Mark Peel -- chef-owner of Campanile, The Point, and Tar Pit; first chef-de-cuisine at Spago; celebrity chef; and good explainer -- has joined Team Off-Ramp as a regular commentator. He'll be talking about food, and giving us the inside view of restaurants. This time, he explains how restaurant staffs handle tipping.
(Campanile Restaurant's campanile, the tower that caps the old Charlie Chaplin building, photographed by John Rabe using the Hipstamatic iPhone app.)
Mark Peel joins Off-Ramp as a regular contributor this weekend, talking about how tipping works in restaurants - legally and morally. But while Off-Ramp host John Rabe was at Mark's restaurant, Campanile, he had Mark take him through the busy kitchen. Mark got excited when he spied a huge bowl of mushrooms that look like cooked lobster claws, so they made a movie. (Appropriate, since Campanile is in Charlie Chaplin's old offices on LaBrea.