In all reality, menus are just a starting point.
Organizers of this year’s 122nd International Cheese and Dairy Awards anticipate more than 5,000 entries for a real-life “Game of Thrones” to determine who will sit atop the curds of milk throne (internationalcheeseawards.co.uk). Regardless of how the battle ends this year, there is a strong likelihood that the international community will determine a different winner at the 123rd International Cheese and Dairy Awards.
It is not that cheese is complicated, it’s that people are beautifully complicated. Human beings seem innately (if not maniacally) driven toward undiscoverable and indisputable truths. This principle applies not only to cheese but to all foods, along with drinks, music, people and art (among other things). We cry over curdled milk, wonder who wrote the book of love, and are unaccepting of how “Game of Thrones” ended. Thanks to the limbic system in our brains, our species will never be able to agree on the best song ever (Gracenote, a Nielsen company providing automatic content recognition technologies, estimates there are more than 100 million songs written to date!), nor reach consensus on what is “good food.”
As such, our mission in the private club community is less about creating unique menus and more about fostering spaces for members to enjoy food, drinks and good times with family and friends. The menu’s role is to merely to spark imagination, not project gastronomic inclination.
The beauty of our business is that private clubs are uniquely positioned to be proactively responsive to the distinctive needs we all have as the individuals we all are. The power lies in thoughtfully knowing the passions of our members as well as we know our own. And that’s a starting point we can all agree on.
Rob DeMore is president of Troon Privé. He can be reached at [email protected] or visit troon.com and troonprive.com.