Who at the restaurant is at fault?
We recently ate at a local restaurant In Westchester, N Y owned by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. For the most part the food was fine but my question is inspired by a dish of snow peas that should never have reached the table. It was snow peas with sauteed almonds and the slivered nuts were burned into acrid black bits. The whole dish tasted bitter,
Who was at fault? The kitchen for sending it out? The waitress for bringing it to us? The owners for not training all the above?
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Ultimately it's the fault of the line cook who burned things and thought he could get away with serving it. It's also the fault of the Expediter for not spotting the burned bit while the order was being assembled.
No fault to the restaurant; it did exactly what it should - apologized and comped you.
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Withnail42
Jul 21, 2010 11:02 AM
It is down to the kitchen to maintain the quality the dishes that are being sent out. But in life 'it' happens and thing fall in between the cracks.
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the owners defiently for not training both FOH and BOH staff on standards. Even in the smallest restaurant the plate hit 2 or 3 hands before reaching the customer. Lazy cooks and servers will know the standards are not right and send it out anyways so they dont have to re cook/wait for the food hoping the customer wont complain, when I was a cook I would always ask myself ask "woould I send this out if chef was here" if not refire it , as a customer I would rather wait longer and get a proper dish than get burnt food.
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Perilagu Khan
Jul 20, 2010 11:56 AM
I actually like that cocky sucker Batali and would expect better from one of his joints.
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Midlife
Jul 5, 2010 05:40 PM
Don't they watch Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares???? In better restos the head chef's responsibility is usually to check what goes out of the kitchen; cooks should know better; the server should not have brought it to you. It's hard to think that they ALL don't know better in a place like that. Mario and Joe have to shoulder the responsibility, but probably only because their names are on the door......... unless they have a policy that would allow serving the dish that way.
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ipsedixit
Jul 5, 2010 05:38 PM
No one.
Mistakes happen. The fact that the waitress rectified the situation at your request speaks enough, and well, of the restaurant.
I'd just leave it at that.
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re: ipsedixit
tatamagouche
Jul 20, 2010 11:25 AM
Mistakes happen, but they shouldn't go beyond the kitchen door for all to see (and taste). I'd place the bulk of the blame on the kitchen. It's not a busy server's job to check the cooks' work.
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re: tatamagouche
ipsedixit
Jul 20, 2010 02:46 PM
No one is suggesting that making mistakes is acceptable, but just that they do happen.
Ever work the front or back of a restaurant during the lunch hour rush and you can empathize with some of the boo-boos that get posted on this board.
Again, not saying that such a mistake is acceptable, but just that they happen.
And the restuarant rectified the situation, so why try to place fault on anyone?
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re: ipsedixit
tatamagouche
Jul 21, 2010 06:37 AM
I think the word "fault" is at fault. :)
The OP seems to have been trying to determine where responsibility lies, which is a fair enough question. A mistake is a mistake, but it's made by *somebody.*
Which doesn't mean that person should get fired or reprimanded or anything but, as you say, empathized with. But, if you can determine who it is, which again seems to have been the OP's concern, you can also try to learn from that mistake.
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