Defying gravity: Dishes that are not structually sound.

[piracer]

Ok, I used to work in the kitchen and my previous chef whom was a very considerate person always told me to also think of the front of house when plating, i.e a little crushed almonds below your quenelle of ice-cream so it doesnt run around.

Im not working front of house as in this restaurant mainly because its got one of the best wine lists in Asia and I want to learn more about wine (besides also knowing what its like front of house). The current chef I feel is highly egotistical, knowing that he's cooking for one of the best restaurants in Singapore, if not the world (listed 78th on the worlds top 100 blah blah blah, its Les Amis if anyone wants to know).

Now, i honestly dont think the food is all that much to shout about but there is a very popular dish of Asparagus with a truffled poach egg on top of 2 spears of asp. Its easy for the damn egg to stay there when your plating, but since we carry everything out on trays (i switch back and forth between being a runner and serving outside), the egg sometimes drops of and of course, who gets the blame and the shit but us front of house.

Today for instance, the damn egg was sure as hell going to fall off so i asked the sous (who was plating) to kindly place it further into the centre, not that much work is it? But of course they instead retort and screw me for not being able to carry the tray properly even saying "What you wanna put a seatbelt on it?" Well, yea, i actually think you fucking should.

So, to all you front of house staff out there working with egotistical chefs (and his sous), how do you deal with this kind of situation, also considering that im a very junior staff.

[azmilsyahmi]

I worked with lots of chefs who feel the world revolves around them. They forget that the front staff are the one that helps promote their food. What i do and train some of my team is to upsell the items that are easy to carry. If you want to get even then sell items that is hard to prepare. I did this in my former place, I sold 15 nos of a certain dish that so difficult to prepare. You should have heard them cursing at the back. To the Chefs reading this post. Remember the person in front promotes your dish so be nice to us.