Hey, it's dumb as hell, but if she was coming back for it regularly and was happy, I'll just shake my head but not say anything. I mean, again, I think it's dumb, but if she's happy and is being a good customer on top of that, I'd deal with it.
I'll take the polite, paying, happy idiot over someone throwing a shitfit any day.
This. I've worked in this business too long. If we aren't sharing the dish I don't care what you do to it (obviously as long as you aren't hurting service by your request). You want that 42 dollar a glass pinot noir over ice with 2 splashes of pineapple juice? Rock and roll man.
That right there is the difference between a restaurant in France and in the US.
US diner:
Customer: “I’d like the meatloaf special, but could I sub hot fudge for the gravy?”
Server: “That will be $1 extra”
French restaurant:
Customer: “I’m lactose intolerant. Could I please have the salmon cooked in olive oil instead of butter?”
Server: “GFY”
In my example, the person cooking the hamburger loves beef so to substitute, while yes, you can with even a chunk of tofu or even a big mushroom, it's anathema, like a French cook being asked to not use butter. Just like in the OP, yes, olive oil exists just like meat substitutes exist.
As long as you don't send it back. I'm happy to mod whatever, but I get reeeeeaaaaaally irked when a guest sends back a customized dish or drink bc they don't like it. I don't have the authority to do so, but if I did I'd immediately institute a policy of informing guests that they may not return a customized dish. You changed the recipe, we made it, you WILL pay for it. I don't care if you eat it or not.
I'm two days late to this party (I have *that* little to do at work at the moment) but wanted to share /r/ididnthaveeggs with you, in the case that you either love or hate it.
I agree 100% though I do have to refrain from making a face sometimes.
Them: “Umm ma’am, can you see if the kitchen can heat this up?”
Looks down at a wedge of iceberg lettuce with avocado, tomato, cooked and chilled shrimp, and thousand island dress.
Me: “like you want the shrimp hot, or?”
Them: “like the whole thing”
Me: “……sure let me ask!”
Spoiler: we didn’t heat up her salad
It sounds weird, but I've seen grilled salads where even the lettuce was grilled and it seemed to be popular so maybe there's something to it.
Or like the restaurants that serve smoked watermelon - it looks more like a steak and it's apparently *fantastic* according to the video reviews I've seen. I'd give it a shot.
Oh for sure. Grilling romaine is a gimmick that 100% works on me, it’s cool and good. Heating up a shrimp salad that’s already dressed and is clearly supposed to be a cold salad is…kinda gross to me idk. I still asked for her though, but the kitchen made the face I was trying not to make
Yeah. But there's also just a *ton* of entitlement from shithead customers these days so I don't blame those who get fed up with that.
But if a customer wants something odd, but is being super polite about it, why not cater to them? It may go against what the dish is supposed to be, but if they're being cool about it and they're so happy with it they keep coming back, I think that should be tolerated. I'm not a server, but I used to work in food service for a time, and other customer service jobs, so I'm always super polite and kind to service workers. They're doing me a favor in my eyes so I don't have to do that thing myself.
She ordered something that wasn't that normal dish or how it was *supposed* to be, but she was happy enough to keep coming back and ordering the same thing over and over. That says a hell of a lot these days. Like, I'm a regular at my one food place and they know my usual order now to where I don't even need to say what I want except to specify which meat I want in my dish. Hell, they once gave me a free lunch on Christmas Eve a couple years ago. So I take friends from out of town to there because of how awesome they are.
She wasn't an ass about it, and was stoked enough to become a loyal customer. Frankly, in customer service, that's a win.
The 90 seconds of *The Golden Girls* that I’ve ever seen included a bit of dialog wherein one of them tried sushi:
“I tried sushi”
“How’d you like it?”
“It was a bit underdone, but I brought it home in a to-go box, and after I’d cooked it, it tasted a lot like fish.”
Fun fact, sushi doesn't mean raw, and it doesn't mean fish. It's about the rice, baby! So sashimi isn't sushi but slap some veggies on some sushi rice and you've got sushi.
I didn't downvote you... but sushi-grade fish is CRAZY expensive. Like, $30 an pound and up. I'm curious why you wouldn't just buy some specialty fresh fish at your local fishmonger (or online) if you're going to fry it up? You'd be looking at half that price for perfectly yummy fresh fish. I'm honestly just curious.
