Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of Tales from the Service Industry.
I'm one of your favorite co-hosts, Miss B, here with your normal host, Bill.
Hey guys.
And our favorite resident deviant and co-host, Liz.
Hi team.
And guys, do we have a special treat for you today?
We have an amazing guest, guest chef.
Hello friends.
I'm going to jump in just to kind of explain why we refer to her as just chef.
In our industry, in the hotel business, there's a couple of departments that you kind of become
known by that position rather than a name.
So with your executive chefs, it always just kind of defaults to chef.
With engineering, you have a chief engineer that heads the department.
They just become chief.
It's very true.
You know, and we were kind of joking about it earlier, but I've known chiefs that I know
their name.
Nobody calls them by that.
And chef, you were saying the very same thing.
The property that you're at now, people don't know your name.
It's nice that they don't know my name.
They can't find me.
And I am just chef and it brings, you know, a sense of status in the hotel.
One sense of respect too.
Yeah.
So you walk down the hallways, oh, that's chef.
Oh, that's chef.
Watch out.
Well, I mean, it's a position earned through not just time, but skill.
You know, it's like there are people in the hotel business that are in positions that
they probably shouldn't be in, but they've done their time and they've gotten a promotion.
I feel attacked.
President company not included in that statement.
But I mean, with culinary, you have to have skills.
So when you earn that title, you've earned that title.
It's a badge of honor.
Well, okay.
So I do have to ask, I know that you have worked in the hospitality industry for a while.
Can you kind of walk us a little bit through your resume without mentioning any names,
all that, but just a brief description of kind of what you've done and where you've
been?
Sure.
So from the beginning, I was actually a general manager of a banquet center.
Nice.
And from there, really wanted to get back into back of house operations.
So I've done everything from front of house and wanted to go into back of house.
And so from going to culinary school, becoming a line cook, moving through all of the stations
like the broiler, baking pastry and garmache and baked rice.
Can you define that for me?
What's a garmache?
So garmache is working in the cold section of the chef world, like making all the beautiful
little fruit displays and you know, like, you know, the little ducks and like turtles
out of a watermelon.
Wow.
It takes years and it's really fun, but it's a lot of work.
So I did that for a while and then became a chef, the cuisine sous chef and then executive
chef.
That's so awesome.
From there owned two restaurants and then became an executive chef for a big box hotel.
Gotcha.
Nice.
And then did task force as an executive chef for a couple of hotels in Los Angeles and
then currently executive chef of a hotel in LA area.
Nice.
That's awesome.
Holy moly.
I'm overwhelmed.
I've got loads of experience under your belt.
Is it a weird thing to ask a chef?
What's your favorite thing to cook?
No, because I get asked that almost every day of my life.
You see, I feel that it's not weird.
No, but then sometimes you don't really want to sit there and explain to people who don't
understand.
So like, oh, I really just like cooking very short ribs, you know, just something, you
know, and then they'll ask you, how do you do that?
Oh, shoot.
And you're like, do you know, now I have to go into my whole cooking process.
Yeah.
Like do you have an hour and a half?
Like, I love that.
So is that your favorite?
No, it's actually not my favorite.
My favorite thing to do is making fresh pastas.
Oh, that's hard too.
I did have done several classes and I was not the best student.
So kudos to you.
Well, thank you.
It's really, it's just like, you know, rolling out dough all day and just boiling it and
it's just therapeutic for me.
That's awesome.
But that would be your favorite thing to prepare.
Yeah.
Making fresh pastas and sauces.
Do you like to cook at home or like after work or are you just like, I'm done and I
want to look at a kitchen.
No, because, you know, the executive chef life is not.
You're not on the line 100% of the time.
Oh, no, absolutely.
The current place, I'm not.
I'm never on the line.
Yeah.
It's, you know, it's admin work, but it's a lot of just coaching and mentoring folks.
Like folks on how to make the food.
Menu development.
I mean, that's a huge component of being a chef.
That's something I'm doing constantly all day.
But, but with that being said, I usually have one of my cooks make me dinner before I leave
when I arrive.
There's somebody who makes me breakfast and lunch because I'll just say, Hey, I need
to test your skills today.
So can you please make me a steak?
And then I'll eat that for dinner.
It's called auditing.
Yes.
Pop quiz.
Make me this.
I do it all the time, especially when I'm hungry.
Oh, that's amazing.
Do you ever go like Gordon Ramsay on people?
No, I'm not that type of person.
And I never been.
And I feel that that has made me very successful in the kitchen.
How I am.
People want to hire you because you're not a jerk.
Yeah.
Because everyone's super sensitive these days.
Oh my God.
It's so true.
