This Restaurant Owner Issued a Remarkable Response to the New York Times. Here Are the Takeaways

Sometimes, you've got to put personal feelings aside.

As a former New Yorker and avid reader of the New York Times, I’m familiar with Pete Wells and his (in)famous reputation as a restaurant critic. Forbes described his scathing 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar as “likely the most widely read restaurant review ever”.

I was therefore intrigued by Wells’s harsh critique of Thomas Keller’s Per Se, known as one of the most expensive restaurants in the world. Wells described his three dining experiences at Per Se (between fall and winter 2015) as “respectably dull at best to disappointingly flat-footed at worst.” In describing the plates he sampled, Wells used artistic adjectives like “random”, “purposeless”, “rubbery” and “flavorless”.

But I have to confess: It wasn’t the review that caught my attention. 

It was Keller’s response.

Keller, an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook writer, won the “Best Chef in America” award from the James Beard Foundation in 1997. According to France-Amerique (via Wikipedia), “he is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants.”

So how did one of the most recognized chefs and restaurant owners in the world respond to getting bashed by the same newspaper that named his New York eatery “the best restaurant in New York City” just four years earlier?

He apologized.

In a statement that could be described as both humble and inspiring, Keller accepted responsibility for Per Se’s poor performance and promised improvement. (You can read Keller's full message at the end of this post.)

“We are not content resting on what we did yesterday. We believe we can do better for ourselves, our profession and most importantly our guests. We have the opportunity, the tools, the self-motivation and the dedication to do so.

When we fall short, we work even harder.”

Before you dismiss Keller’s statement as an insincere yet necessary PR move, consider that this type of response is rare today. And I don’t mean just in settings similar to this one. Apologizing as a response to harsh feedback is almost unheard of in the everyday workplace.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not excusing bitter or overly severe criticism. I’ve written extensively on the need for sincere and authentic praise at work, as well as the need to make sure criticism is delivered with the recipient in mind, and in a constructive manner.

But when we are on the receiving end of criticism, whether it’s delivered ideally or not, it can prove invaluable to consider the following:

• Much criticism is rooted in truth. What can I learn from this alternate perspective?
• There is no such thing as perfectly delivered criticism. Instead of focusing on the delivery, how can I use this feedback to help me or my team improve?

If your natural response to negative feedback is to say, “Who is he or she to criticize?” or "Man, what a jerk", you’re missing opportunities to grow.

Instead, take a lesson from Thomas Keller and ask yourself:

How can this make me better?

What do you think? Can criticism be used as a learning experience, regardless of how it's delivered? Look forward to hearing from you in the comments.

Here is Thomas Keller's full reply, via his blog:

To our guests:

At all of our restaurants, in our kitchens and dining rooms, we make every effort to provide you with the best possible experience. We consider it our professional responsibility to ensure that every one of you feels special and cared for. To us, it is imperative that we improve and evolve every day. We constantly examine ourselves, our menu, our service and our standards. 

Regretfully, there are times when we do not meet those standards. The fact that The New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells’ dining experiences at Per Se did not live up to his expectations and to ours is greatly disappointing to me and to my team. We pride ourselves on maintaining the highest standards, but we make mistakes along the way. We are sorry we let you down.

We are not content resting on what we did yesterday. We believe we can do better for ourselves, our profession and most importantly our guests. We have the opportunity, the tools, the self-motivation and the dedication to do so.

When we fall short, we work even harder. We are confident that the next time you visit Per Se or any of our other restaurants, our team will deliver a most memorable experience.

— Thomas Keller, Chef / Proprietor

Image credit: By Arnold Gatilao from Oakland, CA, USA (Chef Thomas Keller) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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I'm the author of the forthcoming book, EQ, Applied, which shares fascinating research, modern examples, and personal stories that illustrate how emotional intelligence works--and doesn't work--in the real world. If you're interested in a new way of looking at EQ, along with tips on how to make emotions work for you instead of against you, subscribe to my free monthly newsletter by clicking here.

I also write for Inc. and TIME. Some other articles you might enjoy:

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