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Odd/weird requests!


chef_mico

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Has a customer ever asked you for the oddest or weirdest request for food???

Well, there was a time during one of our food tastings for upcoming weddings, a guy approach me and my friend about some food request for his wedding next year. We were enthusiatic about it, he asked us what we could offer, we asked him what he would like... here's the juicy bits which shocked us....

The client wanted to serve exotic food in his wedding, exotic is okay but not super extreme cuisine, well here are some examples of what he wanted....

He wanted dishes made from a "Pawikan". A pawikan is a big turtle in Palawan which is already endangered and is protected by the law. He also wanted "SAWA". A sawa is filipino term for "Phyton", he wanted a stew out of it cooked in adobo sauce.

We were like, holy crap!!! We just told him "Sorry but we can't do that kind of thing, because it is illegal to kill endangered animals, he said he would pay a hefty amount if we would do it. We just told him that we don't want to jeopardize the name of our company. We told him we just can't do it. He was pissed when he left, but we would never stoop down just because he would pay us a lot of dough.

We love and respect nature and all. :wub:

Cooking is like a blank piece of paper, anything can happen.
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I'm not in the restaurant business, but the weirdest request I ever witnessed took place years ago in a NYC restaurant that specialized in authentic Brittany-style crepes. Clients at a nearby table loudly berated a waitress because there wasn't any maple syrup available! ("Crepes are pancakes, right?")

Edited by SuzySushi (log)

SuzySushi

"She sells shiso by the seashore."

My eGullet Foodblog: A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs

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A lawyer chap who worked with me was moaning about a meal he had at a restaurant frequented by the "suits" brigade. Seems he'd ordered risotto and couldn't fathom why the wait staff were miffed when he said it lacked something - where was the soy sauce?

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At a table next to ours in a Paris restaurant, a man loudly requested, "French Dressing" for his salad. "What do you mean, no French dressing! Where the !@#$! are we, anyway? Italy?"

A guy I worked with at a pizza place used to drain canned anchovies and drink the oil.

"Oh, tuna. Tuna, tuna, tuna." -Andy Bernard, The Office
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At a table next to ours in a Paris restaurant, a man loudly requested, "French Dressing" for his salad.  "What do you mean, no French dressing!  Where the !@#$! are we, anyway?  Italy?"

Being a philistine who's never been to France, forgive my ignorant question -- why don't they have French Dressing there? (My guess would be that it's an American creation, and thus the French probably scoff at it.)

A guy I worked with at a pizza place used to drain canned anchovies and drink the oil.

Ugh...wretch!

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At a table next to ours in a Paris restaurant, a man loudly requested, "French Dressing" for his salad.  "What do you mean, no French dressing!  Where the !@#$! are we, anyway?  Italy?"

Being a philistine who's never been to France, forgive my ignorant question -- why don't they have French Dressing there? (My guess would be that it's an American creation, and thus the French probably scoff at it.)

You are correct - it is an American invention.

The Wikipedia Link

French dressing is a type of American salad dressing, also called Catalina dressing. French dressing can be "white" or "red". It is essentially a vinaigrette with sugar and ketchup added. It is often sold bottled in the United States.

French dressing as such is unknown in France, where sugar and ketchup are never found in salad dressing. Vinaigrette is the most common way of dressing a salad in France.

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Odd or just plain stupid? Several years ago, while I was still doing some catering, I happened to mention to one of my clients that I was having two steers butchered the following week and could offer her beef ribs, cross cut into 2-inch pieces and barbecued.

Her brother, who had been hanging around while we worked on the menu, stopped me as I was leaving and asked if I could save the testicles for him. It took me ten minutes to explain that these were steers and why I couldn't comply with his request. He kept saying, I'm willing to pay for them." I had to practically draw him a picture and tell him they were wacked off the animal at age 12 weeks........

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Not disgusting but I still think it was kind of odd. A couple of guys came in for lunch and one ordered a BBQ beef sandwich and requested that I cut it up on his plate???????

I would have understood had he been disabled but he wasn't. I told the boss I wasn't going to do it.

After all he had a knife and fork on his plate and I had about 20 orders working. :angry:

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Nothing odd, per se, but we did get people that liked their food charred beyond recognition.

For example, we had a plate come back with several "problems". The diner wanted his steak sliced and "very well done" and he wanted his potato "crunchy", i.e burned. We tossed the steak and potato in the fryer for a few and sent the hunks of coal back out. The server brought back the empty plate and said the guy loved it.

