Who is he and why does the head waiter matter as much as the chef?

Even if you haven't seen it, there it is. Dressed in black, in white. It moves like a ninja, like a dancer among the tables. It is present, but not overwhelming. Its attention is focused on everything that moves within the dining room and, yet, it is a master of discretion. He is the restaurant manager and his life mission is to serve. A few years ago, the restaurant reality was different: initially, no one cared who was behind the dishes. Chefs could be in front of the table and we wouldn't recognize them. We cared about the technique, the ingredients, or the type of food. The characters mattered little or almost nothing to us.Now it is different. Many media show us faces, names, and surnames of chefs we would like to dine with. The trend points beyond. The gaze has settled on that character who makes what is cooked behind the scenes shine. If you hadn't noticed before, I invite you to do so. Observe. There is the conductor. The one who gives rhythm and harmony to the dance that is going to bite into a restaurant. He or she is ready for your reservation, for the arrival and departure of each course at your table, for the entrance of the sommelier, the waiter, for the temperature of the dishes, for the music. Yes, he or she is the “E” in capital letters, of your gastronomic experience.Diners and restaurateurs have taken for granted this character whose role is not only to serve or to be hospitable. The restaurant manager, omnipresent in his ecosystem, ensures that everything happens in due time and form. For Eduardo Figueroa, maître de salle of Balcón del Zócalo, his job involves connection. The diner's experience is a true performance in which one must make history and tell stories: convey how a particular dish was born, what the inspiration was, what lies behind each product, and what techniques are used to prepare it.Currently, there is a push to professionalize the role of maître through culinary schools. Not everyone who studies gastronomy will end up behind a stove. More and more young people see in this figure the substance of their professional fulfillment. Service and attention must be formalized because, as Eduardo sees it, both go beyond kindness. “We provide training continuously every week. Wednesdays are for dining room training, Fridays are for product training. For us, it’s about understanding that the person who stands at the corner of a table to attend to you must be a professional to the level of an engineer or an architect,” he reveals to me. It’s true. Recently, I got to know what it feels like to be attended by a restaurant manager of his stature. By fate's whim, Eduardo completed his professional internship in one of the most prestigious dining rooms in the world with Quique Dacosta. Upon his return, he has elevated his profession and has done so from one of the most essential corners of CDMX, at Balcón del Zócalo.It was at the Ruido de Sala event that I had the opportunity to be attended to by four hands – by him and by Patricio Rivera Ríos, sommelier and restaurant manager of the regional restaurant Koli – and fed with an impressive six-hand tasting menu – by Pepe Salinas, chef of Balcón del Zócalo, Rodrigo, and Daniel Rivera Ríos, chef and pastry chefs of Koli, respectively –.Ruido de Sala is a project that gains strength for its gravity, for its novelty. In it, two restaurant managers are invited to offer a gastronomic experience aimed at encouraging Mexicans to pay attention to the service and the characters who carry it out; one that does not depend on the waiter's friendliness, but on their empathy, knowledge, discretion, and skill to recognize what their diner cannot express in words. The topic is already on the table. In the Guía México Gastronómico, there is recognition for the maître and his perfect connection between the kitchen and the diner. It is urgent for the development of the restaurant industry to bring to light those characters who go out of their way to make that dinner, that celebratory moment memorable, by taking the service to the next level. I don't know. Maybe soon we will start to ask for the name of the chef just as much as for the name of the restaurant manager.