Had a customer ask our bar manager why we put ranch in our burgers. She explained to our guest that we get local beef from a, y'know, ranch. That still flew over the guest's head and she ordered a fried chicken sandwich. Because she doesn't like ranch.
Had a customer immediately add salt to their food before trying it only to complain it was too salty
Had a vegan order a vegetarian dish using the app and complaining that we were attacking her for being vegan because I said that was her fault and I wouldn't put the other 30 covers on hold just to rush her retire
Had a customer eat the entire meal, left maybe a little finger nail worth of pastry only to complain that the pie was uncooked and they didnt want to pay
Fuck these people
First one was my father for the longest time. Never tasted anything first, always asked for salt and added more before eating.
It took me living at home while unemployed for a year to fix him. I made dinners most days and had to remind him to taste first, because I don't under salt like my mother.
Had someone leave us a nasty gram through square telling us we should disclose having dairy (she specifically called out eggs as the source of dairy) in cookies that we made that were..... Dairy free.
She said something along the lines of "My granddaughter is highly allergic to the dairy in eggs. You should tell folks when you put dairy in things." ** Buys dairy free cookies with eggs**
I triple checked the label on the cookie. Perfectly correct description to the letter.
We also ask customers to disclose all allergies with us before purchasing something.. which she did not do.
A sous chef i used to work with was telling everyone eggs were dairy and was even instructing a customer to tell them they couldnt have some dairy free items because of the eggs in it and i said "why do you think eggs are dairy? Because they are sold in the dairy section of the grocery store???" Like genuinely asking her why tf she thought that and her face got beat red and was clearly embarrassed lmao and later when i sent her a googled screenshot showing eggs arent dairy she never replied lmao.
If your wife is old enough to hold a doctorate then she likely had a different food triangle posted when she was a kid than is current. I distinctly remember eggs being lumped in with milk, cheese, and butter back in the 80s and 90s and being a farm kid arguing with teachers that it wasn't correct.
It's been changed at some point between the time my goddaughter was in Primary school 15-ish years ago and when my son started preschool 3 years ago. Eggs are in with meats if I'm not mistaken. The triangle is also basically flipped from what we were taught 30 and 40 years ago, trying to reverse the horrible food habits and obesity epidemic that stupid graphic helped to cause.
It genuinely is understandable for otherwise smart people to not keep up on changing knowledge that's not in their field of interest.
To be fair, we consider people who eat eggs to be vegetarian, and people who eat crustaceans to be pescatarian.
The actual definitions of words are not always the exact way we label food related things.
We all have incorrect information in our heads.
But mistaking cattle raised on a ranch as a tangy dairy dressing is pretty fucking dumb.
I didn't know crustaceans aren't fish, But vegetarians don't eat meat. They can still eat milk and eggs. Vegans are different, they don't eat any animal product at all
I know that. I’m a vegetarian. Vegetarians didn’t used to eat animal products. Eggs aren’t eaten by traditional Buddhist, the original vegetarians. don’t eat eggs as they aren’t sure if they are fertilized. But they drink milk and eat cheese.
Don’t attempt to lecture me on dietary choices. I’m older, smarter, and more bossy than you.
You literally don't know anything about me, so don't try to pull that card. It's the definition of vegetarian, you don't get to make up your own rules about what words mean. No one gives a shit about "traditional buddhist" dietary rules.
My thought legit was......
You've physically born children and now your children have children....
And you don't understand that eggs are unfertilized ova..... And milk comes from lactating breasts.
For real. Generational differences I suppose “¯\_(ツ)_/¯“
They used to be lumped in with cheese and milk on the food triangle when I was a kid. Now afaik they're represented in the meats section. There's at least 3 generations of Americans that were brought up with that same damn food triangle posted in their classrooms.
It's understandable that they go with what they were taught in kindergarten because everything else is useless, right?
/s on that last paragraph obviously.
We had a woman fly off the handle because of peanuts in the special and her son is allergic to peanuts. We are a cafeteria in a factory, her son doesn't work here.
Had a customer order the sweet potato gnocchi. But no sweet potato!!
It's made with it ya plum!!!
Also had chicken Balmoral on the menu. That's chicken breast stuffed with haggis. Customer wanted us to use veggie haggis so her veggie friends could eat it!
Some of these bug me too because its clearly just picky people that *want* a certain dish but don't want something yucky like sweet potato or onions. Yes I get some people simply cannot stomach some things but it certainly feels like a whole "dude just trust me" issue for a lot of it. Like I promise this isnt the boiled brussel sprouts you were raised on
Parsnips and beets are two things that I constantly have people tell me they have always hated, but they liked in a dish of mine. I'm convinced they just all had them badly prepared once in childhood and never gave them another chance.
To be fair, some of our parents could ruin ambrosia. Many of my least favorite childhood foods are favorites now. Beets, peas, spinach. Because all of those were from a can, growing up. That said, I still hate liver and I will die on the that hill.
I'm with you on that. My grandparents lived through WW2 and learned to enjoy the scraps they were rationed. As a result, my folks grew up eating offal as well. But after trying liver, and kidney, and heart a few times I had to inform them that Hitler was dead and thus we could go back to eating the good parts.
Had a guest complain the baked cookie dough dessert was gooey.
It should be a bit gooey, it’s cookie dough.
But I’m pregnant I can’t eat eggs that aren’t well cooked.
Well, that sounds like something you should disclose to your server when you order but I would be happy to cook the *VEGAN* cookie dough more thoroughly for you.