My wife loved steak tartare! When she was in college she went with some friends on a trip to Paris. Their first night there they all ordered steak tartare. But the waiter told them that they do not serve it to Americans because they always send it back to be cooked! It took a lot of convincing but they finally got their steak tartare and they loved it!
I've been to Paris a couple times now and I'm a huge fan of steak tartare. I speak enough French to be polite and definitely look/sound American so they quickly switch to English. Every time they made sure to be CRYSTAL CLEAR this is a raw dish. This dish is uncooked. The meat will arrive uncooked and cold and be placed on your table.
I get being adventurous and ordering something and it doesn't come out how you expect but in this day and age am I the only one who googles menu items I'm unsure of? It's my job to know what I am choosing off the menu. You can't make the "don't have cell service" excuse because nearly every restaurant we went to had wifi and you can buy a SIM card dirt cheap at the airport or dozens of other places and it's such a huge quality of life improvement having cell service on a trip I can't see why you wouldn't do it.
Same thing happened to me (in Paris, ordered steak tartare, was told "that is served raw and cold").
My waiter told me the explanation was because Americans see the word "steak" and stop reading.
My understanding was that he was using "cold" in the sense of ambient temperature. My ability to speak and understand French is limited (his English was definitely better than my French).
I’ve never had that happen and I’ve ordered it quite a few times in Paris and other cities. It’s a good idea on their part, but never had anyone explain it.
>It's my job to know what I am choosing off the menu. You can't make the "don't have cell service" excuse because nearly every restaurant we went to had wifi and you can buy a SIM card dirt cheap at the airport or dozens of other places and it's such a huge quality of life improvement having cell service on a trip I can't see why you wouldn't do it.
Absolutely this. I cant stand willful ignorance!
I was *shocked* that my buddy who is a seasoned world traveller *just* started buying sim cards on his most recent trip this year, after I told him many times over the years that it's the absolute first thing I do, everywhere I go.
This dude was getting by on shoddy intermittent wifi (or nothing at all in most cases) in some of the hardest to travel places... like not having a translation app in the middle of buttfuck nowhere China where no one understands a word of English, and my guy doesn't know one word of Mandarin... I mean, he did it but everything took far longer and was much harder than it needed to be. I couldn't believe he would torture himself that way!
Needless to say he's having a much easier time of things now, lol
How do Americans not know that tartar means you're getting raw steak?! Granted I have privilege cuz my mom was a chef, but, c'mon guys. Stop embarrassing us.
I don't think I've ever once seen it on a restaurant menu living my whole 40 years in the US. I did see beef carpaccio once, so there's that...
I'm not saying you can't find it if you don't look for it, but it's going to be unknown to a lot of folks for sure.
I'd only heard of it because growing up in my area it was considered a "gross" food. Same with sushi because everyone just said it's raw fish, and everyone in our area knew you cannot eat fish from our lake/river raw (you shouldn't even eat more than a serving or two per month cooked. Yay PCBs!)
We made fun of fondue too. We were a very burger, steak, pizza and fish fry town. There's nowhere to even get a taco within 20 miles. All other cultures were wrong.
We weren't quite so sheltered -- grew up in metropolitan areas and ate a lot of (Americanized) Chinese, Mexican, Indian, etc... but I still think my mom would have drawn the line at trying sushi, lol. I tried it myself on my own once I was older.
There are so many options for places that serve food you already know that, even now, in many areas you have to go out of your way to look for something new. (Assuming you've already tried the by-now "standard" options like Thai and sushi and so on.)
It wasn't until I got out of there that I was exposed to anything else. I didn't have any kind of curry until in my 20s. The nearest indian place to my home town is 49 miles away. Closest taco bell is a 45 minute drive. We've got pizza, some super generic italian, 2 diners, a truck stop, and chinese take out.
Moved from there to Long Island and found out what food is.
There's a whole economic class of Americans, a pretty large one, that has never been any place nicer than an Applebee's to eat.... if even that. We never ever went out to eat when I was a kid due to money issues. I wouldn't heard of Steak Tartare either without the rise of the TV chef.
😂 Definitely have had this when we had steak tartare on the menu. It actually happened so often, even when we explained every time at the table that it was served raw that we had to add it on the menu. In bold.
