OVER TO YOU
STAR EMAIL ★
Subject: The silence in between From: Clare Langan
I loved your article about music in restaurants [Feb]. I’m a musician and I find that having music playing while I try to enjoy a meal and conversation is distracting. Rather like biting into Proust’s madeleine, music triggers powerful memories for many people, and I don’t always want to be reminded of things music brings up. I can choose not to eat something on a menu for this reason but, as for the music, I have no control over it.
Today, silence generally isn’t valued. An absence of sound at a meal can be uncomfortable for many but, as Mozart said: “Music is not in the notes but in the silence between.” As in life, when we can embrace quiet we heighten all the other senses, and I treasure music too much for it to be pushed to the background.
Subject: It’s hard to tolerate From: Lesley Foxton
I concur with George Egg on flaky eaters [Talking Point, Feb]. My husband and I have run restaurants all our working lives and encountered many a food intolerance or allergy. Fair enough. But a diner once told me emphatically she couldn’t have dairy under any circumstances. Starter and main course were carefully adjusted. She then asked for a chocolate pot, so I explained it wasn’t dairy free. “Oh that’s all right,” she said, “I can have it – I’ve been good.”