Time is on my side

The restaurant business has and is really struggling during the covid crisis, and we have sadly not yet seen its full impact.

This made me reminisce about great pairings of food and wine I’ve experienced over the last 30 years or so.

Chefs have come onto the scene, as have restaurants, and have disappeared again almost just as quickly. This is the dynamic of this enticing and volatile business. Great chefs younger than me have left the cooking to younger people, creating a new opportunity for me to experience different approaches.

“Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is
Now you all were saying that you want to be free
But you’ll come runnin’ back (I said you would baby)
You’ll come runnin’ back (like I told you so many times before)
You’ll come runnin’ back to me, yeah”

Let’s face it: I see no chefs in the business – almost none, that is – who were in the top kitchens when I entered the fine dining and wine scene around 1989.

It’s a hard business, and many burn the Molteni from both ends and flourish like spring. They live fast like a rockstar, and too many flame out too early it seems.

Food is created in its time, and time has little or no mercy. Wine is made with time generally as an ally. Yet for both, only the best stand time’s real test.

Very few dishes can be served after 30 years without failing the test of time – with only the memories remaining – like an aging rockstar. For example, the canard in a well-known Paris restaurant is certainly now feeling the crushing press of time.

“Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is
You’re searching for good times but just wait and see
You’ll come runnin’ back (I said you would darling)
You’ll come runnin back (spend the rest of life with ya baby)
You’ll come runnin’ back to me”

Wine and service go hand in hand, and great wines and great sommeliers sometimes stand the test of time, while very few chefs can maintain the required creativity and intensity decade after decade.

The current crisis will – sadly, it is always sad, yes it is – destroy the dreams and aspirations of some young, talented chefs who were just beginning to flower – at the wrong time. But hopefully we will see them come back with new projects and settings. Hopefully again, true talent will prevail.

“Go ahead baby, go ahead, go ahead and light up the town
And baby, do anything your heart desires
Remember, I’ll always be around
And I know, I know like I told you so many times before
You’re gonna come back
Yeah you’re going to come back baby…”

Rock on, and enjoy life like there is still time.

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Lyrics: Jerry Ragovoy / Norman Meade

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