Kitchen Guy

From the KG Blog: Send it Back!

Posted by Chef Jim on June 13, 2010  |  Comments Off

I grew up in the eastern part of the United States and, like many regions of this country, we had our own names for sandwiches and other kinds of food. For example, a submarine sandwich is called a grinder in New England, a hero in the Midwest, and so forth.

Where my mother grew up, a grilled cheese sandwich was often called a toasted cheese sandwich. So that’s what we called it at home. I remember asking her if there was a difference when my high school cafeteria posted grilled cheese on its menu. And she told me then that there was no difference.

Fast forward several decades to the present day to a restaurant that shall remain nameless because I would like to continue going there. Their lunch menu lists a sandwich as follows: “Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Tomato on your choice of breads.” So my mother, after perusing the bill of fare, closed the menu and ordered a “Toasted Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Tomato.”

The waitress duly noted her order and placed it with the kitchen. About 10 or 12 minutes later, the waitress delivered a sandwich of unmelted cheese, bacon and tomato slices between two pieces of toasted bread.

As the mother of a culinary professional, she knows that if something comes out of a restaurant kitchen and it is not cooked correctly or to her liking, that it gets sent back. I actually have encouraged her – and everyone else who asks – to do this. If you don’t, my theory is, how will the kitchen staff know that they got your order wrong? And if you are displeased with what you got from the kitchen, you’ll probably tell friends and family of your negative experience which may influence whether or not they go to that restaurant.

The waitress took the sandwich back and in a few moments reappeared with the original ticket and showed it to my mother, in order to prove that she had communicated to the kitchen staff exactly what she ordered. Wrong move. A polite – ahem – disagreement ensued, with my mother asking for a copy of the menu and pointing out that this is what she had ordered; that it was not a special order; and it was a listed menu item.

You see where this is going, don’t you?

She eventually got the grilled cheese sandwich with actual melted cheese as well as the bacon and tomato, as advertised.

In every restaurant kitchen I’ve run, I always made it a point to look at the plates that came back to the dish washing station from tables that had just been cleared. If I saw a plate with more than half the food uneaten, I always made it a point to go to that table and ask if the food was not to their liking.

If the diner told me that the food was not what they ordered, expected, or liked, I would ask why they wouldn’t send it back to have it made to their liking. And I always offered to make it right, either with a new dish or a complimentary meal for a future visit.

More often than not, the person would say that they didn’t want to cause a scene or make trouble for anyone.

Every cook that I’ve trained and every waitperson I’ve hired gets the same lecture from me: Remember who the customer is. It’s not you. It’s not the kitchen. It’s the diner. And if you’ve made something or served something that they don’t like and you see that the plate has uneaten food, be proactive and offer to make it right.

As you might imagine, I eat out a lot. And I see too many plates of food going back to the kitchen uneaten. So by means of this column, I hereby give you permission to send back your food if it’s not right. How else will the chef and the kitchen staff know? Negative comments about restaurants far outnumber positive. Word of mouth cuts both ways. You don’t want the buzz to be negative.

Believe me, any chef worth his whites wants to know. We don’t want to serve food that you don’t want to eat. And why would you meekly pay for it if you didn’t like it?

And if you own or run a restaurant and you see my mother come in for lunch or dinner, fear not. Just give her what she orders. She’s a very lovely, entertaining woman. And she tips well, too.

Follow me on Twitter @KitchenGuyMT

From the Kitchen Guy Blog: Dining Alone – Part Two

Posted by Chef Jim on March 14, 2010  |  Comments Off

Looks like I struck a nerve – again. My topic from last week, expressing annoyance at snippy restaurant greeters who look askance at solo diners and feel compelled to say, “Just one?” provoked a great deal of response.

I love it when my e-mail inbox overflows with comments about the things I write.

For instance, a single woman in New York wrote to me, “I’ve fought a long and hard battle over this one, but it seems to be a losing one. In any event, I’ve no compunction whatsoever in telling a host or hostess, “No. (I said) one. Not ‘just’ one.”

Another New Yorker wrote that they believed most hosts/hostesses have probably never thought about the connotation of the way “JUST one” sounds – although it would be a good idea if they did. I still think it’s a training issue and that most of these youngsters don’t give a damn about connotation.

A colleague in France reminded me that patrons dining alone are asked, “une seule?” which, literally translated, means “one alone?” Nevertheless, to those who understand the language and its nuances, it still means, “just one?”

I heard from a divorced woman who said this happens too often to her. “I guess the response could be: ‘Better alone than with you…’ Ha!”

