# I have never had this one happen...



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

Tonight I had a guest ask me to place her salad in the oven and warm it for her. I think that was the strangest request I have ever had. I don't know why she wanted it that way. The server couldn't give me an answer, so i complied. It was the most god awful thing I think I have ever seen.


----------



## liv4fud (Jul 14, 2005)

I don't taste cold veggies myself...

prefer it at room temperature 
the reason that request might have come in is to pull the *cold* out of the salad...


----------



## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

Overly sensitive teeth perhaps ie: recent dental work. Otherwise who knows, people ask for strange things.


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

but it was mesculun mix greens, a stone ground ving. gorgonzola cheese, pear slices, caramel, almonds, and a foccacia bread ring all served hot. yuck.


----------



## sucrechef (Sep 1, 2005)

Sounds awful to me, but the first rule of thumb is to give the customer what they want...NOT what we want them to have.


----------



## mikeb (Jun 29, 2004)

Instead of serving it hot just serve it warm (room temp or a little above). That salad sounds like it would be good warmed up just a little - cheese, pear, caramel, focaccia aren't very appetizing served chilled (better at room temp).


----------



## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

When I was doing antipastos, we had a customer who came in a couple of times. She wanted all the oil rinsed off her selections. This was stuff like raw fennel and orange slices dressed with lemon juice and OLIVE OIL; sliced roasted portobellos dressed with lemon juice and OLIVE OIL; and so on. To me, that was just as bizarre a request as the one you had.


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

I know our business is customer driven, if they don't like it, they aren't buying it. But sometimes its rather strange and annoying.


----------



## chef from va (Nov 13, 2003)

i can do you one better i work for an italian restaraunt and we had a customer request that we replace his pasta for a spag -w- meatballs with mixed greens wearing vin. dressing..... it was a soup of wilted greens vin. pomodoro and meatballs    thats a new kinda GROSS


----------



## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

I like hot grilled meats and other foods (like roasted tomatoes) on cold salad and I thought THAT was strange...


----------



## lwp (Oct 28, 2005)

I'll agree with that to a point... there are some things I'm just not doing to my food and I really don't care who wouldn't hire me/would fire me because of that.


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

now , I think the contrasts of grilled meats and tomatoes or other vegetables is a nice contrast with the cold and crisp of salad greens. Be it romaine or a mesculun mix, I think thats great. but the meat ball salad soup thing, geez. That tops my oven roasted salad thing by a mile!


----------



## spritzer (Oct 30, 2005)

I recon that if someone is going to be SO friggen fussy, there is no point in them eating out, becuase it wont be what they want, i.e an order came in for two eggs benedict BUT one lady wanted her eggs runny ( which i recon they should be) but the other one wanted them not too runny not too hard and not as runny as the other lady!
spritz


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

SHE CAME BACK.....

Last night the hot salad lady came back. She loved the salad so much she just had to come back and have it again. Only this time, she wanted blue cheese dressing and the stone ground ving. mixed together and warmed. Then she ordered prime rib well done. What can you do.


----------



## botanique (Mar 23, 2005)

LOL -- if any of us ever come visit you, the secret code key word that we'll get passed on to you will be "fervent greens" so you'll know to come out and say hello!


----------



## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I love you Andrew. You know why? You realize a few things that many people don't get. You saw a need and fulfilled it. In a sense you've created a market category all by itself, and uh, literally all by itself. One person! Good news is you've got the corner on the market.  It's not about me, it's about the customer. You did well. It didn't take much to warm up the salad, and you've basically doubled your revenue from this person. I hope you use this strength to take it to the next level. Even though you weren't the one receiving the tip, or the extra revenues, it will serve you well to keep up this good attitude. It will serve you well in the end.

We all "get" it right?


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

Fervent greens, I like that..:beer:


----------



## thetincook (Jun 14, 2002)

I got the same request for a warmed up baby spinach-pear salad. The guest wanted it hot but not wilted. I stuck in my electric pizza oven a couple of times. The salad turned out realy nice, like I had just picked the spinach from a sun drenched field. It turned a nightmare customer into a decent patron.