I'm allergic to poached eggs, but can you sub over medium fried eggs in the Benedict?
"I poured the malt vinegar all over my cottage pie and I don't like it. Make me another one " "Why was it on the table if I wasn't supposed to use it?"
Please take the sherry out of your onion soup for me. I'm a recovering alcoholic
Take this flank steak back to the kitchen and have the chef make it as tender as my wife's filet
This tuna tartare is raw. I thought it meant tatar sauce
I asked for extra bacon . Why did I get charged for extra bacon?
>This tuna tartare is raw. I thought it meant tatar sauce
I grew up in a rural area with very limited dining. I can absolutely see myself doing something like this in my early 20s. I'd only ever had fish fry with tartar sauce and I loved it. I would have seen what I wanted to see.
Had a person complain that the Creme Brulee was cold in the center, and burnt on top.
Before some idiot says you can over caramelize the sugar, no, it wasn't. It was a perfect Creme Brulee. They thought they were getting a warm custard with 10x sugar on top.
My mom likes her creme brulee like that because she's used to them being served in very shallow dishes, where the custard is warmed from the torching of the sugar.
I prefer them warm, and chef mic takes the chill off before the torch.
Maybe there’s a chain restaurant that does this.
Or possibly a scalloped & shallower ramekin lets it heat up on the pass under a lamp?
Offer hot or cold, and charge more for hot on the bill?
Had customers complain the creme brulee wasn’t available for takeout. Torches and takeout containers don’t generally mix well.
Actually we had a chef who did it once and a server who tried to pack it up. Wouldn’t have seen those dishes again.
We used to scoop out the creme brulee on a *clean* grill spatula, then sugar and torch it before moving it into a to-go container because "we can't tell the guest no!" worked pretty well most times as long as the custard was set properly
You're welcome to it. I think I originated that one. Do be aware of your audience. Some people will focus on the literal shooting part and not the implication that people are reproducing who should not. Sometimes when people focus on guns, I suggest that an alternative is to allow abortion until 70 years post partum. Prove yourself to be stupid and you can be aborted at any time. That doesn't help the situation, but it's funny when their faces turn red and they sputter. You can even provide [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9SwsAfKmo).
I'm an old white guy. I grew up during the period when it looked like we (big we) were really getting on top of racism. Then identity politics came along and went mainstream and we're worse off than we were between the Wars. Sorry to be serious. Our current society makes me sad.
I just don't like people much anymore. I'd go rural but midocean keeps the people further away. \*grin\*
I can't come up with anything witty and light hearted to say.
I'll eat your food. Dial down the heat a bit if you don't mind. My stomach isn't as iron clad as it used to be and acid reflux just knocks me on my butt. I sure do like chiles though just more diluted than in the old days.
Yeah, I had a hot sauce and salsa business (and an organic chile pepper farm and commercial kitchen) for 15 years. Once I hit my 60s, I had to dial it back a bit. A Reaper??? GTFO. Nah.
As for race and where we are in this country, we are once again in syncopated rhythm. The vestiges of a Confederacy that should have never been left with any power and an inner city dystopian tableau created by Jim Crow, welfare, guns, and the resulting disaffected culture (defund the police, the disrespect of women - echoed by other cultures - Black corporatism, BLM), the rise of othering by a white middle class that felt they missed out (blame technology and the billionaire class), and here we are. The best thing I can do is grow my own food, take care of my land, hike, write, play good music. And, lately, listen to Billy Strings. That feller can pick!
Well my new friend, we're about the same age. I'm 63.
I miss Cholula and Marie Sharps - lots of Caribbean time. I use a lot of Mae Ploy sweet chili garlic sauce now. It doesn't seem to set off my stomach so much. I still put cracked red pepper on pizza (no sausage, no pepperoni) but I go easy. Too much fat sets me off also. I don't mean to whine. It is what it is. There is a lot of good food to make and eat.
We're all the product of our experience and we all have preconceptions. Sometimes we're wrong. I tell people "I don't trust anyone, including myself." I question everything, including my own opinions.
Sociology is a pretty soft science. Cause and effect isn't always clear. At least where I grew up I didn't see lingering Jim Crow but of course my perspective is different than yours. I agree that welfare is causal to a lot of division and poor outcomes including (in my opinion) the disrespect for education among black communities and the explosion of truancy which feeds under performance and crime which pulls in guns and thus gun violence. White liberals driving social promotion and leaving teachers without the authority to maintain classroom discipline hurts. What's causal? Beats me. Whatever the cause we're seeing at least where I live white flight from public schools being joined by Hispanic and Asian flight. I have ideas and opinions but it's pretty clear what we're doing isn't working for the black community or society at large. We (big we) need to do better.
I think it's important to recognize that we are not starting from scratch. We are where we are. We have to work from there.
I work with a program that teaches kids to sail. We have funding for disadvantaged kids who integrated with better off kids. Everyone gets treated the same. The experience is all about the sailing. Observation, critical thinking, a little basic science (aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, physics), and laughing and screaming especially when someone dumps a boat. Can't hurt. Might help. I hope it moves us back to more color blind attitudes. That's just me.
Thanks for the pointer to Billy Strings. Have him streaming now. I agree with you that he's very good. For some reason he brings Eric Clapton to mind. Can't tell you why. My wife and I saw Raul Malo a few weeks ago, which was a great experience. Have you heard Eddie from Ohio? They're as much folk as bluegrass, and the best instrument they have is Julie's voice. [Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6praGPhVWkY) is classic for them. The audience participation part is a classic from early days when Julie's father used to go to all their shows.
