"Tonight's specials include the 'Sicilian Calzone,' " says the waitress, barely audible above the clatter of pots and pans and the kitchen expediter, who is calling out orders to the restaurant's cooks. Just a few feet away, flames momentarily flare up as the sautee cook throws onions into the pan while another cook hurriedly plates a mound of spaghetti and three baseball-size meatballs on a dish. "You know, you're at the best seat in the house tonight," the waitress says with a smile, addressing the party of four seated in a burgundy-cushioned booth about eight feet from the kitchen's hot line at Buca di Beppo restaurant in Washington DC.

Sitting near the kitchen used to be considered a less-than-desirable location, but these days it seems that food-lovers can't get close enough. Today, some customers are clamoring to sit in the back of the house at special "kitchen tables" or "chef's tables" that provide a front-row view of the kitchen's action. Some restaurants have long had a kitchen table for use by staff members, but it's only within the last decade that these tables have gained panache and been transformed into choice seating for customers. Minneapolis-based Buca di Beppo is among those operations setting a place for customers in the kitchen. The casual restaurant chain has established a kitchen table in all but one of its 51 units nationwide.

Front and center Chef's tables provide a behind-the-scenes look at a restaurant — a much-sought-after experience for foodies who crave entertaining and educational dining experiences. According to the National Restaurant Association's 2000 Restaurant Industry Forecast, 45 percent of adults said that they are interested in fullservice restaurants with a lively, entertaining atmosphere. Four out of 10 adults indicated interest in display cooking — where customers can see their meals being prepared.

"Kitchen tables are becoming a more common fixture in restaurants because of the entertainment element that they supply," says John Pond, "paisano partner" or manager of the Washington DC Buca di Beppo. Waitresses and waiters stream by the Buca di Beppo kitchen table on their way out of the kitchen, stopping to point out the different dishes they're carrying.

New York City-based Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group has established a kitchen table at each of its seven Smith & Wollensky steakhouses across the country. "It's another outlet to make customers happy," says company President Alan Stillman. "Customers are much more interested in food than they were 10 or 15 years ago. There's tremendous interaction [at these tables] with the chef . . . . You're not part of the restaurant scene, you're part of the kitchen."

Smith & Wollensky created its first chef's table eight years ago at Park Avenue Cafe in New York City. A reservation at the chic table — which offers a daily tasting menu as well as a bird's-eye view of the operation's renowned culinary staff at work — is hard to come by. Darren McDonald, who worked at the restaurant four years ago as an assistant manager, recalls that, like clockwork, at 9 a.m. each day the restaurant's phones would ring. "We always knew it was someone calling to reserve the table in six weeks."

McDonald is now manager of the Washington DC Smith & Wollensky operation, where the kitchen table is not in as great demand as Park Avenue Cafe's, but is still very popular, he says. The Smith & Wollensky chef's table — which offers a la carte dining — is a favorite with some customers. "There are some people who, once they find out about it, it's where they always want to sit. They get a real kick out of it," says McDonald. "Some people are fascinated by food preparation."

Show time

The chef's-table experience can differ widely from the loud hustle and bustle of the warm Buca di Beppo kitchen where customers order off the standard menu. Other establishments feature a more upscale version.

For example, the chef's table at Hemispheres Restaurant in Toronto's Metropolitan Hotel provides an elegant evening of fine dining. For a fee, the restaurant will arrange limousine service to chauffeur guests to the hotel, ensuring that they start the evening off right. Upon arrival, guests head to a soundproof, temperature-controlled glass-enclosed room within the kitchen where they find a table set with fine china, silver and Riedel crystal. Sommelier Jane Rodgerson greets each party and starts the evening with a champagne toast. As they dine on a six- to eight-course meal specially prepared for them by Executive Chef Patrick Lin, guests can view the entire production line through a glass wall.

Dinners range from $96 per person to $125, plus beverages. Rodgerson helps guests to choose from a 300-plus wine list, selecting a wine for each course, if desired. Chef Lin speaks with each group and describes the menu, which he has specially crafted with their likes, dislikes, allergies and dietary restrictions in mind. The table's private server takes care of any other special requests.

A similar scene takes place at Tribute restaurant in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where chef's-table guests savor a 10- to 12-course dinner over four hours. But here the table — which seats six to eight — is located directly in the kitchen, with no glass barrier. The lavish evening starts with maitre d'/sommelier Mickey Bakst taking the party to the wine vault to select wines to complement each course. After making their selections, the group settles down at the table, which is located behind the chef and expediter.

"We encourage them to take off their ties, roll up their sleeves and enjoy the ride," says Bakst. To help guide chef Takashi Yagihashi in customizing a meal, each party is invited to fax in a form beforehand indicating any food preferences or dietary restrictions. Each guest receives a menu specially printed for the group, and the chef and his staff explain each course.

"People love the experience," says Bakst. "They love watching the action in the kitchen and love the opportunity to get to know the chef." And with a $2,000 minimum per seating, Bakst is enamored of the table as well. "It is our highest-grossing table."

The chef's table at Park 75 in the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta also puts customers in the heart of the kitchen — without any barriers. At $135 per person, eight guests dine on a seven-course dinner at a special stainless-steel table. Chef Brooke Vosika explains each dish and often provides unexpected tastings of products not yet on the menu.