One like delivering criticism is a difficult skill.
Takes practice in a constructive way.
Constructive criticism is difficult.
That they will take and don't just walk out of a kitchen and quit or in front of us.
Going full Ramsey on people is easy.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've been caught doing that a couple times.
You know, when sometimes you work at some of these hotel management groups going Ramsey's
just it's not going to happen because you have a lot of staff members who will just
run to HR.
It just becomes a bigger nightmare.
Yeah.
Or it's not Gordon Ramsay must never have had HR.
No, but I mean, it's it's a different ethos though.
Yes, hotel restaurants and individual restaurants are food and beverage, but they operate very
differently as far as like that code of conduct and nurturing and developing rather than going
full Ramsey on people.
Especially if that restaurant is privately owned.
Oh, maybe they run by the owner.
Who knows what happens in those places.
I've overheard horrific conversations in those kind of restaurants.
Dang.
That's not something you hear in hotel restaurants or hotel kitchens.
You know, I used to be an owner and executive chef at the same time.
I used to have customers coming in.
It was a really small restaurant that I owned.
It only sat about 50 seats and my menu only had 10 items every season.
Everything was made from scratch and I took every item very personal.
So when I had somebody coming in and they would criticize something about my restaurant,
I was like, you know what, you don't like good food.
Get out of here.
Like, I don't think this is the place for you.
Yes.
I had people coming in asking for a well done steak and I would refuse to make it.
Sorry.
We don't have a poll.
We can't.
Yeah.
I would say I'm so sorry, but it served me rare or rare.
That's it.
If you don't want to eat it, then please order chicken.
Something else.
But then when I went to go work at hotel restaurant, you know, change your whole mindset.
It did.
It was kind of one of those things where you had to cook for the guests and whatever they
wanted and you literally had to bend over.
Like the customer is always right kind of thing to serve them what they want.
Yeah.
So the customer who will tip the servers really well, but all he wanted was overcooked piece
of chicken with ranch drizzled all over it.
Like five days a week.
That's why like season chicken.
Was there any like herb season?
No, just salt and pepper on the chicken cooked so it's dry and then he sauced it with ranch.
So weird grilled.
Yeah.
Grilled chicken.
No, raw Liz raw boils.
That's an option.
Chicken tartare.
Roasted.
That's an option.
Okay.
That's funny.
Chef, what are your feelings on raw meats like steak tartare?
I just don't like it.
Really?
It's okay.
So 90% of the places I've gone to does not do it right.
Oh, what do they do wrong?
Tell us, you know, traditionally you're supposed to use a quail egg.
Yes.
Quail yolk.
Yes.
And like the very top of it.
Yeah.
On top of raw beef.
Yeah.
Yes.
Why?
Like finely chopped beef.
You go into, you know, I hate to say it, but you go into certain areas like where people
won't eat a raw quail egg yolk.
So they have to adjust the menu to a slightly cooked yolk that's chicken.
Like soupy.
And it's just not the same.
Ideally I just don't want to eat minced up raw beef.
You know what's funny about that?
I've only had beef tartare once and I just tried it because the thought of it like baby
like, ah, and you're the one who made it for me.
And I remember I actually liked it, but it's still scared me.
So I didn't need it again.
But obviously straight now.
They're for safety reasons.
I've had cooked this raw chicken before.
According to our what?
California food handlers card.
Chicken needs to be cooked to a certain temperature.
Okay.
Oh my God.
So do all your chefs like actually take temperatures of food or sorry cooks?
Yeah, cooks, chefs.
Cooks, soups, chefs.
Uh, so the ones who really care about food safety and their job, they do.
I wasn't sure.
I'm not going to, I've never spent much time in a kitchen.
So I don't know if they're actually like temperature checking each food.
If that's like a thing or they just know how long to cook it.
They should know how long to cook it plus touching the chicken, making sure it has like
that certain type of bounce.
But when you're cooking for a lot of people, you want to check the temperature.
Yeah.
And I've had cooks who've been there for cheese like over 30 years and they think they know
what they're doing, but they never check the temperature of the chicken.
And that's when they overcook the chicken and somebody has to pour ranch over it.
Unless you're into that sort of thing.
What also I'm sure like in the back of the kitchen, there are a lot of factors that you
need to take into account when like temperature checking food, what burner am I using, what
oven am I using?
Like not all of our equipment is perfect.
Let's be real.
I think it's like a lot of things differently.
Like what was the temperature of that piece of meat before I put it on the grill as well?
Like I feel like are those all factors?
Well, if you are eating from a safe place, then no, any kind of raw meat should never
be above 40 degrees before you put it onto a cooking stove or a grill or anything like
that.