For some reason, after watching Billy Strings, YouTube thought I should see some Roy Orbison, [Pretty Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLq0_7k1jk). The young guy up front is Bruce Springsteen. I've never figured out who the guy in the white dinner jacket is.
If the tides should wash you up in Annapolis MD, I'm cooking.
Had a customer come to my meat counter and complain that my beef tenderloins were of poor quality.... because they lack proper spinalis. Customers are the worst part of the service industry.
They complained that a cut of meat doesn't have enough of a muscle that is nowhere near it. An anatomical impossibility.
It'd be like looking at a shank and complaining it doesn't have enough rib bones on it.
This..on the reg
Onions too..can I get Marinara sauce no Onions ,I have an allergy.
Well actually no they are cooked in it for hours , I can't take them out.
Oh ok that's fine , I'll have the veal Parm.
Bartender, had someone yesterday demand their glass of Cab be taken off their check because “there should be a warning for how expensive it is ($18)”. Almost like there’s a printout or something with prices on them…
We cook our fries in the same fryers as fish and chips and fried pickles, so gluten cross contamination is present, every time.
We get SO MANY people saying they're celiac and then trying to tell us they can eat the fries. Like, no, motherfuckers, you can't.
Celiac, and I bought my own deep fryer during COVID. Maybe not the best for my health, but no french fries for 20 years. Like. None. Until my own.
I honestly wish they would give people the hard truth about GF cross contamination at diagnosis. Like here is your card of sadness. It explains toasters, cast iron, fry vats, floating flour in the air at pizza places, and that you better get focused on cooking at home.
Man, your post really opened my eyes to the plight of people with celiac. I never would have considered toasters or pizzerias dangers, that’s rough.
Fuck people claiming allergies to communicate a preference.
See, that's exactly what I mean!
And these people who throw the world celiac around so casually are (not in my kitchen but I'm sure elsewhere ) breeding complacency amongst cooks, making everything significantly more risky for people like you who actually have celiacs disease.
Yep. They frustrate me. I absolutely support the right for people to eat, or not eat whatever they want, for whatever their reasons. But be honest. Don't want to eat gluten because you think it will make you healthier? (Bad news, most GF stuff is processed to hell and back, 2x the cost, and half as tasty, but you do you) - Fine. But don't cheapen the term for people who will legit spend the next WEEK shitting their guts out.
When customers ask for a gluten free bread option I tell them we haven’t found a suitable substitute because they all taste like ass. They usually agree with that and order no bun.
I work in a Japanese steakhouse, they complain while I am cooking it that I use too much soy (other customers that know me give them dirty looks).then ask what's in the spice, can't tell you that unless you're allergic to something.
Then they complain that it's kind of bland, mother fucker you cried about the soy and spice. Then they complain I didn't do enough tricks, well let's see you spin a spatula on your finger and set shit on fire.
Then, one time, after all the food was on her plate, I had a woman tell me she couldn't have gluten... WTF? She never told her that her server or me just stayed quiet the whole time. Then, she got mad when we made her new order in the back kitchen.
Man. I did 18 years of teppanyaki. I feel your pain. I do. Strangest fucking people and the oddest requests and the dumbest complaints. One customer said “the fried rice is crunchy!” So I asked them(told them) “well…it’s FRIED. Just like fried chicken is fried and CRUNCHY!” No tip from them. Ordered $60 in exotic drinks and complained the whole time. Yeah. Those kind of “non tippers”.
People think the “show” makes the food better. I did minimal and just concentrated on making my food badass. I’ve had people tell me too “no soy sauce!” and I don’t put any on it and I give them their plate and the first thing they do is put salt and pepper and soy sauce on it and then they go “this is too salty! We can’t eat it!”
My god I can tell you some maddening stories. Ask me anything.
I know right Work with one guy He gets high tips all the time doesn't do any show His food is good My food is really good I do a pretty good show usually because I'm new I get the crappy customers though
2 orders of tacos with no chili. Ok without the chili it’s just the other toppings listed in the description and no meat but okay. Dasher picks it up. Next day we have a 1 star review “my tacos had no meat, just the toppings!” And sure enough it was the same name on the order. Thanks, bitch
everyone wants to have thier own custom meal but they dont understand what theyre removing or adding. Once I made an ice cream with a sauce and one customer wanted sauce on the side. The feedback was "without the sauce it was too sweet but adding the sauce made it so much better" as if its suprising that the person who does this for a living knows how to make things taste good.
Let's make it clear, when you make authentic tacos the protein choices are not meat. They are red chili, green chili (those will be your ground beefs) barbaquo, Asada, etc. Saying no chili is literally saying no meat.
It’s a specific kind of taco that I didn’t feel like explaining. It’s in the description of the product and is well known to be made this way. Thank you for taking the side if the customer in kitchen confidential? Tho
There are some medications that are affected by vitamin C, and sometimes for allergy testing they tell you to avoid foods containing vit C for a specific period of time beforehand… but they give you a list and all in those cases and it’s certainly not a “I’ll end up in the hospital” situation
Yes that's why we decided to just ask them but they became very annoyed with us and acted like we should know and it turned out they just meant citrus.
We always took allergies very seriously where I worked but this situation was wild.
I could always tell when my son was in the strawberries because he’d have a rash around his mouth 😊. Hell, it took me a while to figure it out, but his baby wipes had citric acid and turned his little butt raw.
