pet peeves

allison cook posted a blog a while back about foh customer pet peeves. so now i thought i create an open forum for boh to post their customer pet peeves.

here is mine:

to go orders:
as chefs, we search every nook and corner for the perfect china. a search that will never end. we love plates. its our canvas because we are artists. the way we plate our food is done on purpose. the location of the foods is premeditated. the colors we use, the cuts we make, the molds we use, the temperatures we use, it all comes to play in our presentation. so when a to go order comes in, its all thrown out the window. everything that we work for has to be placed in a plastic container. a container where it will (in no doubt) be thrown and messed about on your commute home.

how do you want me to plate hot foods with ice cream in a to go box? how do you expect to have the same experience?

ice creams:
ice creams are nothing more than a frozen sauce. a sauce accompanies food, not muffles it. so why, as a pastry chef, am i expected to give you a GIANT scoop of ice cream with your dessert. the ice cream accompanies the dessert. it is an element of the dish, not the dessert. it is a sauce.

would you like the sauce that goes with your steak to weigh more than your steak? no? than why do you expect my frozen sauce to weigh more than the dessert?

fruits and berries:
really? really? do you really want fruits and berries (a summer abundance) at the end of fall? do you really want to pay for out of season produce that tastes like nothing?

sorry to sound like a whiny brat, but this is my open forum. this is my passion, this is my career.


kitchen: what are some of your pet peeves?