Archive for the 'Stuff happens' Category

Making of a ‘Special’

Published December 20, 2011 Food and Wine , Stuff happens 1 Comment
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Talk about making a special for the holidays and most cooks in the kitchen suddenly perk up! Inspiration is sought from books. Ideas are exchanged. Arguments are made. But nothing is as exciting as going for a trial run. When an idea for a special reaches that critical exalted point of a ‘trial run’ where Chef Bruce says, ‘’let’s try it out’’, frantic activity ensues. Orders are placed with vendors taking care it’s not confused with our regular orders.  The reservation list is scanned to find out when it will be relatively less busy in the kitchen for the cooks to pay proper attention to the special. And everyone braces for Chef Bruce’s ‘Go’.

‘’For this year’s Christmas Eve menu, we decided to try and make a special that’s in tune with the holiday feel,’’ says Chef Bruce while straining the jus out of the slow-roasted lamb shoulders. Lamb 3 Ways, comprising of slow-roasted lamb shoulders, braised lamb neck meat ravioli and grilled lamb chops is not just a tribute to the festivity in the air, it’s also a filling gourmet meal that leaves you astonished with the use of bold favors and surprising ingredients.

Gigante beans for one. It’s slowly cooked in a flavorful broth which draws the medley of flavors out of the bouquet garni and into the beans. Or cipollini onions which are roasted with honey. Or the braised lamb neck that gets cooked until the meat is falling out of the bones.  And surely the piquillo emulsion, that might be just a garnish on the plate but gives the rest a run for their money!

“While my family follows the Seven Fishes Christmas Eve Tradition here at the restaurant we break all the rules.  This item is just too good to save for everyday!  Happy Christmas,” shares Betsy, who is spending Christmas this year feasting on her Mom’s prime rib roast.

It’s Time to Party Hard!

Published December 12, 2011 Stuff happens 1 Comment
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With the party season on at full swing, the kitchen is busy rolling out delicious appetizers. And unlike the dinner menu, where changes bring with itself a whole new look at logistics, planning for hors d’oeuvres is more like ‘Chopped’ in real life! Line cooks scour the walk-in cooler for ingredients and come up with ideas for apps very much along the lines of what happens in the reality show on TV. It’s a no idea-barred passionate kitchen meeting soon after, where ideas are analyzed for flavors and setup time. If the caper-raisin puree-scallop tartine sounds too long-drawn for comfort it’s kept aside for another day but if we have a winner like the mini Butternut squash pancakes with brie and glazed pecans, the recipe gets the nod from Chef Bruce. He is usually the man keeping score and rejecting ideas mercilessly if they don’t match up to his bar.

Sometimes parties just opt for the famous F&P Charcuterie Platter instead of hors d’oeuvres and its then that Chef Bruce gets out his hunk of a John Boos butcher block, reserved for the platter, and designs the cold cut array on it with his trademark style.  “What I love about the party-season is that everyone is in a good mood!  The feedback; hearing about how much everyone enjoyed themselves is the icing on the Christmas cookie!’’, says Betsy, who probably holds the record for organizing the maximum number of parties in Central Jersey!

Gringo Under Glass

Published July 22, 2010 Stuff happens 8 Comments
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So I’m soaking my feet after going to NYC with the wrong shoes and walking 4 miles. Blisters!  Noticing a scar on my right ankle; 2, ¾ inch long lines about a ½ inch apart.  Looks like an equals sign.  This is the only physical evidence from my accident at a restaurant in Merida Mexico this past February (2010).

Every restaurant has policies on what to do if something happens to a guest or an employee.  Stuff happens; people get sick, kitchen staff get burned and cut, people fall, slip, faint, throw up, loose stuff, pass out……you have to deal with this.  You train your staff to deal with emergencies.  No restaurant trains their crew to deal with what to do if a large sliding glass door (say 4 or 5 feet wide and 12 or 14 feet tall) falls on a guest!   That’s what happened to me.  Really!

