Reflecting on the notion of luxury is a superb privilege.
Text: Michel Bloch
Excellence as leitmotiv
Beyond the prestige of the brand, true luxury is characterized by a constant quest for perfection in every detail. You opt for tea at the bar of a fine hotel. Luxury begins with the choice you have: black, green or white teas, and with the waiter’s ability to advise you like a sommelier on wine. You expect the divine beverage to be served at the right temperature. Water at 90 degrees will burn the leaves of green tea. Preparing a black tea by putting 50 grams of leaves in the teapot, on the pretext that the customer is going to pay a certain amount, will contribute to making it foul. Your drink will be accompanied by cookies and chocolates. It won’t be a tiny piece of standard-quality chocolate, milk or dark, dropped in with no regard for your preferences, or an ugly dog cookie; besides, our four-legged friends deserve better than such punishment. Luxury is expressed in the quality of service provided by perfectly trained and enthusiastic professionals, who seek to discover, or even anticipate, your needs and expectations. And price is not a passport to the world of luxury.
Luxury reinvented
Some models deserve to be renovated or at least dusted off. The undersigned recently ate in a well-known restaurant. What were we to make of the “signature” dish chosen, which was so mediocre that it constituted a veritable “forgery”? What about the quasi-megalomania of the order-taker, more snobbish than the snobbiest of his customers, who explained that the plates had been created and decorated by the Chef (we would have preferred him to concentrate his efforts on what he put inside), that the vegetables served (almost raw) came from the Chef’s kitchen garden (which we rather doubt). Everything was from the Chef. Yet the customer would have liked to hear about himself and his tastes, and not so much about the Chef. What’s more, the light plate, cooked by the aforementioned Chef in the nouvelle cuisine style of 30 years ago, would not have been enough to feed a toddler. Only the price wasn’t lower! For the sake of modesty, we won’t even mention the “revisited” dessert, which didn’t even merit a first visit!
Luxury, true luxury, allows us to experience, to approach excellence and to build memories.