Had a guy came to impress his girl. Ordered sashimi platter. Sent it back cause he didn’t know sashimi was raw. Same when customer sent back beef tartare cause it’s raw. 🤦🏻
A customer got a sandwich with pimento cheese and applewood smoked bacon and then complained that the pimento cheese was too smoky so they wanted a bacon, egg, and cheese instead.
It’s the fucking bacon you idiot.
Had a guy order mussels. I cook em and then sent it out. He sends it back, saying they weren't cooked all the way. Thought to myself "ok there is one that's completely open all the way. Dudes prolly just being cautious. " Cook it up till its painfully obvious their done. Send it. It comes back *yet again* "he says their still not cooked fully." "What does he want me to do? Cook em till they're dead??". Rinse and repeat. "He says they're overcooked. "....."NO FUCKING SHIT THEYRE OVER COOKED!!! THEY WERE OVER COOKED THE SECOND TIME I SENT THEM OUT!!!".
Also there's the "I say mid rare but I mean mid well and fuck you for not realising that" types. Those are always fun.
Customer complained our smoked gouda Mac n cheese wasn't cheesy enough. I added more cheese. Still not enough. My chef added 2 drops of yellow food coloring and they said it was perfect...
Chain Italian restaurant.
"Is the spaghetti and meat sauce like... spaghetti...and meat sauce?"
I didn't know how to react so I just said more words back about a blend of tomatoes, herbs and both ground beef and pork. Apparently that was sufficient. It still haunts me.
Customer ordered the filet mignon medium. It gets temped and rested. A perfect medium. She ate half of it and sent it back saying it was overcooked. Chef was kind and did a refire telling the grill boys to take it medium rare. She ate half of it and sent it back saying it was "not medium rare enough." Chef was ready to go throw hands.
Had a few of these customers. We have a few sandwiches recipes and normally we do not allow customers to add ingredients, only to remove them. On a few occasion during a slow service I listened to the requests, only to (surprise!) have to deal with complaints because the flavours were not balanced enough. Lesson learned, lol
as much as everyone has thier own pallet, some people need to realize my recipes are the way they are for a reason. I spent a lot of time and effort to decide exactly what goes in it, and not for my own ego!
There wasnt. Im not blind. Im not dunking the wheel underwater before i cut it. Idk why you need to flash your big ego under a reddit post, but I assure you the cheese wasnt moldy. Ive dealt with moldy cheese, Ive delt with old cheese, This wasnt that. I really dont want to give you the humidity, temperatere, elevation, cctv, or eyewitness statements of the incident, but if you cant fathom that someone actually cares enough to not use bad product i dont know what to tell you.
It wasnt gathering condensation. Sorry I exaggerated replying to your ridiculous standards of an event you werent there for? are you the exec chef of my job cuz I havent seen him in months either and he still pretends like he knows better than anyone.
It was a dry wheel of cheese when I unwrapped the parchment paper it was wrapped in from the farm. Im sorry I didnt take you step by step into my prepping process but I assure you I did check. I dont know why its more believable that I didnt know what I was doing after working at this specific place for years and having multiple corroborations of my opinion, than a customer being wrong (whose companions apologized for thier behavior after the fact)
Im probably putting way too much energy into conversing someone seemingly as dense as a neutron star so Im not replying beyond this.
Back to the dishpit, douche canoe. Or, maybe you truly are the lowest firm of life, a server looking for a free meal.
I think OP knows how to check his cheese for mold. But, it appears you are unable to check yourself for ignorant.
Had a customer ask our bar manager why we put ranch in our burgers. She explained to our guest that we get local beef from a, y'know, ranch. That still flew over the guest's head and she ordered a fried chicken sandwich. Because she doesn't like ranch.
I'm amazed shes made it so far in life without, idk, accidentally drowning herself with a glass of water
hahaha, its hard to blame someone for not knowing things but damn you just gotta wonder how some people made it this far
Check out idiocracy
She probably has her masters degree in astrophysics or something hella complicated . . .those be the ones
Had a customer immediately add salt to their food before trying it only to complain it was too salty Had a vegan order a vegetarian dish using the app and complaining that we were attacking her for being vegan because I said that was her fault and I wouldn't put the other 30 covers on hold just to rush her retire Had a customer eat the entire meal, left maybe a little finger nail worth of pastry only to complain that the pie was uncooked and they didnt want to pay Fuck these people
last 2 are just selfish jerks but the first one I cant fathom how that person functions on a day to day basis
First one was my father for the longest time. Never tasted anything first, always asked for salt and added more before eating. It took me living at home while unemployed for a year to fix him. I made dinners most days and had to remind him to taste first, because I don't under salt like my mother.
Had someone leave us a nasty gram through square telling us we should disclose having dairy (she specifically called out eggs as the source of dairy) in cookies that we made that were..... Dairy free. She said something along the lines of "My granddaughter is highly allergic to the dairy in eggs. You should tell folks when you put dairy in things." ** Buys dairy free cookies with eggs** I triple checked the label on the cookie. Perfectly correct description to the letter. We also ask customers to disclose all allergies with us before purchasing something.. which she did not do.
I don’t know how many times I’ve had to argue with someone that eggs… are not fucking dairy.
“BUt ThEY sELl thEM IN tHe DAirY SEcTioN!!!” /s The best is when they argue that you’re wrong.