Back in February my friend Beth and I set out, on foot, to have dinner in Merida Mexico (my second home).  It was Beth’s last night and we were headed to a seafood place that gets good press, La Pigua.  It was day 6 of the week of Carnival festivities.  Many of the streets were closed due to parades.  Getting around was not easy (on foot or via car.) The restaurant we had our sights set on ended up being closed for carnival….route changed… we switched gears and went to a reliable second choice; Trotters.  It was chilly (Tropical chilly is like 68 degrees.). Still, we opted for outside where there were some propane heaters to take the nip out of the air.  It was perfect!  Besides, Beth was going home the next morning to whatever below freezing with wind chill making it worse temperature was happening in NJ in February, so there was no way we were eating inside! We ordered; started with margaritas to toast to Beth’s last night before going home to freeze her butt off.  Our appetizers were served. I forget what they were but remember enjoying mine.  A largish group assembled inside which was about 6 feet from us, separated by just an opening that could be closed by pulling some sliding glass door/windows that were neatly tucked into a pocket on either end of the room, across on tracks near the ceiling and on the floor. My back was to them. A table of 2 guys was seated near us, adjacent to Beth’s chair, as well as a couple on the other side of our table.  It was starting to get busy.  People eat really late in Merida! The couple was chilly and asked to be moved inside.  The largish group was chilly and asked to have the sliding glass room divider pulled over to break the breeze.  A woman at the large table was not happy with how the server placed the sliding glass door/window and fiddled with it adjusting it a bit.  Our main courses are served.  I had some kind of pasta.  The server has asked if I wanted cheese and or pepper. He never brought it. I felt some pressure on my back.

The next thing I remember is that I am on the floor next to the table and huge chunks of glass are falling.  I feel remarkably calm… thinking this is it…. I had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer…my life was over…. There was nothing I could do…. Just be with it…. The crashing glass stopped.  Several servers helped me up.  The guys sitting behind Beth had pulled her away from the table as the glass was falling (it was to my back, I had no idea what was happening.).   Seems the glass just fell!  On the way down it hit the propane heater which broke the fall after the panel knocked me to the floor.  The EMT’s arrived after a very long wait as Carnival was keeping them plenty busy, and making it difficult for them to get around.  They treated the cuts; which were superficial.  The owner, Paul Trotter, drove me home, stopping on the way to pick up bandages and first aid creams.

Throughout this the show must go on.  The staff cleaned up the glass and relocated other guests to other areas of the restaurant.  They managed the emergency remarkably!  Without a doubt it was traumatic for them, but as service staff must always do, they take what comes and go on and handle what needs doing putting their own traumas and upsets on hold until the end of service. I was impressed!  Management followed up with phone calls to ask about my well being, a cake delivered to my home and an invitation to bring a group to the restaurant for a special dinner, which I did do and it was special.  They took good care of me.  Their concern was genuine and thank God my injuries were minor.  (And I have subsequently been treated for the breast cancer and am fine.)

In the USA a restaurant, or any business, where a guest is buried under a pile of non-safety glass, would be slapped with a law suit so big their chicken breast searing days would be over.  In Mexico where it’s pretty much “stuff happens,” it’s not a litigious society, stuff happens and responsible people do the right thing and life goes on.

 Has this changed me?  Well yes.  As a restaurateur I want everyone who comes to my restaurant to have a fabulous experience.  We bend over backwards to provide that.  When we miss the mark we sincerely try to make it up to people.  However, I now get that we can’t please everyone.  Some people are just miserable.  When someone fires off an email typed all in caps that they are never coming back because we changed the fish on our menu and they walked out disgusted (yes disgusted!)…. Now I think….all that over a piece of fish!  I apologize for their disappointment, but I don’t jump through hoops to win their loyalty.  Life is too precious.  Stuff happens and there are too many nice people to focus on.  The mean people can go to the competition…sorry colleagues.

Who put eggs in my omelet?!

Published November 5, 2009 Stuff happens Leave a Comment
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Most restaurant guests are nice people. Sometimes you get someone who’s having a bad day and takes it out on the server/host/manager or all of the above. You learn not to take anything personally and treat them with an extra dose of kindness. Other times someone says something that just leaves you dumbfounded. Like a couple of weeks ago a guy was in for lunch. He and his dining companions ordered. The food arrived. He called the manager over to the table and complained that the server “misrepresented the omelet. He didn’t say there were eggs in it!” He told the manager that he doesn’t eat eggs! Startled but well trained, the manager’s response was, “what else can I bring you sir?” He had the ravioli.

This one is going in the book we might someday write!

Ranting about on-line ranting

Published August 4, 2009 Stuff happens 10 Comments
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What’s up with on-line restaurant forums? Does anyone read them other than the handful of people who post on them? Do they influence anyone? How is it that a person can hide behind a fake name and post things that are mean, vindictive, inaccurate and untrue, like they are fact, and a restaurateur, the one with factual information, and upfront about who they are, is not allowed!