With the biggest kitchen in Los Angeles — 25,000 square feet — Bernard's restaurant in the Biltmore Hotel can accommodate large parties in the back of the house. In fact, Bernard's once fit a party of 80 — all wearing chef's hats — at one long table, recalls the restaurant's former chef, Roger Pigozzi. On some occasions, the restaurant has even brought a pianist and grand piano into the kitchen. Pigozzi, who left the Biltmore this summer, says that he much preferred serving smaller parties of 10 or so. "When it's smaller, you're more able to talk about the food. It's better the more intimate it is."

Small groups often meet in the Biltmore's Rendezvous Court to start the evening with a champagne toast before the maitre d' leads them to their table. At times, only the party's host knows where they'll be sitting, and the others look on in wonderment as they head back to the kitchen. There they find a table adorned with gold-trimmed porcelain china dating back to when the hotel first opened in 1923. Fine crystal and delicate flowers also grace the table.

After a tour of the kitchen, guests sit down to their gourmet dinner in view of the production line. "We would bring every plate over to the table and describe it to them," says Pigozzi. "Usually they were still in the kitchen when the night cleaners came in."

Stage lights

A behind-the-scenes dining experience offers a unique form of entertainment, but it also can be accompanied by more heat, noise and distractions than a typical restaurant meal. Opening a kitchen to customers also raises health and safety issues and requires the restaurant to maintain a ship-shape kitchen ready for close inspection. Restaurateurs should take all of these aspects into consideration when deciding whether to offer a chef's table.

To reduce the heat and noise commonly associated with kitchens, some restaurants have designed special glass-enclosed rooms that adjoin the kitchen. For example, the chef's table at Seeger's restaurant in Atlanta features portholes that offer a glimpse of chef Guenter Seeger. Full glass walls at Smith & Wollensky's chef's tables allow "you to see all the action in the kitchen without all the heat and the noise," says Stillman. "It's air-conditioned; it's fun; it's part of the kitchen without being part of the aggravation."

Guests at the chef's table at the Four Seasons Olympic in Seattle also view the culinary staff through a floor-to-ceiling glass window, says Executive Chef Gavin Stephenson. The hotel renovated Stephenson's office last year into a private dining room, called Gavin's Table, with a mural of Seattle as well as a glass wall that looks into the kitchen.

Some restaurateurs prefer to have a table directly in the kitchen and have found ways to handle heat and noise concerns. The Biltmore only recently added air conditioning to the section of its kitchen that accommodates guests. "We would tell people to take their jackets off and be comfortable," says Pigozzi. "If it got hot, we would create our own air conditioning using buckets of ice and fans."

Besides, noise and heat are all part of the kitchen experience, point out some restaurateurs. "The noise is part of the atmosphere," says Bakst. Buca di Beppo's Pond agrees. "It can get loud at the kitchen table, but that's part of the fun and excitement" as is the kitchen's warmth. A familiar saying is painted in red on the white tile wall above the Washington DC Buca di Beppo table: "Se non sopporta il calore vattere dalla cucina" — translated from Italian, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

As for safety concerns, restaurateurs note that by placing the table a safe distance from the production line, they can prevent customers from getting injured or prevent any food-safety problems. Lane Schmiesing, vice president of marketing for Buca di Beppo, notes that in some jurisdictions, health officials require a low wall to separate the table from the rest of the kitchen.

"Every health inspector is different in how he or she views the kitchen table and how he or she treats it," says Schmiesing. "Some think it's a problem to have customers so close to the food, where they're afraid they might contaminate it. Some think it's a great thing, because it holds us more accountable."

Supporting the cast

The chef's table at the Biltmore hotel actually started as an employee perk rather than an upscale seating choice for customers. When Roger Pigozzi took over as executive chef in 1986, he decided to invite his assistants to dine with him once a week around the kitchen table. "We would meet every Friday at 2:30. . . . We had only one rule: We don't talk business. We can talk food, because that's our passion, but not business."

Under Pigozzi, the chef's-table meeting was a time for tasting new dishes and trying out food samples from vendors, all the while unwinding from the week. "Within a few weeks, they started to really look forward to it and saw what sanity it brought to us," says Pigozzi. The hotel also used the chef's table to wine and dine VIPs. Eventually the secret got out, and the public began reserving the table. But to this day, staff members continue to use it for a weekly gathering.

Chef's tables also can offer staff other benefits. For starters, they allow chefs and sommeliers to design unique menus and wine pairings. "It gives the chef a chance to be creative; it gives me [as a sommelier] a chance to be creative," says Rodgerson.

Tribute's Bakst agrees. "It gives our chefs the option to do things they're not doing on the menu." Culinary staff also have the chance to get up-close and personal with diners. "They get to watch customers enjoying their food. They get to understand customers better."

Curtain call

A chef's table or kitchen table with a high-priced prix-fixe menu is "definitely not for your average restaurant," says David Pursglove, president of the TrendsAnalytics Group in Washington DC, which forecasts food and restaurant trends. For that reason, he doesn't see chef's tables becoming an industrywide trend. "They cater to a specific niche."

The Buca di Beppo example, however, shows that the kitchen table may have a place in casual restaurants as well as in upscale operations. Schmiesing notes that the kitchen table "creates a buzz about the restaurant and creates more business."

And some restaurateurs expect the number of chef's tables to continue to grow due to a bustling economy and Americans' interest in food and willingness to splurge on dining. "People love to eat," says Stephenson. "They see all this beautiful food come out to them, and they want to know where it came from. . . . Everybody wants to get closer to the chef and feel special."

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