Last month we reported on the trend of give-it-to-me-my-way ordering in restaurants. A variation of that trend is surfacing in the form
of cook-it-yourself restaurants. Restaurants in which customers are the chef
are popping up throughout the heartland of America. Examples include cook-it-yourself
Korean barbecue, Thai hot-pot cooking, fondue, Japanese shabu-shabu, roll-your-own
pizza dough and grilling steak and fish, as well as do-it-yourself s'mores.
Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research at the National Restaurant
Association, says, "Americans want control. The cook-it-yourself
experience embodies the quintessential American values of freedom of choice
and independence." Pamela Parseghian, executive food editor at Nation's
Restaurant News, attributes the phenomena to this: "People still
want to add the eggs and stir the bowl. Psychologically, they want to be a
little involved."