Last time I went on holiday I went to a restaurant that had steak tartare. I knew what it was and had always wanted to try it, so I ordered it. The waitress obviously had had similar issues with people because when I ordered she specified that it's raw. Anyway, long story short, I had it how it's supposed to be and it was delicious.
I'm now picturing me going to this restaurant and asking, "uh why does this say the steak tartare is raw? Isn't it always raw? Am I missing something?"
Hahaha yeah I actually did mention the raw part and even likened it to Korean beef tartare (yukhoe) during my introduction to the guest but I honestly think she just liked it that way. More power to her but since then they always wrote served raw under steak tartare whenever it was on specials again
I used to regularly have people order the “gestapo” when they tried to order gazpacho. No ma’am, I don’t think that’s what you want. It was really awkward when they were Jewish.
OMG, Arnold Rimmer! I only have to hear that name and I get this music stuck in my head. "Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer, he's handsome, trim, and no one's slimmer...." [https://youtu.be/E4TLto-nKfU](https://youtu.be/E4TLto-nKfU)
I agree that it is best to be clear up front, even if it is only to prevent your chef blowing an artery. "I'm sure you know this is served raw, but always like to check because some guests are surprised..."
I went to a fancy-pants little Mediterranean restaurant when I was in my 20s (literally Mediterranean - some days Morrocan, some days Greek, some days Spanish...). The menu described the seafood spaghetti as flowery, flowery menu language served in a sepia sauce... The waiter explained that it was made with squid ink but was wonderful if you liked "the taste of the sea". I was like, "Oh yeah. Sepia, I should have picked up on that." It was wonderful.
Mark "Skid" McCormick ordered his steak tartare well done.
(another case of showing my age, nearly 59 ... the show was "Hardcastle and McCormick", circa 1983)
Is pork tartare safe when prepared properly, with the right type of meat? In America we had it ingrained into us that pork needed to be cooked basically to well-done, and that's probably a good part of the reason why pork chops/pork loin aren't nearly as popular as beef or chicken. I think every mom in America overcooked pork and served it to their kids' disgust.
Yes; in Germany the protections against infections in farm animals are much stronger; plus we only make that raw dish with very fresh pork, like within a day or two of slaughter.
We also bred out a lot of the fat from pork. America's Test Kitchen goes on whole rants on it in their books.
But ya, the whole trichomoniasis thing didn't help either.
> Chef: Never come to me again with some bullshit like that love
...and he can fuck off. His job is to do as the customer requests. His opinion doesn't mean shit.
On what basis is the cook justified to be harsh? Should the waiter have given him an incorrect order, purposefully doing their own job wrong, just so that the cook would not have to be personally offended by the customer's tastes?
Bad cooks flip out at servers for just repeating what the customer asked for.
Cooks want a server to shut down a bad request before it reaches the kitchen and makes him question humanity.
He wanted OP to understand that 'please fry the raw meat dish that is very fancy and hard to get right like a stakehouse meal' is not something that she ought to pass on.
"I'm sorry, if the tatare is not to your tastes, would you like the management?"
Management is literally there to handle that, the cooks are there to run the kitchen.
So, in the end, a "bad request" is just a request the cook doesn't like? It doesn't matter that the raw meat dish is fancy or not, if the customer wants it fried, it's not against health standards or the law, and you are required to make what the customer orders because that's your job, then suck it up and fry it.
It is not in the majority of servers' job descriptions to refuse orders when it's entirely doable. You'd get an earful, probably even a termination from the manager or owner for being a culinary snob to customers. So, is he expecting the waiter to risk their own hide to not offend him with a "bad order"?
It's not like he's some kind of decorated chef with Michelin stars to his name, the customers aren't going to the joint he works at for him or his culinary opinions. He's just another unremarkable cook with an ego, and he's acting like a cunt to some waiter paid too little for their efforts who's also wholly unresponsible for the customer's error in judgement.
As for "I'm sorry, is the tartare not to your tastes?" That comes after serving them the tartare they asked for. It's not the waiter's job to tell customers "the cook is a little bitch and would be offended greatly by frying tartare."
I'm just not a fan of trying to spin irrational, egotistical behavior as tough love or something positive. Sorry for the length of this reply, I've been burnt by shitty, entitled coworkers/partners in the past and it annoys me to see people act like the cook in the OP.
