Joys of cooking

In last couple weeks I had lots of WTH?? moments in the kitchen from vendors to tables to my kitchen crew . Now we even
have a section in the ordering board as " surprise of the day"
This is the top 3 from last couple weeks

3) a group of ladies who booked into come to cafe for a pizza lunch , 42 of them to be exact and all gluten and nut free, 7 of them no tomatoes and cheese on their pizzas..
So you want a gluten free pizza without tomatoes and cheese??? You want a rice cracker than
2) we had a dinner for a company , and had 1 vegan and 1 vegetarian attending. So I took my apprentice and wanted to show her how to prepare those meals while satisfying their dietary restrictions , giving good nutrition and well presented dishes. On a side note we serve on the finer side of food having 6-7 elements on each plate , we can not get away with some veggies over mash potatoes etc . So we came up with 2 dishes for them and when the time came to serve their mains they both decided " fish is ok , I will eat fish" . quit making up random allergies people, fish is not a vegetable
And this weeks number one goes to
1) a large group of diners managed to sneak in a cake and when we tried to explain them this was not a bring your own food restaurant they all pretend like they don't speak English and my server came back saying " they keep saying no English"
Anyway we let it go and next day there was their well written bad review in English on tripadvisor complaining we didn't plate up their cake... Priceless ....
So it was my week with the joy of cooking , if anyone have similar or better stories feel free to share

 

We had a table of 6 in last Saturday night, we always ask about dietary requirements at the time of booking, so there is no surprises.
One of the ladies on the table was gluten & dairy free at the time of booking.
When she was ordering she decided to have the beetroot salad from the menu, the waitress informed her that the dish contained ricotta....no problem apparently ricotta is not dairy because the whey has been removed, similarly the small amount of dairy in the main course she wanted was no problem either.
Then the nail in the coffin, she decides to order the dessert off the menu with the most dairy of anything ( this dish probably contains 3 times the daily recommended dose of dairy for the average adult haha)
All this after we have gone to the trouble of making sure to have a variety of dairy and gluten free options for each course.

 

It's a new thing that people make up some random allergies and dietary restrictions but ignore them at the same time. Speaking of allergies , here is a preview of next weeks banquets dinner allergy list

 

Also I told my guys to keep their nuts out of those pizzas

 

I like how Suzannes runs off the page! Jasmin and Maria- seafood or shellfish allergy - are they not sure? Do you have to decide for them what their allergy will be today? Anupam - your decision to become a lacto-ovo has sadly not improved your grammer.
Makes the phrase "we are going to a banquet" something of a misnomer.
Some people should just stay home.

 

Amen brother , I feel sorry for the people who genuinely can not eat certain foods because of their allergies but for people like " flat leaf parsley allergy , extra virgin olive oil allergy " I would like to tell them ,$&@@"£€€<%

 

We had a 2 top at the hotel and the guy had a gluten allergy. We did a 9 course dinner for them. After the 3rd course the guy left and was very sick. He was vomiting in the restroom and went back to his room. He said he had never been that sick in his entire life and blamed us, when there was absolutely NO gluten anywhere near his food.
I don't think it was our fault, he must have gotten sick from something else or had a virus or something. What a buttface.
I've never made anyone sick because of dietary restrictions and we all took offense to being blamed as it's something we all take so seriously. People don't realize what goes into making their food.
Jerks.

 

I'm allergic to people...

 

Me too. Man, I am glad I am not in the service industry.

 

There probably aren't 42 people with celiac disease in your entire state, so it's not about gluten. It's not about allergies or diseases or restrictions. It's all about, "Hey, look at me! I'm the biggest buttpuffer in the entire restaurant! I don't eat gluten- I'm better than you."

And don't get me started on the vegetarians. They have no problem devouring fungi or vegetables while they're still alive (damned kingdomists), but they'll look at me as if I'm wearing a freshly clubbed baby seal around my neck if I order an egg.

If your dietary requirements take more than four seconds to articulate, stay home.

 

I see we have a filter in place. I consider that a personal challenge! :k

 

I cooked, and I have allergies. Every time Im in eating out I never mention it. Not because I dont want to put my brothers in arms in the shite, but because I feel like im going to miss on something delicious if I skip eggs or chicken.

Story number one:
1) Brides parents articulating IN CAPITALS how the bride in extremely allergic to nuts

- poor fella, that groom, answered me

2) "No juice in my meat please" later "this here is too dry"

But I think nobody can beat, ever, what Fergus Henderson [was it him or? cant remember] got once. He got a group booked for saturday dinner. Full booked. And so when they arrived, theyve only ordered main course. He came out to say that he had refused other customers to let them in, and its not OK to just eat one course, to which guests answered
"give us our main or we are leaving".
Drank no wine, no coffee, ate no dessert left without tip. Have you ever had a situation to serve a full house and then struggle to break even?
And if you let them go, what you gonna do? Close for the busiest night in the week with smokin-nuffin?

 

We have a 3 course minimum on a Saturday nights, too many times we've turned a full restaurant worth of people away cause we're full and same thing happens...

 

I will be doing that starting next week too , either way 3 course or 5 for dinner

 

Good one!
I am going to re-use this

 

I suppose that as a non-chef consumer I should be extremely embarrassed to admit that I was completely oblivious to this. But I was absolutely ignorant of it before you enlightened me. And I'm willing to bet that most or all of my friends are similarly unaware. I suppose the best that can be said -- though I will be sensitive to the economics and issue in the future -- is that although I skip dessert more often than not (no sweet tooth, etc.), I invariably do order one or more appetizers prior to the main course.

Thanks for mentioning this.

 

Omg! Is that seriously your dietary list . How many was the banquette for? That is messed up. In a 100pax banquette we usually get 5-10 dietarys that's it. I would be pulling my hair out at that list

 

That's a list for 290 people function in Tuesday , we will be carrying all the items , including food, plates , cutlery to the room and bring back at the end of the night ( 500m away ) and only equipment I have there is 2 hot boxes and a mobile cooler , yay!!

 

Larry , if you are a small , chef owned restaurant like Huw's that is the difference between breaking even or losing money despite being full. His restaurant is also one of the top 10 among regional restaurants. So it's more like a part of the destination, you go for the experience rather than a light meal