He Keeps His Cool as Eatery Heats Up

Mr. Chow has been serving high-rent Chinese food on Camden Drive in Beverly Hills since 1973. But a few years ago, the restaurant, which has branches in New York and London, got undeniably, mysteriously hot. Hot as in people waiting hours for a table. Hot as in celebrities packing the room every night. Five evenings a week, the man who must control the sizzling dining room, which seats a maximum of 90, is affable 33-year-old Briton Chris Benton. His official title is maitre d’, but he sees himself as the conductor of a finely tuned orchestra.

Question: Why a conductor?

Answer: I tune things up, make sure the orchestra performs properly. It’s up to me to get everyone going, to set the atmosphere and the pace for the evening. The food is important, and we have an incredible kitchen, but the front staff has to have a bit of pizazz. The rhythm of the place is critical. I set the rhythm.

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Q: How stressful is your job?

A: Very stressful. I’m just a normal guy who has to, in this particular restaurant, deal with a lot of high-powered people. There are so many different groups. There’s the older Beverly Hills crowd. There’s the Hollywood young turks. There’s the tourists, the Japanese businessmen. You’ve got to look at them, read them quickly and know exactly how to handle them. At the start of the night, I’m so stressed out. I take a fair amount of abuse, you know. I have to be very calm and not get upset, and become Zen. I know that people are hungry, they’re waiting for a table and they’ll try all sorts of things. They try to be nice to you, they try and bribe you, they try to beat you up. On Saturday night, one man said, “I’m a doctor. I’ve got to be in surgery in the morning. You can’t keep me waiting. I’ve got to have a table right now.”

I told him, “Sir, as you can see, there are people ahead of you. I’m going to get to you as soon as I possibly can.”

Then he came back to me a little while later and said, “I’m also a lawyer, and for you to keep us waiting like this is against the law.”

He’s a doctor and a lawyer. People will try anything.

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Q: Do you have people making outrageous offers in exchange for tables?

A: Jokingly, they will. Most people are pleasant. Our customers are the nicest, most reasonable people in the world. Of course, some people offer me lots of money, which I won’t take. I won’t take $500 from someone who wants a table and doesn’t have a reservation. The hostess keeps the order, and that’s that. I couldn’t jump someone ahead of the line, or they’d lynch me for sure. It’s self-preservation. If I were the sleazy kind of maitre d’ who would just take all the money he could, people would know it.

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Q: There must be times when it’s appropriate to take money?

A: At the end of the night, as a thank you, that’s fine. That’s very nice. I put it in the tip pool, which is the best system for the restaurant. If someone gives the old famous handshake with money in their palm, I’ll tell them, “If you’re giving me that because you think that I’m going to give you a table, then no. If you’re giving me that because you want good service tonight, you’re going to get good service anyway.” I always let people know that, and they respect it.

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Q: Does everyone like to people watch?

A: Not everyone. Certain people try and hide. When Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow used to come here, they would want to hide. Tom Cruise comes in early to avoid the crowd. We had Monica Lewinsky a little while ago. That was hilarious. I’ve never seen the restaurant like that in my life. Everyone just flipped out and was acting weird. They were so busy looking that no one would leave. It was a big relief when she left.

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Q: What’s the fun part of your job?

A: At the end of the night, when you’ve gone through it all, and you can look back on it and say, “Wow, we made it.”

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Q: It sounds like you love the pressure.

A: It’s kind of soul-destroying to work in a restaurant that isn’t really busy. I take a lot of pride in the place, and to see it being so popular is amazing. Every year I think, “This is it, we’ve peaked now.” But it’s still going on.

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