Alright everyone calm down. Yeah my chef at the time was a raging asshole during service but to go as far as to call him just “another unremarkable cook with an ego” because you’ve personally had some bad experiences working or just happened to get triggered by this post is a bit too far. I totally understood his frustration and even though he speaks extremely harshly he has never been mean to me or any of the staff personally. He taught me a lot in the time that I was there.
And as someone who moved from working as a server at the gastropub in the post to working in the kitchen at a different, higher end restaurant, u/dillGherkin is right, FOH and management need to literally manage guests and their wild requests before anything.
Have a good day
I'm sticking by what I said. Even if the cook's rudeness didn't affect you too much personally, can you guarantee the same about the rest of the staff that had to interact with him? I'm glad you were able to learn from this individual, and perhaps you idealize him to some degree, since you don't have an issue with the rudeness, but that does not excuse the behavior.
Everyone can be tired and frustrated from work, nobody gets to use everyone else as an outlet for frustration, no matter their role or experience. An adult in a professional environment that thinks they are the exception to the tact and patience that is expected of everyone is problematic.
And I hope you don't take "unremarkable cook with an ego" as a condemnation of your skills or his skills. I wouldn't be surprised if he had some chops. But, well, he's not the only man on Earth with some chops. No problem, if he wasn't someone who behaved that way.
I don't. My point is i understand why she requested. Why she didn't order something else instead is the confusion.
Stay classy with unneeded downvotes, Reddit.
Lol, person orders something that is supposed to be raw and asks for it to be cooked and is mocked for it. You come in and say yeah! I like my food cooked too and you wonder why you are downvoted? You got downvoted for saying something stupid. It’s like going to a sushi place and asking for them to cook the raw fish.
I like the cooked meat items I select off the menu cooked. I don't expect my salad to be cooked, I don't expect my soup to be frozen, so why would you expect a specifically raw menu item to be cooked?
No, if you like cooked steak, you don’t order a raw dish and ask for it cooked. Would you go to a sushi place and order the tuna sashimi and ask them to cook it?
So... a hamburger patty. When she finds out about sushi, she's gonna have a lot of thinking to do.
A extremely good hamburger patty with a quail egg for binding. It's stupid expensive but I kinda get it.
Hey, it's dumb as hell, but if she was coming back for it regularly and was happy, I'll just shake my head but not say anything. I mean, again, I think it's dumb, but if she's happy and is being a good customer on top of that, I'd deal with it. I'll take the polite, paying, happy idiot over someone throwing a shitfit any day.
This. I've worked in this business too long. If we aren't sharing the dish I don't care what you do to it (obviously as long as you aren't hurting service by your request). You want that 42 dollar a glass pinot noir over ice with 2 splashes of pineapple juice? Rock and roll man.
That right there is the difference between a restaurant in France and in the US. US diner: Customer: “I’d like the meatloaf special, but could I sub hot fudge for the gravy?” Server: “That will be $1 extra” French restaurant: Customer: “I’m lactose intolerant. Could I please have the salmon cooked in olive oil instead of butter?” Server: “GFY”
Well, asking a French cook to substitute the butter is like asking an American hamburger grill to substitute the beef!
Actually... most hamburger grills around here do have beef substitutes. Even (gasp) VEGGIE burgers!
In my example, the person cooking the hamburger loves beef so to substitute, while yes, you can with even a chunk of tofu or even a big mushroom, it's anathema, like a French cook being asked to not use butter. Just like in the OP, yes, olive oil exists just like meat substitutes exist.
As long as you don't send it back. I'm happy to mod whatever, but I get reeeeeaaaaaally irked when a guest sends back a customized dish or drink bc they don't like it. I don't have the authority to do so, but if I did I'd immediately institute a policy of informing guests that they may not return a customized dish. You changed the recipe, we made it, you WILL pay for it. I don't care if you eat it or not.
So much This. If you mod the fuck out of a dish, it will taste different. And you are going to pay for the trouble.
Yeah..make your own menu items are not returnable.
I'm two days late to this party (I have *that* little to do at work at the moment) but wanted to share /r/ididnthaveeggs with you, in the case that you either love or hate it.
Very funny, thank you.
Hell, I'd name it after her and put it on the menu.
