The head waiter reveals 

Boscolo blog

“It was Wednesday. I remember clearly, morning, quietness, only seldom were the windows shaken by the trams passing by, a nearly idyllic peace took over the great hall when a Japanese group asked to be allowed into the Café. They seemed to appear from nothing, came with their essential cameras, video cameras and their quiet talk, discrete smiles, they came and came, busily shooting everything gold, marble, old, European, different than what they were used to at home. They are gone but the memory remains. I have some times dreamt kimonos since.”

“Today I have been serving in the Lounge. A celebration. These days I feel like a conductor in the orchestra of catering. Or, perhaps like a composer. Italian menu, just like a fine composition. But not allegro, rather adagio. Please go ahead, finish all courses, well, andante: bread and mozzarella with mortadella froth and “onion cappuccino” with goose liver and puffed rice, basil cream soup with buffalo mozzarella and tomato crackers, as main course porcini risotto with saffron giblets and truffle as well as sea zander in cauliflower purée with caper tomato bruschetta and the desert: gorgonzola and pecorino pears with chutney, honey and walnut-bread, afterwards tiramisu with coffee granite. Excited applause, an extended cheer and the day was over.”

“Today I have been serving in the restaurant. Crowds of foreigners. They have time for nothing. They are in a rush. This is no problem for me, of course. Bring on the tasters. Hungarian menu. A bite of everything. One by one. First course: cold goose liver with fig jam, then cauliflower cream soup with ramsons froth. Hare derelye (a meaty pasta meal) and vegetable barley porridge with toasted calf gland. These tasters are good as they do not make people feel full. Of course, they did not finish the list but saved some strength for the dessert. Well done, it was Stirian noodles. Only a little bit. Egészségükre (Hungarian for “for their health”).