Or this, from a reader in the Midwest: “Respond, ‘I prefer dining with someone who has the ability to answer all my questions quickly and intelligently.’”

This one is my favorite of all of the responses. It comes from an old friend in Washington, D.C. She wrote, “I once went to a hostess and I said I’m alone. She didn’t ask for my name. That’s because she thought she knew me, since I go to this restaurant quite often. Then, as tables became available, she called people’s names. She got to the name ‘Malone’ and no one showed. It finally dawned on me that she thought I had said ‘I’m Malone!’”

I also received this response from a man, who noted, “But they really do look at you with surprise or pity or disdain, sometimes, when they say, ‘Just one?’ They never say, ‘Just two?’”

Others turned the question back to me. They wanted to know what I think should be said. My response: How about a simple: “Good evening. May I help you?” Or – “Would you like a table in the dining room or would you prefer the bar?”

By coincidence one of my culinary industry magazines contained an online blog on the very same subject. Written by the editor of the magazine, she called it, “The Best Dining Companion.”

She provides a very good guide for restaurant staff in the way a solo diner should be treated. Recounting a recent visit to a restaurant, she chose to dine alone at the bar. The visit, overall, she reported, was one of the more pleasant dining experiences she’s had largely because of the way the bartender, who also served her dinner, conducted himself throughout the evening.

Her points: “(first) Don’t judge. For starters, there was no sad look and inquiry, ‘Just one?’ Believe me, I’ve had more than my share of sympathetic, slightly mocking looks from hosts and bartenders who seem to view dining alone as a sign of a crippling social disorder, rather than the peaceful engagement it truly is. I’m OK dining by myself. You should be, too.

“Second, get things started quickly – a beverage of some sort right away, a set-up of a placemat, silverware and napkin, and by all means, a menu. Third, keep an eye on things from a distance – don’t hover, but don’t let me feel abandoned.”

Fourth, know when to jump in. The writer did engage in conversation with others nearby, but the bartender knew to come to her rescue when someone else was clearly bugging her. And finally, know that personal service can pay off. This bartender earned himself a very nice tip because he knew exactly the right way to handle a single diner.

One reader asked of me, “Do you report these incidents to engage in a teachable moment?”

By all means, yes I do.

From the Kitchen Guy Blog: Just One?

Posted by Chef Jim on March 7, 2010  |  Comments Off

My wife and I have done a fair amount of traveling, together and separately. When she’s on a solo trip she usually chooses to do room service rather than go to a restaurant alone.

I, on the other hand, like going to restaurants, and when I travel, it’s fun for me to discover new and interesting eating places. Occupational hazard, I guess.

In the heyday of the expense account business trip, especially in larger cities, you used to see men and women eating by themselves. It was all part of the travel experience, especially if there were no clients to see.

I don’t mind eating by myself, but here’s what I do mind about it:

When I walk into a restaurant and approach the podium where a “host” or “hostess” has charge of seating patrons, I’ll usually signal with my index finger that I’m dining alone. Most of the time, though, I’ll say: “Table for one please.”

So can you tell me – is there a chapter in the restaurant host/hostess handbook that commands an announcement to all in the restaurant within earshot: “Just one?” or “By yourself tonight?” If I’ve already signaled or said that I need seating for one, why is it necessary to broadcast the fact?

Equally annoying is the moronic stare at a single diner and then asking, “How many?” Yes, it can be a legitimate question if you haven’t said or signaled anything, but it really is up to the diner to let the host or hostess know if they are a single or if others are expected. The person at the podium should greet you and ask if you have a reservation or how they can help you.

I am not uncomfortable eating alone in a restaurant, but I know many people who are and who really don’t want to have it reinforced by some pompous twenty-something, that they are, in fact, alone for the evening. Some people are embarrassed by it.

Places that take or require reservations rarely commit these gaffes. But even they have a not-so-subtle way of showing others that you’re alone when they seat you at a table that has been set for more than one and then send someone to clear off the excess tableware.

I’m sure this all may seem nitpicky to some of you reading this, but if the restaurant accepted your reservation for one, why not have a table that’s set for one? That’s not rocket science.

A single diner should not be looked at or treated like an anomaly. A single diner’s money is just as green as the party of four or six.

What all of this is really about is that restaurants are supposed to be in the business of hospitality. It’s also about training staff or the lack of training of staff. It’s also good manners.