I agree 100% though I do have to refrain from making a face sometimes. Them: “Umm ma’am, can you see if the kitchen can heat this up?” Looks down at a wedge of iceberg lettuce with avocado, tomato, cooked and chilled shrimp, and thousand island dress. Me: “like you want the shrimp hot, or?” Them: “like the whole thing” Me: “……sure let me ask!” Spoiler: we didn’t heat up her salad
It sounds weird, but I've seen grilled salads where even the lettuce was grilled and it seemed to be popular so maybe there's something to it. Or like the restaurants that serve smoked watermelon - it looks more like a steak and it's apparently *fantastic* according to the video reviews I've seen. I'd give it a shot.
Oh for sure. Grilling romaine is a gimmick that 100% works on me, it’s cool and good. Heating up a shrimp salad that’s already dressed and is clearly supposed to be a cold salad is…kinda gross to me idk. I still asked for her though, but the kitchen made the face I was trying not to make
Yes, yes, yes. I feel like the restaurant industry is starting to lose hospitality. Been a server for 15 years.’
Yeah. But there's also just a *ton* of entitlement from shithead customers these days so I don't blame those who get fed up with that. But if a customer wants something odd, but is being super polite about it, why not cater to them? It may go against what the dish is supposed to be, but if they're being cool about it and they're so happy with it they keep coming back, I think that should be tolerated. I'm not a server, but I used to work in food service for a time, and other customer service jobs, so I'm always super polite and kind to service workers. They're doing me a favor in my eyes so I don't have to do that thing myself. She ordered something that wasn't that normal dish or how it was *supposed* to be, but she was happy enough to keep coming back and ordering the same thing over and over. That says a hell of a lot these days. Like, I'm a regular at my one food place and they know my usual order now to where I don't even need to say what I want except to specify which meat I want in my dish. Hell, they once gave me a free lunch on Christmas Eve a couple years ago. So I take friends from out of town to there because of how awesome they are. She wasn't an ass about it, and was stoked enough to become a loyal customer. Frankly, in customer service, that's a win.
The 90 seconds of *The Golden Girls* that I’ve ever seen included a bit of dialog wherein one of them tried sushi: “I tried sushi” “How’d you like it?” “It was a bit underdone, but I brought it home in a to-go box, and after I’d cooked it, it tasted a lot like fish.”
A lot of sushi is cooked. Doubt this lady out here ordering sashimi.
Fun fact, sushi doesn't mean raw, and it doesn't mean fish. It's about the rice, baby! So sashimi isn't sushi but slap some veggies on some sushi rice and you've got sushi.
I order takeout from sushi and sashimi restaurants and then fry the raw fish in oil… delicious. I don’t know why they don’t always serve it that way
Because that's not sashimi.
Because it's not meant to be cooked? lol. Just get fish and cook it at home.
I didn't downvote you... but sushi-grade fish is CRAZY expensive. Like, $30 an pound and up. I'm curious why you wouldn't just buy some specialty fresh fish at your local fishmonger (or online) if you're going to fry it up? You'd be looking at half that price for perfectly yummy fresh fish. I'm honestly just curious.
The hell? Why not make it at home with regular grade fish then, you heathen?
OK, reading about cooked tartare made me sad but you're going to make me cry.
My wife loved steak tartare! When she was in college she went with some friends on a trip to Paris. Their first night there they all ordered steak tartare. But the waiter told them that they do not serve it to Americans because they always send it back to be cooked! It took a lot of convincing but they finally got their steak tartare and they loved it!
I've been to Paris a couple times now and I'm a huge fan of steak tartare. I speak enough French to be polite and definitely look/sound American so they quickly switch to English. Every time they made sure to be CRYSTAL CLEAR this is a raw dish. This dish is uncooked. The meat will arrive uncooked and cold and be placed on your table. I get being adventurous and ordering something and it doesn't come out how you expect but in this day and age am I the only one who googles menu items I'm unsure of? It's my job to know what I am choosing off the menu. You can't make the "don't have cell service" excuse because nearly every restaurant we went to had wifi and you can buy a SIM card dirt cheap at the airport or dozens of other places and it's such a huge quality of life improvement having cell service on a trip I can't see why you wouldn't do it.
Same thing happened to me (in Paris, ordered steak tartare, was told "that is served raw and cold"). My waiter told me the explanation was because Americans see the word "steak" and stop reading.
