Joe Baum

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb, 1996 by Pamela Parseghian

When Joe Baum's World War II navy ship was bombed and nearly destroyed by two kamikaze pilots, he learned that fear is stimulating.

And besides scaring him to death, that episode taught him to trust his instincts and, more important, how to survive -- tactics that have served him well in the restaurant industry.

He used those lessons often during his phantasmagorical career--opening and operating hundreds of restaurants--most notably The Four Seasons, Rainbow Room, Windows on the World, Forum of the Twelve Caesars and La Fonda Del Sol.

"Joe realized way before others that peoples' tastes were changing drastically, and Americans were yearning for the authentic experience," said George Lang of Cafe des Artistes, N.Y., and Gundel, Budapest, who worked at Restaurant Associates during the 1960s during Baum's presidency.

"If it wasn't for Joe Baum, there would be a homogeneous quality to all the restaurants in New York," noted Drew Nieporent, who created New York's Montrachet, TriBeCa Grill, Nobu and Layla and Rubicon in San Francisco.

When Baum entered the industry, more than 50 years ago, he found a "biased, structured and rigid world," he said. "I was fortunate to take that as an opportunity to be a candle in the darkness."

Baum continues to illuminate the industry by fighting the norm. He detests cliches.

"Give them anything but red roses," demanded Baum during a recent planning meeting for Valentine's Day at The Rainbow Room, which he renovated and now operates.

Ironically, he introduced many of today's restaurant cliches, such as the cupped-ashtray-removal technique, sparklers on desserts and friendly waiters who say, "Hello, My name is ..."

"Practically everything you see in restaurants today he did before everyone else," declared Tom Margittai, who managed restaurants with Baum at RA and co-owned and operated The Four Seasons until late last year. "From the operator's point of view he imposed excellence, and from the consumer's point of view he educated them so they could demand excellence.

"Joe Baum, a man of uncommon vision, combined the selective use of the past and flavored it with tomorrow's spices and the ability to inspire people around him."

"He was the first to bring the finest contemporary architects, artists and designers into his restaurant designs," noted architect Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, N.Y.

"I learned more about design working with Joe than I have from any other client in my adult life," stated New York-based designer Milton Glaser. "Everyone in the area of design or architecture who has worked with Joe has come away transformed. He is the most exacting and extraordinary client I have ever worked for. He always challenges you and pushes you."

While many on Baum's payroll are charmed, inspired, motivated and encouraged, most will freely discuss his demanding alter ego.

"After he makes you extend your intellect, then he makes you extend your body," stated partner Michael Whiteman.

"He was a tyrant and a perfectionist," claimed Barbara Kafka, who worked with Baum on the first opening of Windows in the '70s. "It was like being in the trenches. He'd have you working longer hours than any human being ever did before. But I don't think any of us would have given it up."

Working for Baum is similar to enrolling in a graduate operations course, explained Eugene Flinn, who was a manager during the reopening of Rainbow and now owns Amanda's in Hoboken, N.J. "He wasn't always easy to understand, but once you got it, you never forgot it.

"I remember one time just before we opened The Rainbow Room when we were excused, and he had us sit there with him until 3 a.m., looking at how the lights in the room were changing in relation to how the lights in the city were changing. That sensitivity to light helped me see the genius."

Baum is easily bored, and his intellect is fed by creativity, Kafka explained.

"You try to step aside from the potholes that were there before if you want to create interest; the customer needs refreshment," said the impeccably dressed Baum, while chain smoking in his office cramped with a painball machine, a life-size sexy female mannequin and an array of plate designs for the reopening of Windows, the newest project on the drawing board.

Baum credits his father, who was a restaurateur, with giving him the most useful advice: "Just give the people what they want. The trick is to know what they want."

How do you know?

"It's all in the doing," he answered with a puckish smile. "It is pleasure we manufacture."

Although Baum is often labeled a perfectionist, he said, in true form, the word "perfectionist" is not quite perfect. "I'm not a perfectionist. I just like to exhaust all the possibilities."

Baum's longtime public-relations consultant Roger Martin observed: "He wouldn't accept anything at face value. If Leonardo da Vinci came to Joe with the `Mona Lisa,' he would say, "Change the smile."

Arnauld Briand, executive chef of Rainbow said: "I worked on the menu [served at Baum's induction into The Culinary Institute of America's Hall of Fame] for three months, and every week the menu changed until the last minute. But he likes to have fun, and he has a lot of respect for chefs and kitchen workers."