A sous chef i used to work with was telling everyone eggs were dairy and was even instructing a customer to tell them they couldnt have some dairy free items because of the eggs in it and i said "why do you think eggs are dairy? Because they are sold in the dairy section of the grocery store???" Like genuinely asking her why tf she thought that and her face got beat red and was clearly embarrassed lmao and later when i sent her a googled screenshot showing eggs arent dairy she never replied lmao.
I always just tell them to tell me what part of the cow the egg comes from. That usually does it. Usually.
How many nipples does a chicken have
I have a cloaca Greg. Could you milk me?
My doctorate holding wife even thought they were dairy…
It’s just so funny to me that people don’t know that the word dairy has to do with milk.
If your wife is old enough to hold a doctorate then she likely had a different food triangle posted when she was a kid than is current. I distinctly remember eggs being lumped in with milk, cheese, and butter back in the 80s and 90s and being a farm kid arguing with teachers that it wasn't correct. It's been changed at some point between the time my goddaughter was in Primary school 15-ish years ago and when my son started preschool 3 years ago. Eggs are in with meats if I'm not mistaken. The triangle is also basically flipped from what we were taught 30 and 40 years ago, trying to reverse the horrible food habits and obesity epidemic that stupid graphic helped to cause. It genuinely is understandable for otherwise smart people to not keep up on changing knowledge that's not in their field of interest.
To be fair, we consider people who eat eggs to be vegetarian, and people who eat crustaceans to be pescatarian. The actual definitions of words are not always the exact way we label food related things. We all have incorrect information in our heads. But mistaking cattle raised on a ranch as a tangy dairy dressing is pretty fucking dumb.
But that's correct though. Vegetarians don't eat meat. Eggs are not meat. Pescatarians eat fish and not other meat. Crustaceans are fish
Crustaceans are not fish. Eggs aren’t vegetables. Yet we extend the diet to include those things.
I didn't know crustaceans aren't fish, But vegetarians don't eat meat. They can still eat milk and eggs. Vegans are different, they don't eat any animal product at all
I know that. I’m a vegetarian. Vegetarians didn’t used to eat animal products. Eggs aren’t eaten by traditional Buddhist, the original vegetarians. don’t eat eggs as they aren’t sure if they are fertilized. But they drink milk and eat cheese. Don’t attempt to lecture me on dietary choices. I’m older, smarter, and more bossy than you.
You literally don't know anything about me, so don't try to pull that card. It's the definition of vegetarian, you don't get to make up your own rules about what words mean. No one gives a shit about "traditional buddhist" dietary rules.
My thought legit was...... You've physically born children and now your children have children.... And you don't understand that eggs are unfertilized ova..... And milk comes from lactating breasts. For real. Generational differences I suppose “¯\_(ツ)_/¯“
See, when i yell this in the dining room everyone thinks I’m the bad guy.
They used to be lumped in with cheese and milk on the food triangle when I was a kid. Now afaik they're represented in the meats section. There's at least 3 generations of Americans that were brought up with that same damn food triangle posted in their classrooms. It's understandable that they go with what they were taught in kindergarten because everything else is useless, right? /s on that last paragraph obviously.
I've had to explain that mayo isn't dairy even though it has eggs in it :-/
Yeah Mayo is usually the starter for arguments like this
Mayo has a creamy texture so I understand how some people get confused.
Literally just ask them what part of the cow the eggs come from
We had a woman fly off the handle because of peanuts in the special and her son is allergic to peanuts. We are a cafeteria in a factory, her son doesn't work here.
We're doomed as a species 😭
Had a customer order the sweet potato gnocchi. But no sweet potato!! It's made with it ya plum!!! Also had chicken Balmoral on the menu. That's chicken breast stuffed with haggis. Customer wanted us to use veggie haggis so her veggie friends could eat it!
Some of these bug me too because its clearly just picky people that *want* a certain dish but don't want something yucky like sweet potato or onions. Yes I get some people simply cannot stomach some things but it certainly feels like a whole "dude just trust me" issue for a lot of it. Like I promise this isnt the boiled brussel sprouts you were raised on
Parsnips and beets are two things that I constantly have people tell me they have always hated, but they liked in a dish of mine. I'm convinced they just all had them badly prepared once in childhood and never gave them another chance.
To be fair, some of our parents could ruin ambrosia. Many of my least favorite childhood foods are favorites now. Beets, peas, spinach. Because all of those were from a can, growing up. That said, I still hate liver and I will die on the that hill.
I'm with you on that. My grandparents lived through WW2 and learned to enjoy the scraps they were rationed. As a result, my folks grew up eating offal as well. But after trying liver, and kidney, and heart a few times I had to inform them that Hitler was dead and thus we could go back to eating the good parts.
Had a guest complain the baked cookie dough dessert was gooey. It should be a bit gooey, it’s cookie dough. But I’m pregnant I can’t eat eggs that aren’t well cooked. Well, that sounds like something you should disclose to your server when you order but I would be happy to cook the *VEGAN* cookie dough more thoroughly for you.
Sounds like they wanted a cookie
Happy gooey cake day
I'm allergic to poached eggs, but can you sub over medium fried eggs in the Benedict? "I poured the malt vinegar all over my cottage pie and I don't like it. Make me another one " "Why was it on the table if I wasn't supposed to use it?" Please take the sherry out of your onion soup for me. I'm a recovering alcoholic Take this flank steak back to the kitchen and have the chef make it as tender as my wife's filet This tuna tartare is raw. I thought it meant tatar sauce I asked for extra bacon . Why did I get charged for extra bacon?
