You guys all sound so politically correct. I thought this thread was about your worst mistake and as chefs we all make them. It's not a thread about who or what you want to be or achieve. I'm sure some of you guys have disaster stories working in a restaurant. I'll start.
A fun/crazy one for me was working at a fine dining restaurant. We were doing a catering event, we had our own catering van with the restaurant logo. Were almost finished loading up going back and forth to the restaurant to the van. There is a methodone clinic 2 blocks away from the restaurant. We are bringing out the last box to load and see our van skidding out of the parking lot with back doors open and all our food all over the road! How do you explain that one to dinner party of fifty that was expecting it in 30 minutes.
There was my restaurant getting raided by the US Marshals in St. Thomas during dinner service to extradite my dishwaher on murder and armed robbery charges.
There was my only produce guy when I was cooking on a small island in the South Pacific that disappeared courtesy of the Chinese mafia and had to drive around an hour or two every morning from farm to farm buying what ever decided to pop out of the ground that day
As for my biggest mistake, on a 10 million dollar yacht, working crazy hours really tired and wanted to finish this
chicken stock, it was late and also drinking rum, woke up to smoke and fire alarms, stock burnt to a crisp, everyone thinking the boats on fire. It stunk for 2 days and lots of apologies. Should of, could of, been fired
A chefs life is never normal and we all make mistakes, some bigger than others