The only other thing I can think of, and this is more funny than anything, was a Red Hat Society banquent I catered. The ladies requested foie gras, or, as the lady in charge said, "fo-waaah grass". So, as an app, we sautéed some slices of foie and drizzled it with a port/balsamic reduction, you know, nice and simple. Now here's the kicker. A lady, complete with her awful red hat, came back to the hall's kitchen and asked if there was any grape jelly. We looked around and found a jar of Welch's and handed it to her, not sure what she was wanting to do. Next thing you know, she's wiping the reduction of the foie and covering it with grape jelly. I wanted to beat her with her dumb, red hat :laugh:

Gear nerd and hash slinger

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I was once working the garde manger station in an upscale restuarant that was known for things like steak and nice fish dishes.

A customer ordered the house salad with "extra bleu cheese." The salad already came with blue cheese, but we obliged. He then ordered his $40 filet mignon "extra extra well done." The waiter tried to talk him into ordering a different item, but no. He then proceeded to ask for more blue cheese on the side. Apparently, what we sent out wasn't enough, because the server came back to my station five or six times throughout the customer's meal asking for more blue cheese.

I have no clue what he was doing with it, and don't want to know. :wacko:

-Sounds awfully rich!

-It is! That's why I serve it with ice cream to cut the sweetness!

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Yeah, we also used to get those weirdos once in a while who'd order their steaks "well done." :raz:

There's a funny scene in an episode of A Cook's Tour where somebody ordered something like "no butter in their food, but extra hollandaise" which leads Bourdain into a rant. :laugh:

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Then there are people that make the truly odd requests that make the waitstaff and/or kitchen insane:

"I'd like the seasonal field greens salad with no autumn, please..."

"I want that sandwich on the 12 grain bread, but no oats please. I don't like oats."

"Can I have the 15 bean soup but with no limas??"

Pick the effing limas out yourself, jackass!! :rolleyes:

I still don't understand why Japanese tourists insist on drinking HUGE tannic trophy red wines with their oysters. There are very few wine pairings that genuinely don't work, but that one is like toothpaste and orange juice. Blech!

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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"I'd like the seasonal field greens salad with no autumn, please..."

Exactly how does one respond to that request?

Karen C.

"Oh, suddenly life’s fun, suddenly there’s a reason to get up in the morning – it’s called bacon!" - Sookie St. James

Travelogue: Ten days in Tuscany

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"I'd like the seasonal field greens salad with no autumn, please..."

Exactly how does one respond to that request?

You laugh. You have to. You need to distract yourself from the overwhelming desire to choke them. :biggrin:

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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Here's another one: at the same restuarant with the blue cheese man, I heard a very young girl clearly out on a very special date ask for a "virgin martini." :laugh:

-Sounds awfully rich!

-It is! That's why I serve it with ice cream to cut the sweetness!

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i always find it odd that people in service industries take such exception to giving people what they want without feeling the need to critique and berate them, sometimes even to their faces. if the guy wants filet mignon well-done, who is the server to suggest otherwise? you have to be kidding me.

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I was carving beef in a banquet one time. One guy wanted nothing but the fat we were trimming from everybody elses' cuts. We obliged...

I don't see any reason at all that you need to tell everyone about it. I happen to like fat.

Like you were planning on making some soap or something. Sheesh.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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I was carving beef in a banquet one time. One guy wanted nothing but the fat we were trimming from everybody elses' cuts. We obliged...

I don't see any reason at all that you need to tell everyone about it. I happen to like fat.

Like you were planning on making some soap or something. Sheesh.

Everybody in the kitchen staff and a few of the other diners had a good laugh thanks to him. We all like maybe a little fat with our meat, not the other way around.

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I once cooked cervelles de veau aux beurre noir for a lady who ate the dish with diet coke.

given the option I eat all my meals with diet soda...Pepsi please, yes breakfast too

I am going to have problem in Paris methinks :rolleyes:

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

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i always find it odd that people in service industries take such exception to giving people what they want without feeling the need to critique and berate them, sometimes even to their faces.  if the guy wants filet mignon well-done, who is the server to suggest otherwise? you have to be kidding me.

Riiight...I guess whenever a novice thinks they know better than a professional...

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i always find it odd that people in service industries take such exception to giving people what they want without feeling the need to critique and berate them, sometimes even to their faces.  if the guy wants filet mignon well-done, who is the server to suggest otherwise? you have to be kidding me.

Riiight...I guess whenever a novice thinks they know better than a professional...

:laugh:

yeah, a server knows more about food or my tastes than i do. :laugh:

that reminds me of a time that i asked for a bucket of ice to cool down a bottle of red. the server looked down her nose at me and said "that's red wine. it's not supposed to be cold." :laugh:

Edited by tommy (log)
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