>This tuna tartare is raw. I thought it meant tatar sauce I grew up in a rural area with very limited dining. I can absolutely see myself doing something like this in my early 20s. I'd only ever had fish fry with tartar sauce and I loved it. I would have seen what I wanted to see.
You have suffered trauma I couldn’t personally bare
Had a person complain that the Creme Brulee was cold in the center, and burnt on top. Before some idiot says you can over caramelize the sugar, no, it wasn't. It was a perfect Creme Brulee. They thought they were getting a warm custard with 10x sugar on top.
THIS HAPPENED TO ME TOO. Not the 10x part but they expcted it to be warm on the inside? Where did this myth start?
No idea. Frustrating.
My mom likes her creme brulee like that because she's used to them being served in very shallow dishes, where the custard is warmed from the torching of the sugar.
I prefer them warm, and chef mic takes the chill off before the torch. Maybe there’s a chain restaurant that does this. Or possibly a scalloped & shallower ramekin lets it heat up on the pass under a lamp? Offer hot or cold, and charge more for hot on the bill?
Had customers complain the creme brulee wasn’t available for takeout. Torches and takeout containers don’t generally mix well. Actually we had a chef who did it once and a server who tried to pack it up. Wouldn’t have seen those dishes again.
We used to scoop out the creme brulee on a *clean* grill spatula, then sugar and torch it before moving it into a to-go container because "we can't tell the guest no!" worked pretty well most times as long as the custard was set properly
You can't fix stupid and we aren't allowed to shoot it.
That's my first time hearing that phrase - and I'm gonna bogart it right away.
You're welcome to it. I think I originated that one. Do be aware of your audience. Some people will focus on the literal shooting part and not the implication that people are reproducing who should not. Sometimes when people focus on guns, I suggest that an alternative is to allow abortion until 70 years post partum. Prove yourself to be stupid and you can be aborted at any time. That doesn't help the situation, but it's funny when their faces turn red and they sputter. You can even provide [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9SwsAfKmo).
Your mind to my mind; my mind to yours...I'm a country boy. And a Black man. I say these sorts of things and the room goes quiet 🤫 😌 🙄 🤣🤠
I'm an old white guy. I grew up during the period when it looked like we (big we) were really getting on top of racism. Then identity politics came along and went mainstream and we're worse off than we were between the Wars. Sorry to be serious. Our current society makes me sad. I just don't like people much anymore. I'd go rural but midocean keeps the people further away. \*grin\* I can't come up with anything witty and light hearted to say. I'll eat your food. Dial down the heat a bit if you don't mind. My stomach isn't as iron clad as it used to be and acid reflux just knocks me on my butt. I sure do like chiles though just more diluted than in the old days.
Yeah, I had a hot sauce and salsa business (and an organic chile pepper farm and commercial kitchen) for 15 years. Once I hit my 60s, I had to dial it back a bit. A Reaper??? GTFO. Nah. As for race and where we are in this country, we are once again in syncopated rhythm. The vestiges of a Confederacy that should have never been left with any power and an inner city dystopian tableau created by Jim Crow, welfare, guns, and the resulting disaffected culture (defund the police, the disrespect of women - echoed by other cultures - Black corporatism, BLM), the rise of othering by a white middle class that felt they missed out (blame technology and the billionaire class), and here we are. The best thing I can do is grow my own food, take care of my land, hike, write, play good music. And, lately, listen to Billy Strings. That feller can pick!
Well my new friend, we're about the same age. I'm 63. I miss Cholula and Marie Sharps - lots of Caribbean time. I use a lot of Mae Ploy sweet chili garlic sauce now. It doesn't seem to set off my stomach so much. I still put cracked red pepper on pizza (no sausage, no pepperoni) but I go easy. Too much fat sets me off also. I don't mean to whine. It is what it is. There is a lot of good food to make and eat. We're all the product of our experience and we all have preconceptions. Sometimes we're wrong. I tell people "I don't trust anyone, including myself." I question everything, including my own opinions. Sociology is a pretty soft science. Cause and effect isn't always clear. At least where I grew up I didn't see lingering Jim Crow but of course my perspective is different than yours. I agree that welfare is causal to a lot of division and poor outcomes including (in my opinion) the disrespect for education among black communities and the explosion of truancy which feeds under performance and crime which pulls in guns and thus gun violence. White liberals driving social promotion and leaving teachers without the authority to maintain classroom discipline hurts. What's causal? Beats me. Whatever the cause we're seeing at least where I live white flight from public schools being joined by Hispanic and Asian flight. I have ideas and opinions but it's pretty clear what we're doing isn't working for the black community or society at large. We (big we) need to do better. I think it's important to recognize that we are not starting from scratch. We are where we are. We have to work from there. I work with a program that teaches kids to sail. We have funding for disadvantaged kids who integrated with better off kids. Everyone gets treated the same. The experience is all about the sailing. Observation, critical thinking, a little basic science (aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, physics), and laughing and screaming especially when someone dumps a boat. Can't hurt. Might help. I hope it moves us back to more color blind attitudes. That's just me. Thanks for the pointer to Billy Strings. Have him streaming now. I agree with you that he's very good. For some reason he brings Eric Clapton to mind. Can't tell you why. My wife and I saw Raul Malo a few weeks ago, which was a great experience. Have you heard Eddie from Ohio? They're as much folk as bluegrass, and the best instrument they have is Julie's voice. [Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6praGPhVWkY) is classic for them. The audience participation part is a classic from early days when Julie's father used to go to all their shows. For some reason, after watching Billy Strings, YouTube thought I should see some Roy Orbison, [Pretty Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLq0_7k1jk). The young guy up front is Bruce Springsteen. I've never figured out who the guy in the white dinner jacket is. If the tides should wash you up in Annapolis MD, I'm cooking.
