The "waiter rule" is older than the Dave Barry quote, "A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person."

A professional bartender is someone who can do his or her best work when he or she doesn't feel like it. By the time a bartender knows what drink a man will have before he orders, there is little else about him worth knowing. A theory that you can't explain to a bartender is probably no damn good.

It is a myth that the ingredient is the hero of the dish. The real hero is in fact, the desire to bring the hero out in the ingredient.