What ‘service’ means in Italy
Carin Robinson
There is much to write about dining out in Italy. There is the food, of course. But I am going to leave that to Someone Else. I want to write about service. I want to write about service particularly because I have been wanting to anyway, for quite some time. Now, having eaten in Rome, in the province of Abruzzo and then on the Amalfi coast my suspicions have been confirmed and my views bolstered.
‘Service’ in Italian restaurants, trattorias and cafés does not mean ‘servitude’.
In Italy, people who serve customers in eating establishments are regarded and treated as representatives of the establishment they work for. They are not regarded and treated as custodians of the customers’ needs and desires. Their role is to make available tothe customer what the chef had decided to make, on the chef’s terms. They are to transmit the ethos of the establishment; its style of menu and its general culture.
To be clear, restaurant service, no matter where we went was of a very high quality. By this I mean professional and warm. And by ‘professional’ I specifically mean waiters knew the menu, they could explain and suggest and discuss the food and the wine. They took orders accurately and managed their table so that it suited the style of service and food the proprietor of the establishment designed. They did not hover and they did not fuss. They did not coddle the patron. By ‘warm’ I mean they smiled, listened, laughed at our silly jokes and complimented Mr. Robinson on his Italian – the last being of particular importance, of course. What I do not mean is that they did everything in their power to provide us with whatever took our fancy.
In countries where servitude is available on tap, sadly like in South Africa, waiters are often not regarded as experts. But they should be. Not an expert at making you, the customer, happy but an expert at representing the establishment and making itavailable to you in the most charming way possible. Waiters are not there to run to the corner shop buy you a coke. It is not their job to absorb the stress of your day, the pedantry of your hygiene or the fussiness of your child’s eating habits. They are trained by, and expected to work for, the people who have written the menu, are running the kitchen and choosing the music and lighting. They are ambassadors of the establishment, not minions of the patrons.
In Italy this is what you sense very quickly: this person does not work for me. They work for the person whose product this is. I am permitted to engage them for more information, to charm them as they charm me, and to tell them if I did not like something. But I am not permitted to ask them for a bespoke experience. Nor am I entitled to be less than polite with them and then take offence if they should return such treatment with being less than warm with me. Being a petulant, demanding, challenging, disrespectful or intimidating patron would result in a waiter being less willing to please. This in no manner would transgress the rules for service in hospitality.
It should be no different in South Africa. Salute!
