Business Dining

It’s easier nowadays to keep off the pounds when traveling on business. For the earnestly fitful, every major hotel--and even our five-floor hotel in Florence--has a fitness center, but it’s not always convenient to pack gym clothes or to schedule a workout when the appointment calendar is filled from morning till midnight. But those for whom exercise is a religion don’t have a weight problem anyway.


If one has gluttonous tendencies—and, dear reader, I’m not speaking of anyone that’s party to this conversation—the principles of fine dining have come to the rescue.

The better restaurants use quality, fresh ingredients while reducing the fat in the creams and sauces. While the number of dishes in a sit-down meal is at least four—appetizer, salad, entrée, and dessert—the portions are small but served on enormous platters to give the impression that the quantities are larger.




When I dined with my colleagues on Saturday, the calamari pasta had less volume than a can of Chef Boyardee or Franco-American spaghetti but seemed more than adequate when framed on a large white plate.


Another brake on overconsumption is that one must mind one’s table manners when dining in the presence of others. Business meals call for attentiveness to what others are saying, small bites so that we can talk while we’re chewing, and constant sipping of wine to cleanse the mouth of food particles that cause embarrassment when conversation becomes animated. Business dining means being aware of everything going on around the table; it’s real work and is not about, well, eating. It’s also how women eat and how they want their men to eat (I speak from personal experience.)

Another step toward the complete feminization of our society and the death of the American way of life. © 2005 Stephen Yuen


The restaurant's decor wouldn't be out of place in San Francisco or Berkeley.