Restaurant Stories Episode 2

This episode we are going to cover multiple wild requests from customers sent to the kitchen. There are many obnoxious requests we receive working in a professional kitchen, however, these are some of the extreme and most hilarious. I am happy to accommodate people with allergies and food restrictions but there are just some things that cannot be accommodated. The more I have worked, the more allergies I have seen (real or made up).

While I was working at a restaurant in Vancouver, a group of four arrived and were seated. They looked to be your average everyday people and started off with Bubbly. I believe they were celebrating something (the Bubbly was a good sign), they were looking to enjoy the tasting menu so the server needs to ask for allergies. The server, a proper yet casual young person, comes to the kitchen and I can already see as he approaches the pass, that he is annoyed (eye rolls are a good detector). I had already noticed the look on his face and then he arrives with a sigh, and then says “Chef, May I speak”. I give him the nod and ask for the bad news (I knew something wasn’t good) and he tells me that the table would like to enjoy the Tasting Menu. He continues to tell me they are okay with anything but one of the customers has an issue. Do you want to hear what this person’s allergy is?…The server tells me that this person said to him, “I am allergic to animals with four legs”. Okay, so, mammals? Can this person not just say they are vegetarian? Pescatarian? Can you be allergic to all meat from the four legged variety? So many questions.

We had on the menu Ostrich Carpaccio and this was served to the customer as it does not have four legs (I assumed this was the only requirement, wrong again). The server returns to the pass with the plate of Ostrich and informs me that the customer cannot eat Ostrich either. I asked the server what the problem was with this two legged creature and the answer was that the Ostrich Carpaccio was too red (it appears that colour matters too). I then decided to remove legs all together from this person’s menu and feed her fish. She received Tuna Carpaccio without incident. Another memorable day in the kitchen and a good laugh for all.

Another fun food request story starts in a French Restaurant that I was a customer at. We were seated next to a table where a couple sat and could overhear them. We ordered first, when our Tartare was delivered to our table they asked the server what it was we were eating. They were told it was the Tartare and they decided to order that as well. We were enjoying our meal, I was catching up with a fellow chef, and we overhear one of the couple saying to the server referring to the Tartare “This is a little raw, can you have it cooked more?”. The French server replied, “Madame, this is Tartare, it is served raw” to which the customer replied, “Well, I don’t eat raw meat”.

Myself and the fellow Chef I was dining with could not contain our laughter. How have you never heard of Tartare? How did you see our meal and not see that we were eating raw meat? Why wouldn’t you have asked what the Tartare actually is if you didn’t know, or review the menu? Needless to say I don’t think they will ever be ordering Tartare again or they have learned to ask better questions.

Recently, I was sitting with a friend on the patio of a restaurant. We were the only ones on the patio, with a beautiful view of the ocean and beach, and on a beautiful day. While enjoying our coffee a woman was seated just behind us. She chooses to eat the Avocado Toast from the menu which includes a side salad. We continued to enjoy our coffee, a good conversation and watch people strolling along the beach. She was quiet and we hardly noticed her, that is until the server arrived back to take her plate.

The server is a sweet, kind and professional young lady and she asks her how her meal was not expecting a 20 minute conversation about salad. Well, let me tell you, she got an earful about how this lady expects her side salad to be. I will start by saying, I’ve had the salad, it’s a mix of arugula and other hand picked greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. It is light and tasty and served with a rich breakfast of Avocado Toast on fresh Brioche so it also makes sense. However, this is not how she saw it, her salad should always have lots of vegetables such as carrots and radish and maybe cucumber, who knows. Listen, like art, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that salad is subjective. You like what you like but that doesn’t mean everyone has to like it or serve it your way. She was so passionate about this salad issue she was telling that poor sweet server that she would be writing a complaint to the restaurant directly. Really? Your preference is so important and trumps all others that you need to write the restaurant and maybe even an awful yelp review? That sweet server just acknowledged over and over and allowed her the opinion and finally after a 20 minute conversation got to go back into the restaurant (don’t worry the restaurant was basically empty).

Myself and my friend were making commentary the whole time, and offered our sympathies to the server after. If you have a salad preference and the salad is described in the menu, maybe don’t order it if you are so passionate about having a garden salad instead. I’d highly recommend a salad bar next time.

I am sure I will come up with a few more of these fun moments in my career and I’m sure some of you have your own. You are welcome to share in the comments. In the meantime, keep calm and don’t be ridiculous.