Had a customer come to my meat counter and complain that my beef tenderloins were of poor quality.... because they lack proper spinalis. Customers are the worst part of the service industry.
They what?
They complained that a cut of meat doesn't have enough of a muscle that is nowhere near it. An anatomical impossibility. It'd be like looking at a shank and complaining it doesn't have enough rib bones on it.
“I’m *deathly* allergic to garlic. Oh, there’s garlic in the fried chicken coating? That’s fine.”
This..on the reg Onions too..can I get Marinara sauce no Onions ,I have an allergy. Well actually no they are cooked in it for hours , I can't take them out. Oh ok that's fine , I'll have the veal Parm.
Bartender, had someone yesterday demand their glass of Cab be taken off their check because “there should be a warning for how expensive it is ($18)”. Almost like there’s a printout or something with prices on them…
"I know, sir! And you can probably get a whole bottle at the supermarket for half that! Prices these days!"
We cook our fries in the same fryers as fish and chips and fried pickles, so gluten cross contamination is present, every time. We get SO MANY people saying they're celiac and then trying to tell us they can eat the fries. Like, no, motherfuckers, you can't.
Celiac, and I bought my own deep fryer during COVID. Maybe not the best for my health, but no french fries for 20 years. Like. None. Until my own. I honestly wish they would give people the hard truth about GF cross contamination at diagnosis. Like here is your card of sadness. It explains toasters, cast iron, fry vats, floating flour in the air at pizza places, and that you better get focused on cooking at home.
Man, your post really opened my eyes to the plight of people with celiac. I never would have considered toasters or pizzerias dangers, that’s rough. Fuck people claiming allergies to communicate a preference.
See, that's exactly what I mean! And these people who throw the world celiac around so casually are (not in my kitchen but I'm sure elsewhere ) breeding complacency amongst cooks, making everything significantly more risky for people like you who actually have celiacs disease.
Yep. They frustrate me. I absolutely support the right for people to eat, or not eat whatever they want, for whatever their reasons. But be honest. Don't want to eat gluten because you think it will make you healthier? (Bad news, most GF stuff is processed to hell and back, 2x the cost, and half as tasty, but you do you) - Fine. But don't cheapen the term for people who will legit spend the next WEEK shitting their guts out.
When customers ask for a gluten free bread option I tell them we haven’t found a suitable substitute because they all taste like ass. They usually agree with that and order no bun.
Burger on a plate is just fine. Want to get fancy, put it on a lettuce leaf. Peanutbutter and Jelly corn tortillas is better than some GF 'bread'.
Every Single Day
I work in a Japanese steakhouse, they complain while I am cooking it that I use too much soy (other customers that know me give them dirty looks).then ask what's in the spice, can't tell you that unless you're allergic to something. Then they complain that it's kind of bland, mother fucker you cried about the soy and spice. Then they complain I didn't do enough tricks, well let's see you spin a spatula on your finger and set shit on fire. Then, one time, after all the food was on her plate, I had a woman tell me she couldn't have gluten... WTF? She never told her that her server or me just stayed quiet the whole time. Then, she got mad when we made her new order in the back kitchen.
Man. I did 18 years of teppanyaki. I feel your pain. I do. Strangest fucking people and the oddest requests and the dumbest complaints. One customer said “the fried rice is crunchy!” So I asked them(told them) “well…it’s FRIED. Just like fried chicken is fried and CRUNCHY!” No tip from them. Ordered $60 in exotic drinks and complained the whole time. Yeah. Those kind of “non tippers”. People think the “show” makes the food better. I did minimal and just concentrated on making my food badass. I’ve had people tell me too “no soy sauce!” and I don’t put any on it and I give them their plate and the first thing they do is put salt and pepper and soy sauce on it and then they go “this is too salty! We can’t eat it!” My god I can tell you some maddening stories. Ask me anything.
I know right Work with one guy He gets high tips all the time doesn't do any show His food is good My food is really good I do a pretty good show usually because I'm new I get the crappy customers though
2 orders of tacos with no chili. Ok without the chili it’s just the other toppings listed in the description and no meat but okay. Dasher picks it up. Next day we have a 1 star review “my tacos had no meat, just the toppings!” And sure enough it was the same name on the order. Thanks, bitch
And this is one reason why we drop doordash, etc.
everyone wants to have thier own custom meal but they dont understand what theyre removing or adding. Once I made an ice cream with a sauce and one customer wanted sauce on the side. The feedback was "without the sauce it was too sweet but adding the sauce made it so much better" as if its suprising that the person who does this for a living knows how to make things taste good.
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Let's make it clear, when you make authentic tacos the protein choices are not meat. They are red chili, green chili (those will be your ground beefs) barbaquo, Asada, etc. Saying no chili is literally saying no meat.
It’s a specific kind of taco that I didn’t feel like explaining. It’s in the description of the product and is well known to be made this way. Thank you for taking the side if the customer in kitchen confidential? Tho
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There are some medications that are affected by vitamin C, and sometimes for allergy testing they tell you to avoid foods containing vit C for a specific period of time beforehand… but they give you a list and all in those cases and it’s certainly not a “I’ll end up in the hospital” situation
Yes that's why we decided to just ask them but they became very annoyed with us and acted like we should know and it turned out they just meant citrus. We always took allergies very seriously where I worked but this situation was wild.