The restaurant business is not an easy one, though it may look like it is to some. Margins are generally low. Turnover is generally high. Staff training all too often gets pushed to the bottom of the list of things to do and restaurateurs sometimes think that people they hire for the host/hostess position don’t need to be trained in hospitality.

Oh yes they do.

And at the top of the list in the training handbook should be: Never look at a customer and announce, “Just one?”

Blog Topic: Napkin Notes

Posted by Chef Jim on February 20, 2010  |  Comments Off

It makes me nuts when bars and restaurants use black cocktail napkins because I can’t write things on them – someone’s contact info, an idea that popped into my head, a thought about the very place I’m in.

So over the years, whenever white cocktail napkins are available, I’ve collected a bunch of these “napkin notes” and while some are impossible to decipher and others have contact information for people whose names I no longer recognize, there are those that have some thoughts and impressions I thought I’d pass on to you.

Noisy restaurants. From what I read in a recent Wall Street Journal, it’s all the rage in restaurant design to use flat, hard surfaces, open kitchens, little or no carpeting, plain tables with no cloth – all the stuff that makes a restaurant very noisy. Anything that helps dampen noise is absent, because to some, noise equals success. I experienced this firsthand in a new restaurant in Sint Maarten last month, and while the food was really excellent, the decibel level made the experience less than enjoyable.

Audiologists will tell you that 80 decibels is when sound becomes uncomfortable for the average human and it’s even lower as people age, so I’m wondering why restaurant designers think that it’s okay that two people have to scream at each other in order to be heard while trying to enjoy a meal?

Here’s another: Restaurants with undertrained staff. I learned early on – at the very first restaurant I worked in – that no wait staff were permitted to work in the dining room until they knew the menu backwards and forwards, including the ingredients, preparation methods, etc. They also knew that the proper way to serve wine is (a) present the bottle to confirm the selection; (b) cut the foil and use the corkscrew to remove the cork and present the cork; (c) leave the wine glass on the table – don’t pick it up – and pour a small amount to be tasted; (d) when signaled that the wine is acceptable, pour the wine for the others at the table first and the selector last.

Tipping. Having worked as a waiter, I know the importance of tips. I also think I know how to earn a tip. And while I know that many wait staff depend on tips to earn a living, I am mystified by certain behaviors. “Do you need change?” is the most annoying presumptuous question a waiter or waitress can say and it almost always leads me to respond, “Yes, if you want a tip.”

Tipping. Part two. Since when does pouring a cup of coffee deserve a tip? Since when does self-service require a reward for the cashier? When I see a container labeled “Tips,” I am repelled. Tips are supposed to be earned. They are not an entitlement. And while I understand that many states’ labor laws allow restaurants to pay their workers below minimum wage with the expectation that tips will supplement their income, there should be no presumption that a tip is automatic or deserved no matter what.

Menu Spell-check. For goodness sake, every word processing program in existence has spell-check, and while it’s not foolproof, you’d think that menu writers would give their creations a second look. I hereby exempt all Chinese restaurants from this, because it’s actually part of the entertainment. But in furtherance of my observation, I would like to invite all of you who read this column/blog to send me your favorite menu misspellings and bizarre descriptors.

Here’s a starter for you: I was at a restaurant in Israel, and there is a Bedouin delicacy made from sheep’s eyes. On the menu it said, “Lamp Balls.”

Under-pour/Overcharge. I’m back on the wine thing again. A 750 ml bottle of wine should yield about 5 glasses, according to restaurant service norms. That’s 150 ml per pour. Translated into English, that’s about five ounces each. I’ve noticed a number of restaurants with a standard 3.5 to 4 ounce pour. Considering that in many restaurants wine by the glass sells for anywhere from $7 to $15 per glass, that’s bald-faced overcharging.

Beverages are where the profits are made in the restaurant business. You’d be stunned to know how little it costs to pour an average glass of soda pop. (Okay, it’s about five cents – which is why I’m astounded when I see people pay $2.00 or more for a fountain drink and load the cup to the brim with ice.) Back to wine: Most restaurants use what’s called a triple keystone to price their wine, which means that whatever their wholesale cost, the retail price is three times that amount. Break it up by the glass and it’s even pricier.

Bottom line: Give me a proper pour and I promise you a proper tip.

Blog Topic: Food Entrepreneur

Posted by Chef Jim on August 21, 2009  |  Comments Off

I receive a number of food-related newsletters daily and weekly. It’s one way I stay on top of trends in the culinary world.

