This past weekend Yilin and I went to Patisserie Claude, as per our weekly custom. As usual, he came out from the back to serve us himself, preferentially treating us with warm croissants fresh from the oven. (This is a bonus only given to certain long-term customers; we had been going every weekend for about one year before he started doing this.)
In line (not immediately) behind us were two women. One of them, when given her croissant from the front display, asked to have "a warm croissant from the back". Claude was angered, and said, "What? Do you think this is shit?", pointing to the croissant she had been given by the server/cashier who works in the front. He mumbled something else, to the effect of "It's good enough for you," but I am not completely certain.
As the two women were leaving, the one complained to the other, "He gave those people warm croissants from the back..."
Haha! You fool! You will never get warm croissants from the back now that you have stirred Claude's wrath!
The same thing happens when people try to bring dogs inside or use cell phones. He comes out and loudly berates them, telling them to get out of his establishment. What most people don't realize, because it is not common in New York City, is that Claude is not a pastry chef; he is an artisan.
Once, we saw two young women order a croissant and a quiche. One woman was introducing the other to Claude's. She asked Claude to cut the croissant and quiche in half. He said, "No" and walked away with a look of disgust. You do not ask a painter to cut his paintings in half, or a sculptor to smash a statue into fragments for individual sale. Likewise, you shouldn't ask a master chef to destroy a comestible he spent many years perfecting.
Oh well, more croissants for me and Yilin!
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same old adjective, brand new citrus.
5 comments:
There was a guy who worked at the pizzeria in our student center, back at Rutgers. If I recall, he once refused to give Mike the calzone Mike wanted. He was very, very picky about his calzones. He was working in a student center--I know, I know, I shouldn't judge, but. Dude. The customer is always right.
On the other hand, the fresh croissants for long time customers policy -- that's good business.
And you've made me hungry.
that story was awesome. i think claude must be french :)
dan, i think i was there for that incident, but mike was asking for more sauce for the calzone he ordered. the guy just said no, one (of the servings of sauce) was enough. mike walked away defeated, unable to drown his calzone in warm marinara goodness, and accepting the lightly marinara coated calzone he would soon face.
I just had a calzone for dinner last night. I had to ask the guy behind the counter for more sauce and he didn't seem pleased. If it's not drenched in marinara sauce, I just don't enjoy it as much.
Josh, I think it's about time for you to take your good friend Katie (yes, I'm referring to myself in the third person) to Claude's establishment.
Marinara Sauce is a rare commodity. It is drilled for mainly in Madagascar and Tuscany. There are smaller drilling operations in the US, Kentucky and the Gulf States being foremost in that regard. World Marinara Production hit their peak in the 90's and from now on the supply will only really ever decrease, though the Marinara lobby insists new technology will allow it to prospect for and drill for Marinara in places heretofore thought to be impossible, or economically unsound. Iceland, for example, surprisingly has large Marinara reserves, but they're hard to get to with all the ice and steam around. Due to these factors, Marinara prices have gone up. However American consumers refuse to pay more than they have paid for Marinana, so business such as the pizzeria at the Bush Student Center at Rutgers University, and as the pizzeria Katie went to the other night, are forced to sell their Marinara at a LOSS. Thus they insist only on giving you one small thumble-sized cup's worth of Marinara sauce for your calzone. It's very complicated, I read about this in a special report in the Economist.
dan's right, in a way. marinara is a non-renewable resource (remember that from 4th grade?). unfortunately, calzones breed like rabbits. thus, the population of calzones has been steadily increasing, while the supply of marinara has been steadily decreasing. soon we will only be able to eat calzones without marinara.
clearly mike was too naive in college to fathom the importance of this. it's a good thing that the lunchman put him in his place.
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