The sous-chef was ticked since neither the waitress nor I cleared the special request with him first, but what can ya do...


----------



## mike hartman (Nov 29, 2005)

Now I don't have anything on the rest of you, but the worst thing I've seen was spagetti w/o sauce but instead a mustard and ketchup mix as a sauce, topped with mushrooms and a lemon. Now this was about a year ago when I worked at the local Ramada Airport Inn. We usually had some other strange things, but that one seemed to stick with me. And then we had the usual guy come in every day or every other day, order shrimp coctail, Sirloin (m/r), potatos (mashed /smashed -for the southerns), 20 wings - hot and sometimes and 2nd order of the same thing. And occasionally a few other things. Big guy I'll tell ya! He was so far in debt w/ the owner of the hotel, his meals were all practically FREE...How anyone can get all that for free and not eventually have their dues paid off by...what, 6 months maybe?  
NOTE - He was the hotels lazy / non-motivated electrician. (Never hire him for anything!)


----------



## txacoli (Mar 31, 2005)

Right now we have a warm salad: roasted heirloom carrots and parsnips, pears, fennel, arugula, ricotta salata....We did it first as an iron-chef thing when the farmer's markets died, but it sells out every time, and now I am scrambling for heirloom carrots

And I am old enough to remember wilted spinach salads from the 60's: chopped bacon and grease/oil....tossed over spinach with hardboiled egg and good vinegar tableside! Salade frisée is the bomb done the same way.

Maybe your lady is on a flashback.


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

Last night, the server who waited on this particular person, and I were talking about he warmed salad thing. Apparently, the lady has bad teeth and cold food hurts. Let that be a lesson to everyone, take care of your teeth. Imagine , not being able to eat homemade ice cream on a hot summer day.


----------



## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I will always accommodate a guests request, but if I think it is particularly nasty I will only send it out if the server gives that caveat that I will not guarnatee the quality of the product and if they want it is at their own risk, and they will pay for it whether they like it or not. Of course, the servers do a much better job at explaining that in a "kinder, gentler" way!!! 

I also do that with well done steaks and Prime Rib. I will serve it but won't guarnatee it's quality and tenderness. Of course that doesn't include if my cook charred the crap out of it.


----------



## blueschef (Jan 18, 2006)

I am not sure if this fits here but to me the worst thing i was ask to make was beer battered salmon (not my favorite fish anyhow). I dont know it just seems weird to batter a oily/greasy fish.


----------



## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

I thought about this the other night because guess what I did?!?
I made my wife and I a cold fried chicken salad, and she wanted to take the chill off the meat. Not entirely the same, but it made me think of this.
And BC I have to agree with you, batter frying an oily fish just doesn't seem quite right.


----------



## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

I myself would be concerned taking the chill off something that had potentially hazzardous food in it. Otherwise if the customer wants her turnovers undercooked and partially burnt, ok no problem.


----------



## jolly roger (Jan 27, 2006)

Andrew563,
I think the prime rib well done may be a strong indication of where this customer is coming from. Sometimes you get guests that just can't have something the way it is decribed on the menu or they have some weird phobia about cooking temps. Give 'em what they want and take their money!


----------



## siserilla (May 14, 2005)

Some people ask for some weird things. At my old restaurant we had Buffalo Chicken Salad. The Salad had celery, tomatoes, blue cheese, fried chicken (tossed in buff sauce) and the salad itself was tossed in Balsamic vin. The salad was then topped with blue cheese dressing more buff sauce then some more blue cheese crumbles and celery. To me the salad was already to much. Well a lady came in and she wanted the salad tossed in Caesar dressing and she still wanted the blue cheese dressing and crumbles as well as the buffalo sauce. Yuck!!!


----------



## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

So was she able to fit through the door?


----------

