Kitchen Stories

So for this one I really can't name names but some of you will know who you are when you read this. 

For this time of year this story seems fitting, This story is about the worst night of service I have ever been a part of and it was a New Years Eve.

Back in the early 2000's I was working for a well loved Boston Chef who now has a small restaurant empire in the burbs. As cooks and staff we were treated well and the job had lots of perks, one being that the chef had a company credit card that was meant to be used for emergencies or to take the staff out for drinks or dinner when deserved. 

Wellllllll, one day the chef walked in wearing a fancy new leather jacket and it was branded with a luxury car logo, he asked the cooks if we could guess what he bought this morning? He told us all about it then left for a little while and was planning on coming back for dinner service. (this ties into the company card, i'll get to that soon)

So about the time lunch was winding down three of the four partners who owned te restaurant walked in and asked where he was? His number two (Executive Sous Chef) told them that he would be back in a little bit and that he would send him to their office when he came back. They then pulled him in to the office and told him what was going on and that he would be the new Chef after they talk to the Chef. This was maybe the middle of November early December.

He was excited so he told the whole staff and we were all awaiting the fireworks, so Chef comes walking back in and gets sent up to "talk". Apparently he put the down payment on a luxury car on the company card and the partners were notified of the purchase.   So the Executive Sous Chef gets promoted and with it being now close to New Years Eve with the tasting menu set and reservations already stacking up, we all feel good with a new guy in the drivers seat.

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But wait, the new guy gets sent to HR for something dumb and he gets fired, and the daytime sous-chef who was more of a numbers and purchasing chef was told that he was now in charge, maybe the week of Christmas. His first move was to open up all reservations instead of the timed seatings that we had already, and he chose to make the tasting menu available a la carte. This did not go so well because he was going to be the one running service as "expo" for thos who watched the BEAR he would be pacing the night and calling the tickets that the cooks had to make. 

At about the 1/2 way point of the night we were fully buried with tickets and lots and lots of unhappy guests in the dining room, Chef calls "FIRE EVERYTHING". We as cooks are all very confused and question him but he doubled down and we soon filled the window and pass with so much food Golden Corral would be jealous. The rest of the night was kind of a blur of trying to fix and create new menu items for the guests we still had coming in. 

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In better news lots of valuable lessons were learned and what not to do.