellent staff that helps me keep everything running smoothly.  The service will still appear seamless to the client and the guests.  But I know it and I feel it in my heart.  So now when Tom is able to work with me at events, I feel privileged.  I no longer laugh outwardly when I see him schmooze with the clients (although I might smile from within).  I just know that he’s doing his job.

When you think of Vegas, you probably have a vision of young, beautiful dancers with big feather boas on their heads, powerful businessmen with slick, dark hair in expensive suits, or bachelorette parties gone wild.

What you don’t think of seeing is that older crowd, that more mature generation. Would it surprise you to know that as of 2009, over 25% of visitors to Las Vegas are retired with the average age being 50 years old? Well, the rambunctious group sitting next to us at dinner was considerably older than that.

While I was eating and going through my usual ingredient breakdown of what was in my dish, I looked over at the increasingly rowdy group sitting next to me. I was greeted by a wink from a gentleman in his 80’s. He introduced himself and rambled on about who he and his friends were and where they were from. Apparently, they were an old group of friends who live all over California and decided to meet in Las Vegas for a little reunion. We instantly liked him. Despite the age difference, we found out that we had more in common with this group than meets the eye. They were all travelers, have a big passion for food and even bigger passion for life.

We spent the remainder of our dinner with the group – sharing stories, taking pictures and laughing probably a little louder than the restaurant is probably used to. As if the night couldn’t have gotten any better, the Executive Chef came out from the kitchen to see what the ruckus was all about. By the time we were through with the Chef, he was laughing and joining in on the pictures. We would have stayed later had it not been for a show we were going to see. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our new friends.

During the week in Vegas, Tom and I took in many of the sights and enjoyed much of what Vegas had to offer. However, one of my favorite memories was that dinner we had with our new friends at the Joel Robuchon Restaurant. This group was a reminder to us that you have to live life to the fullest each and everyday. Don’t take joy for granted. Life is much shorter than any of us may realize. This group of retirees may not be a group that Tom and I would normally be able to relate to. But during that encounter, no matter how brief it may have been, we could relate to them through our experiences with great food, close friends and world travels.

Where else can you go and visit Rome, France and the pirates’ cove all within a short walking distance? Where else can you go and see Elvis alive, well, AND available in all ethnicities? And finally, where else can you go and enjoy the meal of a lifetime while hearing stories about World War II over hand-made marshmallows and coffee? Only in Vegas, my friends. Only in Vegas.