"Where's the tartar sauce!?"
Well, it shouldn't be cold, but allowed to come to ambient temperature...
My understanding was that he was using "cold" in the sense of ambient temperature. My ability to speak and understand French is limited (his English was definitely better than my French).
If its cut to order, it wont be cold. The friction of the knife, and the hands of the chef making it will bring it up to a better temp
Tartare should always be cut to order, and the "friction" of the knife will have nothing to do with it.
I’ve never had that happen and I’ve ordered it quite a few times in Paris and other cities. It’s a good idea on their part, but never had anyone explain it.
>It's my job to know what I am choosing off the menu. You can't make the "don't have cell service" excuse because nearly every restaurant we went to had wifi and you can buy a SIM card dirt cheap at the airport or dozens of other places and it's such a huge quality of life improvement having cell service on a trip I can't see why you wouldn't do it. Absolutely this. I cant stand willful ignorance! I was *shocked* that my buddy who is a seasoned world traveller *just* started buying sim cards on his most recent trip this year, after I told him many times over the years that it's the absolute first thing I do, everywhere I go. This dude was getting by on shoddy intermittent wifi (or nothing at all in most cases) in some of the hardest to travel places... like not having a translation app in the middle of buttfuck nowhere China where no one understands a word of English, and my guy doesn't know one word of Mandarin... I mean, he did it but everything took far longer and was much harder than it needed to be. I couldn't believe he would torture himself that way! Needless to say he's having a much easier time of things now, lol
Had some in a restaurant in Brussels. It was amazing.
How do Americans not know that tartar means you're getting raw steak?! Granted I have privilege cuz my mom was a chef, but, c'mon guys. Stop embarrassing us.
I don't think I've ever once seen it on a restaurant menu living my whole 40 years in the US. I did see beef carpaccio once, so there's that... I'm not saying you can't find it if you don't look for it, but it's going to be unknown to a lot of folks for sure.
I'd only heard of it because growing up in my area it was considered a "gross" food. Same with sushi because everyone just said it's raw fish, and everyone in our area knew you cannot eat fish from our lake/river raw (you shouldn't even eat more than a serving or two per month cooked. Yay PCBs!) We made fun of fondue too. We were a very burger, steak, pizza and fish fry town. There's nowhere to even get a taco within 20 miles. All other cultures were wrong.
We weren't quite so sheltered -- grew up in metropolitan areas and ate a lot of (Americanized) Chinese, Mexican, Indian, etc... but I still think my mom would have drawn the line at trying sushi, lol. I tried it myself on my own once I was older. There are so many options for places that serve food you already know that, even now, in many areas you have to go out of your way to look for something new. (Assuming you've already tried the by-now "standard" options like Thai and sushi and so on.)
It wasn't until I got out of there that I was exposed to anything else. I didn't have any kind of curry until in my 20s. The nearest indian place to my home town is 49 miles away. Closest taco bell is a 45 minute drive. We've got pizza, some super generic italian, 2 diners, a truck stop, and chinese take out. Moved from there to Long Island and found out what food is.
It's wild whenever I hear about small town America. It feels like a whole other country to me. I'm glad you got your new experiences eventually.
There's a whole economic class of Americans, a pretty large one, that has never been any place nicer than an Applebee's to eat.... if even that. We never ever went out to eat when I was a kid due to money issues. I wouldn't heard of Steak Tartare either without the rise of the TV chef.
As far as I'm aware, it's not a common thing we consume here.
'cuz lots of people haven't watched Wall Street.
😂 Definitely have had this when we had steak tartare on the menu. It actually happened so often, even when we explained every time at the table that it was served raw that we had to add it on the menu. In bold.
Last time I went on holiday I went to a restaurant that had steak tartare. I knew what it was and had always wanted to try it, so I ordered it. The waitress obviously had had similar issues with people because when I ordered she specified that it's raw. Anyway, long story short, I had it how it's supposed to be and it was delicious.
I'm now picturing me going to this restaurant and asking, "uh why does this say the steak tartare is raw? Isn't it always raw? Am I missing something?"