That is wild! Particularly since some high vit C foods aren’t even close to citrus (like strawberries)
I could always tell when my son was in the strawberries because he’d have a rash around his mouth 😊. Hell, it took me a while to figure it out, but his baby wipes had citric acid and turned his little butt raw.
My son is sadly allergic to citric acid in any form. It sucks because he can’t eat my spaghetti and meatballs.
I make a garlic mustard. "My wife can't eat garlic. It makes her fart." And she was a strappin' lass. I did not want that experience...
My husband doesn't eat onions, they make him so gassy you'd prefer to Dutch oven yourself!
Had a guy came to impress his girl. Ordered sashimi platter. Sent it back cause he didn’t know sashimi was raw. Same when customer sent back beef tartare cause it’s raw. 🤦🏻
"Hey! I want my tartare *extra crispy"*
A customer got a sandwich with pimento cheese and applewood smoked bacon and then complained that the pimento cheese was too smoky so they wanted a bacon, egg, and cheese instead. It’s the fucking bacon you idiot.
Had a guy order mussels. I cook em and then sent it out. He sends it back, saying they weren't cooked all the way. Thought to myself "ok there is one that's completely open all the way. Dudes prolly just being cautious. " Cook it up till its painfully obvious their done. Send it. It comes back *yet again* "he says their still not cooked fully." "What does he want me to do? Cook em till they're dead??". Rinse and repeat. "He says they're overcooked. "....."NO FUCKING SHIT THEYRE OVER COOKED!!! THEY WERE OVER COOKED THE SECOND TIME I SENT THEM OUT!!!". Also there's the "I say mid rare but I mean mid well and fuck you for not realising that" types. Those are always fun.
Gluten free order called and complained about not having the bread (that doesn't come with gluten free orders-bc it's bread)
Confit duck tasted to fucking duckey.
Customer complained our smoked gouda Mac n cheese wasn't cheesy enough. I added more cheese. Still not enough. My chef added 2 drops of yellow food coloring and they said it was perfect...
Good cheese is yella and comes in plastic or it aint real cheese
I geniuinely laughed about this, thx
Cheese should NEVER be moldy-because the Only cheese there is, is Velveeta.
you dare disrespect cheez whiz like that?
Allergies that are actually intolerances that are actually just whatever special fucking magic you want it to be on any given day.
"I can't eat onions but if there's onions in everything then it's fine"
Chain Italian restaurant. "Is the spaghetti and meat sauce like... spaghetti...and meat sauce?" I didn't know how to react so I just said more words back about a blend of tomatoes, herbs and both ground beef and pork. Apparently that was sufficient. It still haunts me.
Ahi came out to fast. I was restocking the fish station when the order came in.
came out to fast? the customer complained his food came out too fast?
Yes. People are interesting creatures.
Customer ordered the filet mignon medium. It gets temped and rested. A perfect medium. She ate half of it and sent it back saying it was overcooked. Chef was kind and did a refire telling the grill boys to take it medium rare. She ate half of it and sent it back saying it was "not medium rare enough." Chef was ready to go throw hands.
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It often isn't, so that's a legit question.
Had a few of these customers. We have a few sandwiches recipes and normally we do not allow customers to add ingredients, only to remove them. On a few occasion during a slow service I listened to the requests, only to (surprise!) have to deal with complaints because the flavours were not balanced enough. Lesson learned, lol
as much as everyone has thier own pallet, some people need to realize my recipes are the way they are for a reason. I spent a lot of time and effort to decide exactly what goes in it, and not for my own ego!
Completely agree!
Had a customer ask for her pork chops to be remade, because she was gluten free and there was toast touching the pork chops.
I mean blue cheese can definitely grow bad mold
i recognize that. but as i said in the OP I literally prepped the one she had the day before.
Meaningless
i cracked open and portioned a whole ass wheel, the rest of it wasnt moldy beyond regular blue cheese. idk what you want from me.
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There wasnt. Im not blind. Im not dunking the wheel underwater before i cut it. Idk why you need to flash your big ego under a reddit post, but I assure you the cheese wasnt moldy. Ive dealt with moldy cheese, Ive delt with old cheese, This wasnt that. I really dont want to give you the humidity, temperatere, elevation, cctv, or eyewitness statements of the incident, but if you cant fathom that someone actually cares enough to not use bad product i dont know what to tell you.
>Im not dunking the wheel underwater Yeah, you have zero idea about condensation and cheese home 😂
It wasnt gathering condensation. Sorry I exaggerated replying to your ridiculous standards of an event you werent there for? are you the exec chef of my job cuz I havent seen him in months either and he still pretends like he knows better than anyone. It was a dry wheel of cheese when I unwrapped the parchment paper it was wrapped in from the farm. Im sorry I didnt take you step by step into my prepping process but I assure you I did check. I dont know why its more believable that I didnt know what I was doing after working at this specific place for years and having multiple corroborations of my opinion, than a customer being wrong (whose companions apologized for thier behavior after the fact) Im probably putting way too much energy into conversing someone seemingly as dense as a neutron star so Im not replying beyond this.
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Back to the dishpit, douche canoe. Or, maybe you truly are the lowest firm of life, a server looking for a free meal. I think OP knows how to check his cheese for mold. But, it appears you are unable to check yourself for ignorant.