Recently, I came across an item about two small cities in Michigan where an entrepreneur has put together “food tours” of the two cities’ restaurants. For a fee, food “tourists” can visit from eight to 12 restaurants and sample each establishment’s cuisine.

Why isn’t this available everywhere?

I travel frequently for both business and pleasure and find myself in strange cities where I don’t know the lay of the land. So when I go looking for places to eat, the only hints I have about any restaurant’s offerings are the menus they may post in their windows. If the menu writer is a talented wordsmith, you can easily be fooled into thinking the products of the kitchen are fantastic.

Sadly, that’s not always the case.

A number of years ago, my wife and I visited a city we had never been to before and we made the mistake of asking the hotel desk clerk where we could find the best restaurant in town. Price was no object, we told her and we made it clear that we were looking for fine dining. Without a moment’s hesitation, the clerk named a place and told us how to get there, praising the establishment as the best the city had to offer, and she further assured us that this would indeed be a fine dining experience we would remember.

Arriving at the place, the first thing we saw was a serve-yourself salad bar. No offense to those of you who enjoy the all-you-can-eat salad bar/buffets, but that is not a trait of a fine dining establishment. Promise.

We had an okay meal, forgoing the salad bar. It was actually while we were having an after-dinner drink that the bartender clued us in about real fine dining in the city. We took his recommendations and were more than satisfied (and grateful).

So between uninformed advice and deceptive menus on display in restaurant windows, I can tell you that I’ve had some perfectly dreadful meals.

But if there were more of these “food tours,” we could have an almost instant understanding of the food culture of almost any city. The stops don’t all have to be fine dining. After all, not every meal I eat out is fancy white linen tablecloth stuff. I like a burger just as much as the next person. Fried chicken (actually, fried anything) is up there, too.

Seriously, if one of you out there doesn’t do this business idea, I’m going to do it. I’m going to get together with every restaurant owner and chef I know and put together a special sampling program. Then I’m going to make arrangements with the hotels and motels in town, print up some brochures and I think I’ve got the makings of a pretty good business idea.

This culinary tour does not have to be confined to strangers in town. This could also be a fun night out with friends. If the activity of the evening is dinner out, you’re going to spend a certain amount per person anyway, so why not spend a similar amount of money on a “moveable feast” – a progressive dinner of sorts.

One of the major television networks has a new show coming on the air this fall about entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to venture capitalists. (Okay it’s the same network that my television show is on – ABC.)

I think I’m going to apply. Maybe I can get a couple hundred grand for my “Eat Your Way Through (insert name of city here) Food Tour.”

Blog Topic: Misguided Suze Orman

Posted by Chef Jim on February 12, 2009  |  Comments Off

Suze Orman is a well-known and well-respected person in financial circles and over the past several years she has achieved prominence for her no-nonsense advice to persons who have lived beyond their means.

And now demand for Ms. Orman’s oracle-like advice has skyrocketed because of the financial mess our country finds itself in.

So what do you suppose Suze advised “average Americans” do to help dig themselves out of the global recession and the transformation of their 401(k)s into 201(k)s?

She told them/us to stop going out to eat at restaurants.

Let me see if I have this straight: Unemployment now creeps toward 8%; restaurants employ 13 million people, second only to the government; Suze thinks that putting millions of restaurant workers in unemployment lines will help the American economy recover. Yeah – that makes a lot of sense.

Is she nuts?

This problem has been compounded because Suze Orman has a “bully pulpit” on talk shows and financial networks, so her word is taken as divinely inspired by Oprah’s loyalists, Larry King’s fans, Today Show aficionados, and others.

Let’s be frank about this piece of advice from Suze: it’s ridiculous and makes no sense. Right now, the restaurant industry is one of the few that continues to create jobs. I’ll grant that most don’t pay like Wall Street investment banks – but they are jobs nonetheless. And tens of thousands of workers support their families on what they earn in restaurant jobs.

Furthermore, I don’t know of one restaurant, independent or chain, that has accepted a penny of bailout money from any source. There isn’t even a thought among the thousands of restaurant owners in America about asking for a handout from the government. Yet, Wall Street bankers and investment firms continue to take tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, use the money to shore up their capital positions instead of lending it to businesses, and we’re still stuck in an untenable downward economic quagmire.

So if people stop eating in restaurants, where do you suppose all of those out-of-work Wall Street types will find work to tide them over until they find “regular” work or until their share of the TARP money comes through? Do you suppose any of Suze’s friends in the financial world would consider giving back any portion of the billions they received in bonuses for all the great work they did for you and me last year?

