The Roots’ music and its effect on Dave Beran’s new restaurant Dialogue

Dave Beran is a renowned chef inspired to bring more than food to your plate. Having a profound inclination for the Root’s music, he likens the culinary experiences he offers to a live music show.

A chef with unconventional ideas

In the past, Chef Beran has worked for restaurants such as Alinea and Next. He is even a recipient of two James Beard Awards. He left the group because they had diverging ideas and he wanted to move away from Chicago.

How Chef Beran ended up finding his own style

While working at Alinea, he moved from adding dishes to the menu to making dishes matching the general theme of the restaurant. When he moved to Next, it was only after the El Bulli menu that he started to come up with his own style. He was on his own there and this led him to start telling stories via the menu.

What is Dialogue?

Dialogue offers a fine dining experience which is influenced by French, Japanese and Thai cuisine. The food served at Dialogue tells stories either through individual courses or the whole menu leading to a particular mood. Every minute is important. Some courses would end rapidly, others would stay longer. Beran compares this to the fireworks on the fourth of July; there needs to be a build-up for the finale.

How Japan influenced Dialogue’s menu

The menu was written with the Kaiseki tasting menu as muse. It was a menu eaten by monks before meditating. The courses would remind one of the previous seasons, the current season and the future ones. The meal then would represent progress. Beran used this to play with the local saying of “There’re no seasons in L.A”.

The Roots’ music impacted the development of the menu

Beran finds that “And Then You Shoot Your Cousin”, by The Roots, summarizes the feeling he wants on his menu. It is an emotional journey that starts out relaxed, gets more frantic in the middle and ends on a more joyful note. He believes that he would have used this album had it been two and half hours long. The soundtrack can be a tricky subject because not every patron sits at the same time. What he wants is for the flow of music and the flow of food to match.

The food was also inspired by his friends

For a more complete experience, he asked for advice from his friends working as directors or artists. He learned more about lighting and space amongst other things.

How he views possible challenges

While most people want to sit and grab food, Beran is counting on people’s love for entertainment. Commenting on Vespertine, Beran understands that individuals will have diverging opinions about immersive dining. Exploring things outside of our comfort zone is important to him.

He has high hopes for this venture

Beran wishes that Dialogue becomes an international success. He wants customers to be floored by what they experience there. The imperative for him is to equal the greatness of other restaurants he has worked at or those that he admires.

h/t: RobbReport
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