How iconic chef Patrick O’Connell continues to make history

Do you want to talk about pressure? Imagine making dinner for your boss every night. Now imagine that boss is Patrick O’Connell, the world-renowned chef with a pantry full of accolades and the owner of the longest-running Forbes Travel Guide double five-star for The Inn at Little Washington (it’s earned every year since 1989). and its distinguished restaurant (winner since 1991) of the same name. Our skimmers tremble at the mere thought. But that’s exactly what the Inn’s junior culinary staff does every night to ensure an exceptional dining experience for its guests.

“They worry about it days in advance,” says O’Connell, who has been wineing, dining and helping guests lounge at his idyllic Virginia getaway since 1978. “Sometimes I say, ‘Stay simple. Don’t think about it too much.’

Sometimes toques succeed. Sometimes their dishes need some tweaking. “I give them a critique, if they’re willing to do it,” he says. “I find that there are not enough publishers in the world. There aren’t enough people providing the kind of criticism that young people need to develop in this area.

But that’s how O’Connell has excelled in such a volatile industry, with brutal truths, a brilliant team and brilliant French-style tasting menus. And at 78, O’Connell shows no signs of slowing down. This may be unsettling news for aspiring chefs when it comes to dinner details, but it’s exactly what people who want to try imaginative dishes in a postcard-perfect property need to hear .

What did you eat for lunch today?

We eat constantly. I just walk around the kitchen all day tasting. It’s just an automatic reflex. Food always excites me. I like food. I love pressing the bread, smelling the flavors and (seeing) the visuals. You find that you satisfy your senses differently than most people.

At first, I could never eat a meal that I could enjoy sitting down until midnight, when all the guests had left. The job of a chef is a lot like that of an athlete in some ways and we need to stay light, nimble and on our toes. If you actually eat a meal, you find that it weighs you down, especially when you have to keep your palate sharp. You look for every imperfection, so you never want to be full. You always want to be hungry.

You have been a Forbes Travel Guide award winner since the late 80s. What elements can you highlight for this consistency?

I think the misconception that a lot of people have is that they interpret consistency as maintaining. That was never the goal here. The goal has always evolved and constantly improved.

My theory is that if I’m a guest and come here once a year, it must be considerably better this year than last year, otherwise it won’t seem as good. Consistency is sort of a baseline, and you have to exceed it every year, every day, all the time.

In the restaurant business, you never really arrive. You’re continually improving something, but there’s no end, right? It’s a bit esoteric to say that, but I think like an artist. Your work should represent who you are and where you are in your personal growth at any given time.

I had a writing teacher who once told me, “If you’re not embarrassed by what you wrote last year, you’re not progressing.” “I’m just trying to stay embarrassed about everything we did just a week ago, because it won’t be good enough this week. It’s a difficult atmosphere to be in because it’s an ongoing challenge, but it’s incredibly rewarding to hear feedback from guests. And we have a very, very well-traveled audience of guests from all over the world who are used to going to only the best places. They continually use incredible superlatives in their comparisons. And we listen very carefully. And that’s where it’s particularly rewarding.

What I was able to do in the beginning, when we were in our primitive incarnation, was to acquire my education by traveling for three weeks to a month off-season in January, to the greatest restaurants in the world. Forty-six years ago, when we opened our doors, America didn’t have places that looked like these great European destinations. This allowed me to create a reference point and measure myself and my work against the greats. Every year this process continued and I worked very hard all year.

And then, after about 20 years of measuring the gap between what I was doing here and what was happening in the big restaurants in Europe, the gap started to narrow. And then one day, even I could say it (the gap had disappeared). And from the guest comments, I knew there was no gap. We had finally elevated our cuisine and all American cuisine to a level where it could compete with the greatest restaurants in Europe.

It was a wonderful moment and you felt like you had come full circle. But then the world changed around us. The competition is changing. You can never stand still. I believe the old adage is that a restaurant either grows or dies – there is nothing in between. I compare it to a garden that needs to be constantly weeded, fertilized, tended, fed, transplanted and loved.

What we add to the equation, to the experience that most places don’t focus on, is the art of dining as a sort of theatrical event. I continually critique the experience we offer here through my lens as if I were the filmmaker. This makes it possible to identify defects, contraindications or consistency with the film that we are trying to create with the guests.

For the person who hasn’t stayed at the Inn at Little Washington, what are they missing?

Guests often tell us that when they come here, even if it’s for one or two nights, they feel like they’ve stepped into a time machine and gone to another era. and another culture. They say, “I thought I had to go to Europe to have an experience like this.” I didn’t think it was available in America.

During the pandemic, every evening after we were able to reopen, we had guests telling us, “We were supposed to be in Italy. Tonight is our 25th anniversary. We were supposed to be in Scotland or France or wherever, but we couldn’t travel and we came here. And guess what? We had a much better experience. And we didn’t have to fight airport traffic or exchange money.

What (new visitors) will find is the feeling of being invited to a house party, a kind of experience that makes them feel like they’re stepping into a movie from another era. It’s a kind of state of happiness.

We started as a very small, humble and simple restaurant in the countryside. And it has continued to evolve. We added rooms and the experience continued to expand and develop. Now it’s a kind of healing sanctuary. People here often don’t have cell reception. They live in a mountain village of around a hundred inhabitants. You can imagine how small it is.

Many local residents have never been to Washington, DC, and most have no desire to go. As soon as you step outside and take a deep breath, you are somewhere very, very far away. Normally this might be a camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains or something. Here you come in and you have a very luxurious hotel where everything is taken care of. Everything you want is at your disposal. I like to say that we offer the experience of being a guest in a beautiful country house from another era, but with all the amenities of a five-star hotel in Paris or London.

You mentioned that during your first 20 years in the business, you would travel to see where your culinary skills compared to others. Do you travel a lot these days?

I make a point of trying to visit the places that my guests swoon over or compare us to. We are part of an organization called Relais & Châteaux, a group based in France that now exists in 54 different countries. I was president of the North American delegation for 20 years. Part of our mission was to host at least four or five meetings a year in Europe or on another chef’s property and immerse ourselves in the culture of that region. I learned something every time I traveled.

I wasn’t able to be away as long as I was at the beginning because the hostel is now open all year round. I just focus on places where I think they’re doing something better than us, or where I can learn something. Then you are reminded that everyone who does this faces the same challenges as us. We are not alone. We are not an island. It’s hard to work to stay on top.

But can you bear the fruits of your labor in the form of accolades and praise from your guests?

Well, it’s like a drug. You may sometimes be so tired that you think you can’t take another step. But someone might want to share with you what they think about this experience. They are very touched, deeply. And then you have a burst of energy. It’s like the adrenaline is rushing back into your veins and you’re ready to go again.

What else makes you smile?

I’m a day dreamer. Beauty inspires me. Beauty heals me. On my last day off about three weeks ago, while the hostel was closed, I went down to the National Gallery of Art (in Washington DC). I walked in and just smiled at the whole space, the exaltation of the art, the beautiful colors.

When I go to Europe, it’s the big hotels, the monumental architecture. I love gardening. I love the interiors. I never go to bed at night without opening one of my beautiful books about great English country houses, gardens or something like that. Naturally, I love Versailles. I love fantasy. I love reading cookbooks and studying beautiful food photography. But when I wake up here in the morning, I feel like I’m in the movie.

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