At Splendido, water always seems to arrive just seconds after you sit down. Is that deliberate?
Absolutely. We developed something that we call the core competencies: a list of 15 things that must always, always happen. And one of them is that we must always bring water to a table within 30 seconds. To do that we use hand signals to communicate with each other. It’s very discreet, of course—guests don’t see it. But the server across the room knows what type of water should be brought, and it’s always there on time.

What kind of training is required to become a Splendido server?
Some of our staff come from places like Susur, others have come from Fionn MacCool’s pub—the background doesn’t really matter. We really just try to hire staff who have an outstanding ability to take care of people. And then we train them. We have three tiers of floor staff: the busboy, the server and the captain. The captain is the person who communicates with the guest, relating everything the guest needs to know. The server is there to help the captain. But you don’t become a captain until you know absolutely everything. The fastest anybody’s ever become a captain is just under three months.

Have diners’ expectations of servers changed over time?
When we opened Splendido, for the first three years or so people really wanted to know everything about the food, because they were watching The Food Network. But in the past six to nine months, people want to know less. Now they are knowledgeable, and they don’t need you to explain what a kumquat is.