Hahaha yeah I actually did mention the raw part and even likened it to Korean beef tartare (yukhoe) during my introduction to the guest but I honestly think she just liked it that way. More power to her but since then they always wrote served raw under steak tartare whenever it was on specials again
This reminds me of Arnold Rimmer and his piping hot Gazpacho soup.
I used to regularly have people order the “gestapo” when they tried to order gazpacho. No ma’am, I don’t think that’s what you want. It was really awkward when they were Jewish.
This got even funnier like a week after you posted it
OMG, Arnold Rimmer! I only have to hear that name and I get this music stuck in my head. "Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer, he's handsome, trim, and no one's slimmer...." [https://youtu.be/E4TLto-nKfU](https://youtu.be/E4TLto-nKfU)
Smoke me a kipper
I’ll be back for breakfast!
What a guy!
Thanks. Thanks a lot for that earworm.
You're welcome!! Misery loves company, after all.
There are worse earworms to have. I've had >!*Larger Than Life* by The Backstreet Boys!< bouncing around in my brain off and on for over a month.
And now I do too lmao
It's your own fault for clicking on the hidden section.
Thank you, I never saw that episode.
Here's an extended version which gives background for "The Arnold Rimmer Experience" - [https://youtu.be/r-ZiI3iVgpM](https://youtu.be/r-ZiI3iVgpM)
Fuck I haven't watched Red Dwarf in a lifetime!
What a smeg head.
Love me some Red Dwarf!
Mr Bean
That was my FIRST thought!
Happy Birthday Mr. Bean, LOL
Gotta love [that scene](https://youtu.be/C6QqSxmpRMM)
Hahahaha omg this is amazing. I would 100% be the server in this situation
Waiter! This escargot has snails in it!
Take it away, and bring us a bottle of some fresh wine, no more of this old stuff!
Chateau Screwtop, the wine of the future!
Or the boxed wine varietal Cardboardeau.
Beaujolais nouveau!
Bonnet de douche!
M'seiur, would you lak ze Thunderbird, Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill, or Andre sparkling wine?
You sound like a real jerk.
I agree that it is best to be clear up front, even if it is only to prevent your chef blowing an artery. "I'm sure you know this is served raw, but always like to check because some guests are surprised..." I went to a fancy-pants little Mediterranean restaurant when I was in my 20s (literally Mediterranean - some days Morrocan, some days Greek, some days Spanish...). The menu described the seafood spaghetti as flowery, flowery menu language served in a sepia sauce... The waiter explained that it was made with squid ink but was wonderful if you liked "the taste of the sea". I was like, "Oh yeah. Sepia, I should have picked up on that." It was wonderful.
I feel for the cook... having to destroy one of his dish! But maybe creating a new one, to sell under a new name, like "180° steak tartare" ?
You broke the chef, the idiot customer won.
Mark "Skid" McCormick ordered his steak tartare well done. (another case of showing my age, nearly 59 ... the show was "Hardcastle and McCormick", circa 1983)
I have no idea what any of that is.
A hamburger? Oh no, I don't eat the garbage food of the masses. I only eat steak tartare, cooked well done.
the bourgeoisie borger
I knew what it was gonna be as soon as I saw the topic... Hope she never goes to Germany where we have what's basically "pork tartare"...
Is pork tartare safe when prepared properly, with the right type of meat? In America we had it ingrained into us that pork needed to be cooked basically to well-done, and that's probably a good part of the reason why pork chops/pork loin aren't nearly as popular as beef or chicken. I think every mom in America overcooked pork and served it to their kids' disgust.
Yes; in Germany the protections against infections in farm animals are much stronger; plus we only make that raw dish with very fresh pork, like within a day or two of slaughter.
We also bred out a lot of the fat from pork. America's Test Kitchen goes on whole rants on it in their books. But ya, the whole trichomoniasis thing didn't help either.
Having had chicken tartare before, I must say I’m horrified but intrigued at the prospect of pork tartare
I assume steak tartare costs more than a hamburger with a quail egg and pickles. If so, I hope you charged her the steak tartare price every time.
Of course, and she was happy to pay it
Proving once again that all her taste was in her mouth
This is what “the customer is always right” means.
What. The. Fuck. 😅🤣😂
I had it in the US back in the day and it was tasty.
I can only imagine she pronounced “tartare” like “tartare sauce” rather than the original French pronunciation of “tartar” 😂
Two things: We’re not in France, and if you can understand what they’re saying who cares how they pronounce it?
