Want to talk pressure? Imagine making dinner for your boss every night. Now, imagine said boss being Patrick O’Connell, the world-renowned chef with a pantry full of accolades and the proprietor of longest-running double Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star for The Inn at Little Washington (it’s won every year since 1989) and its distinguished restaurant (a winner since 1991) of the same name. Our slotted spoons are shaking at the mere thought. But that’s exactly what the inn’s junior culinary staff does each evening to ensure a stellar dining experience for its patrons.
“They fret about it several days in advance,” says O’Connell, who has wined, dined and helped guests recline at his idyllic Virginia escape since 1978. “Sometimes I say, ‘Just keep it simple. Don't overthink it.’”
Sometimes the toques get it right. Sometimes their dishes need tweaking. “I give them a critique, if they're up for it,” he says. “I find that there are not enough editors in the world. There are not enough people giving the kinds of critiques young people need to develop in this field.”
But that’s how O’Connell has excelled in an industry with so much instability, with brutal truths, a bright team and brilliant, French-nodding tasting menus. And at 78, O’Connell shows no signs of slowing down. That may be unsettling news for aspiring chefs on dinner detail, but it’s exactly what folks who want to try imaginative dishes at a postcard-perfect property need to hear.
What did you have for lunch today?
We eat constantly. All I do is walk around the kitchen all day tasting. It’s just an automatic reflex. Food always excites me. I love food. I love squeezing the bread and smelling the flavors and [seeing] the visuals. You find that you sort of satisfy your senses differently than most people.
In the early days, I could never eat a meal that I could sit down to enjoy until midnight, when all the guests were gone. The work of a chef is very much like an athlete in certain ways, and we have 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’re looking for any imperfections, so you don't ever want to be satiated. You always want to remain hungry.
You’ve been a Forbes Travel Guide award winner since the late ’80s. What are a few things you can point to for that consistency?
I think the misconception that many people have is that they interpret consistency as maintaining. That has never been the goal here. The goal has always been evolving and making it consistently better.
My theory is that, if I am a guest and I come here once a year, it has to be considerably better when I come this year than it was last year, or it's not going to
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