Sound like something hit a nerve? Yes it did, and as much as I can generally not take things personally, or better, learn something from them, or dismiss them, this one just has me (and our general manager) seething! And, since this is My Blog this is my forum to say what’s there for me! So here’s what happened:

Late in the morning on Monday I checked the few boards I audit from time to time to see what foodies are saying about The F&P as well as other restaurants in the area; taking a pulse on the industry. There is a post from a guest who dined here on Saturday. Not a good experience! Then I get an email from the poster telling me that she posted something and here it is (cut and pasted the post….. with one significant change.) It had the tone of a childhood taunt “Na-na-na-na-na, I got you! So there! Phughhhh!” Full of rage and mis-spellings the poster did not like her eggplant tart appetizer (a stack of eggplant and unremarkable other ingredients…… puff pastry, tomato confit, diced heirloom tomatoes and a sherry vinegar reduction), main course lamb (overcooked/ sauce horrible), dessert (not what she expected/ dry/“discuting.” Yes, spelled that way). There were service issues: wine was not poured, server did not check up with her and the manager’s attempt at appeasing the guest was inadequate. In addition the guest was put off because the wine was too expensive and $300 was too much for a sub-par experience (note: $300 on the public on-line post and changed to $200 in the email to me. Wine in a later post cited at $75 was actually $61). Well I would have been pissed off too if that was my experience! So get to the bottom or this!….pull the guest check, talk to the staff and the GM, reply to the guest.

Here is our version of the story;
A couple arrives at the restaurant for their reservation and opts to have a drink at the bar. They had already had a cocktail at another establishment (found out subsequently after reading chowhound post). Our bar is busy. The bartender greats them. They say they are not sure what they want yet. He says he will check back with them in a minute. The woman in the party says “So you’re going to make us wait!” This might have been a Red Flag; but the bartender never shares that remark with anyone until days later. He just lets it roll off his back and goes on being the great bartender he is, ultimately getting back to them and serving them their drinks in a timely manner despite the quip.

The couple is seated, server greats them, they order; normal sequence, nothing out of the ordinary. The server has tables upstairs (where the couple is seated) and downstairs. Not the most ideal station; with the layout of the F&P this happens. Management knows it is difficult, so one of the 2 managers on duty is stationed upstairs assisting with service, which basically means pouring wine and water, directing service and being available when the server is in the other part of her station. Server pours wine initially. Server checks back with each course (appetizer and main course). Pleasant exchange; guests indicate all is well. Manager pours wine twice. No apparent food issues or any other issues. Guests are eating. Main courses are cleared. Guest orders apricot dessert with olive oil cake garnish (mint oil and Riesling reduction). Server serves dessert. Guest is not happy with dessert (dry, green sauce, “discusting”). Server offers to remove the item from the guest check. Server alerts the manager that the guest is not happy with the dessert. (Cake was indeed dry! Our mistake.) Manager stops by the table to apologize. Out of left field, WAM!, guest goes off about how terrible everything was and how they had to pour their own wine. Manager, startled, stutters, “I, I, I poured your wine twice.” Guest says “So you’re right and I’m wrong!” Manager steps away, sort of shell shocked like what-just-happened!?…..Surreal. Manager composes himself and returns to the table, apologizes again, offers his business card asking guests to let him know when they return and he will take care of them. Guest pushes card away, smirks at managers and says “Not a chance!”

What’s the truth? The truth is that we are not mind readers! The truth is that if we screw up on the doneness of the meat, we re-cook it, or get whatever else the guest wants. If the guest doesn’t like an appetizer, or a sauce or whatever, we offer something else. We had no indication that there was a problem until the guest flipped on the evil switch. What ever happened to personal responsibility? Don’t you think the guest should have said something? Subsequent posters suggested this. Seems like the reasonable thing to do. Yet, back to the point of this post, one can go off on a public web site, hide behind a pseudonym, and use the power words, to trash an establishment including saying things that are absolutely not true! Yuck! Despicable behavior! (By the way the very expensive bottle of wine was $61 and the guest check before tip was $158.). Is this the intention of the internet? I don’t think so.

So, I email the guest, further apologizing and refund her wine. I post the reply on the on-line forum and it is deleted as inappropriate within the half hour. I then got to poking around other sites, looking for ones I don’t know about or only occasionally check out, and landed on one where there is a thread about our very strict dress code. We don’t have a dress code! What is the motivation for going on line and saying untrue or mean things? I don’t get it. Got an ax to grind, go on-line! Get a life!

In the mean time we continue to set our standards high. When we miss the mark, which will happen when the bar is high, we will continue to own our mistakes, make up for them and learn from them. We will never hide behind our failings and certainly not behind a fake name on an internet forum!

Rant over.

Sincerely, Betsy Alger
Proprietor of The Frog and The Peach

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