Restaurant sales in the U.S. exceed $550 million (that’s more than half a trillion dollars – almost the size of the latest bailout bill). Boycotting restaurants as a money-saving strategy is wrong-headed and misguided, at best.

Maybe Suze (who, by the way, used to work in a restaurant) could redirect her advice to an area of real trouble like, say, overspending with credit cards, or how to avoid mortgage defaults, or strategies for recovering our lost retirement savings.

Let me tilt at the Suze Orman windmill. I’m not suggesting you eat out at a restaurant every day of the week. But don’t think that avoiding the night out at your favorite eatery, bôite, or lunch at the local diner will do anything to get us out of this recession. You do that and, trust me, you’ll only help prolong the mess we’re in.

On this count, don’t listen to Suze Orman.

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CORRECTION: In my column on kitchen gadgets, I mistakenly attributed the invention of the Ginsu knife to Ron Popeil. The inventor of the Ginsu is Ed Valenti. My apologies to Mr. Valenti for the error. Mr. Valenti has a book about the subject and you can find information about it at www.ginsuguys.com.

Blog Topic: SXM Postscript

Posted by Chef Jim on January 29, 2009  |  Comments Off

SXM is the airport code for St. Martin and I’m writing this retrospective and postscript in the airport as I await the boarding announcement for my flight back to the U.S.

As much of a hassle as air travel is today, I’m willing to undergo the indignities of TSA checkpoints, weather and air traffic delays, interminable waits for luggage, as well as the martinets at passport control stations for my annual “pilgrimage” to Sint Maarten/St. Martin.

Our rule for trying new restaurants really paid off nicely this year. We discovered an elegant new steakhouse (Bajatzu) with outstanding food and prices surprisingly reasonable and not in the typical steakhouse stratosphere. The wine list was one of the better ones I’ve seen on the Dutch side. The atmosphere is quite conducive for pleasant dining experiences. I really liked this place.

After all these years of coming to the island, we also discovered – or I should say we finally discovered – the place for the best Caribbean lobster on the island. It’s a real dive, too – actually not much more than a rickety old dock with a tin roof. It’s called Uncle Harry’s and there really is a Harry. He is a genuine character but a delightful guy. Driving up to the place can be quite intimidating, though, as you may have to park in between gigantic earthmoving equipment, being used by the nearby international airport as it reclaims land needed for more runway space.

The tables and chairs are cheapo patio plastic; the napkins are paper; the silverware doesn’t match; the wine list consists of four pedestrian labels; and the prices are unbelievably sky high – for everything. Caribbean lobster, unlike Maine lobster, has no claws, so the meat is primarily in the body and tail. Uncle Harry charges Maine lobster prices for his Caribbean lobster: $34.50 per pound and his smallest lobster is usually in excess of three pounds. Fortunately, he does not charge to split plates. But I will tell you it was probably the most expertly prepared grilled lobster I’ve ever eaten on either side of the island.

This next place wasn’t a new discovery. Rather it was a rediscovery. After a two-year absence, we returned to Mario’s Bistro on the French side and I’m beating myself up because I didn’t eat there last year or the year before. I guess when you only have 14 opportunities for dinner, and your island has more than 500 restaurants to choose from, you may miss one or two of your favorites. Mario is one of the island’s best-known and most honored chefs. That’s because the food he cooks is extraordinary.

And I think they may have been taking attendance, because the maitre-d’ remembered me by name and almost exactly how long it had been since he had last seen me.

Not every place was a hit. There was an ownership (and name) change at a restaurant about 100 yards from our timeshare building. Le Bec Fin is now known as Bel Mar. It used to be our go-to place when we just didn’t have the energy to venture out elsewhere. Restaurants have life cycles and I guess the previous occupant was ready to turn over the place to someone else. Too bad. He knew how to run a restaurant. His food was always good and his wine list was a nice one. I wish I could say the same for his successor.

There’s something else you should know about the restaurant business on this island: Restaurants often write their own reviews and sometimes the newspapers forget to label them as advertisements. This particular place said in its “review” that it was known for its fine wine list.

We ordered a mid-list French number and when they brought it to the table, the bottle was – literally – hot. I asked them to bring me another one and it was the same. The people at the next table leaned over and told us they had a similar experience. Then the food came and it was – I’ll try to be kind — um, less than memorable.

On the other hand, I had a great New York-style pastrami sandwich at Topper’s Monkey Bar.

My countdown has begun. Only 10 months, 24 days, and 4 hours to go.