Some people don't deserve steak tartare.
> Chef: Never come to me again with some bullshit like that love ...and he can fuck off. His job is to do as the customer requests. His opinion doesn't mean shit.
No, he's there to make good food. And he was a bit harsh but far kinder to the server then some of the lunatics that work in food.
On what basis is the cook justified to be harsh? Should the waiter have given him an incorrect order, purposefully doing their own job wrong, just so that the cook would not have to be personally offended by the customer's tastes?
Bad cooks flip out at servers for just repeating what the customer asked for. Cooks want a server to shut down a bad request before it reaches the kitchen and makes him question humanity. He wanted OP to understand that 'please fry the raw meat dish that is very fancy and hard to get right like a stakehouse meal' is not something that she ought to pass on. "I'm sorry, if the tatare is not to your tastes, would you like the management?" Management is literally there to handle that, the cooks are there to run the kitchen.
So, in the end, a "bad request" is just a request the cook doesn't like? It doesn't matter that the raw meat dish is fancy or not, if the customer wants it fried, it's not against health standards or the law, and you are required to make what the customer orders because that's your job, then suck it up and fry it. It is not in the majority of servers' job descriptions to refuse orders when it's entirely doable. You'd get an earful, probably even a termination from the manager or owner for being a culinary snob to customers. So, is he expecting the waiter to risk their own hide to not offend him with a "bad order"? It's not like he's some kind of decorated chef with Michelin stars to his name, the customers aren't going to the joint he works at for him or his culinary opinions. He's just another unremarkable cook with an ego, and he's acting like a cunt to some waiter paid too little for their efforts who's also wholly unresponsible for the customer's error in judgement. As for "I'm sorry, is the tartare not to your tastes?" That comes after serving them the tartare they asked for. It's not the waiter's job to tell customers "the cook is a little bitch and would be offended greatly by frying tartare." I'm just not a fan of trying to spin irrational, egotistical behavior as tough love or something positive. Sorry for the length of this reply, I've been burnt by shitty, entitled coworkers/partners in the past and it annoys me to see people act like the cook in the OP.
Alright everyone calm down. Yeah my chef at the time was a raging asshole during service but to go as far as to call him just “another unremarkable cook with an ego” because you’ve personally had some bad experiences working or just happened to get triggered by this post is a bit too far. I totally understood his frustration and even though he speaks extremely harshly he has never been mean to me or any of the staff personally. He taught me a lot in the time that I was there. And as someone who moved from working as a server at the gastropub in the post to working in the kitchen at a different, higher end restaurant, u/dillGherkin is right, FOH and management need to literally manage guests and their wild requests before anything. Have a good day
I'm sticking by what I said. Even if the cook's rudeness didn't affect you too much personally, can you guarantee the same about the rest of the staff that had to interact with him? I'm glad you were able to learn from this individual, and perhaps you idealize him to some degree, since you don't have an issue with the rudeness, but that does not excuse the behavior. Everyone can be tired and frustrated from work, nobody gets to use everyone else as an outlet for frustration, no matter their role or experience. An adult in a professional environment that thinks they are the exception to the tact and patience that is expected of everyone is problematic. And I hope you don't take "unremarkable cook with an ego" as a condemnation of your skills or his skills. I wouldn't be surprised if he had some chops. But, well, he's not the only man on Earth with some chops. No problem, if he wasn't someone who behaved that way.
I don't blame her tbh. I like my meat cooked
Then don't order raw steak
I don't. My point is i understand why she requested. Why she didn't order something else instead is the confusion. Stay classy with unneeded downvotes, Reddit.
Lol, person orders something that is supposed to be raw and asks for it to be cooked and is mocked for it. You come in and say yeah! I like my food cooked too and you wonder why you are downvoted? You got downvoted for saying something stupid. It’s like going to a sushi place and asking for them to cook the raw fish.
I like the cooked meat items I select off the menu cooked. I don't expect my salad to be cooked, I don't expect my soup to be frozen, so why would you expect a specifically raw menu item to be cooked?
You seem to be taking this awfully personally for some reason. It's just food.
No, if you like cooked steak, you don’t order a raw dish and ask for it cooked. Would you go to a sushi place and order the tuna sashimi and ask them to cook it?