Unless you're taking a piece of meat, like a raw piece of beef and you're letting it
get to room temperature within two hours and then you cook it.
Interesting.
But for the most part, this is like crash course on food handlers.
Yeah.
I've taken the course a couple times.
You Bill.
I haven't.
You have to.
For your own Sandy, you'll be like, what the?
Yeah.
That's just interesting.
Yeah.
Okay.
As a chef, are you like super against microwaves?
Yes.
I thought so.
I think they have like a weird thing, right?
Because of a weird thing against microwaves.
I mean, I'm microwave food for my kid, but okay.
Not for the restaurant.
I mean, microwaves are temperamental.
And when they introduced this thing called a turbo chef, it's pretty much an oven and
a microwave put together.
I was so against that too.
Really?
But it's just cheating.
Okay.
It's not real cooking.
It's not.
It's not real cooking.
And there's, it's just not necessary to put like something in a microwave to heat it up.
Okay.
It's not like the molecules are, I don't even know how microwave works.
Sorry.
It's quite literally vibration.
Okay.
So when we're trying to eat healthy, say steamed broccoli.
When you're actually steaming broccoli, you'll get those nutrients from the broccoli.
But when you take broccoli that's already steamed and you stick it in the microwave,
you're getting nothing out of it.
What?
I'm eating broccoli for no reason.
Pretty much.
Do you buy the steamer bags that you put in the microwave?
I will honestly buy a big bag of frozen, frozen broccoli.
I'll take some out, put it in a bowl, put some water in, put a towel over and then microwave
it.
See, the more process your food goes through, like especially heating process, like say
you take some broccoli that has been, or some asparagus that's grilled on the oven,
and then you're not eating it.
You put it away.
It's left over as you eat it the next day.
You're going to get the most nutrients if you eat that grilled asparagus cold.
But once you throw it in the microwave, you're just breaking down the nutrients.
Interesting.
I'm not saying a completely bad thing because people still got to eat, but it's just the
best way to eat food is when you're taking it from its natural source first and eat it
that day.
The best way to eat your veggies is buying them fresh.
They just go bad so fast.
That's why you buy the loose stuff.
You buy what you need and that's it.
I mean, how often do you buy, and I've done this millions of times, I'll buy whatever
they call it, a little crate, whatever it is of mushrooms.
I'll use a third of it.
I'll put it the rest in the fridge and then it just goes bad.
It's cheaper.
Usually when you buy bulk and you buy four mushrooms, it's going to be like 50 cents
versus three bucks for the whole thing that half of it's going to go bad.
That's why I started back my UPS man bringing my dinners in a little refrigerated box because
I don't need a whole bunch of green onion.
I might need two little things of it and I'm not wasting any food.
My mother is going to love that part of the episode.
Sorry, mom.
What can Brown do for you today?
Yeah, I can't afford for someone to hand pick my meals.
Give me a menu card and tell me how to make it.
That's what discount codes are for.
Okay, I have a system.
Oh, well, that's good.
Okay, we'll have to get that from you.
But to Sang-Wae, Bill, do you have any questions for Chef?
I do, but they're not food related.
That is, I have so many food questions.
No, I think we can pivot a little bit.
Okay.
All right.
So, you know, a lot of the questions or a lot of the stories that we share are like
the exception, not the rule.
So, you know, we joke about the A-hole of the week or Ms. B's B of the week.
So a lot of the conversations are kind of the more extreme things.
Okay.
Well, that's where the fun is, right?
True that.
So that's where my questions for you lie.
Questions like, what is the craziest, most outlandish demand or interaction you've had
with a guest?
You kind of touched on that when you were sharing a story about your restaurant.
But those are the kind of stories that I love, selfishly.
And that's where I would go over the questions.
I like it.
One time I had a guest send in a room service order.
So I had one that cooks read the ticket and it says, extra mannies, so much mannies that
will make you sick on the ticket.
Yeah.
So someone had to type that in.
Well, someone ordered it that way through the room service operator and that room service
operator had to type that out and put it into the...
And I don't think they were making that up.
The guest probably told them like, no, I want so much mannies, it would make someone sick.
That's amazing.
So cook reads it and goes, chef, I need your help.
I was like, okay, so I come and I take a look at the ticket.
I was like, oh man, okay, let's find out what room number it is.
Let me talk to them personally so I could provide the best service for the guest.
Do they just want extra mannies in a bowl or what, you know, or they want it in a bowl?
Fair question.
Right?
Fair question.
And when it's that massive amount of mannies, you have to upcharge them because usually
you're using about a tablespoon of mannies.
And I don't know how much...
That's being generous.
Right?
And I don't know how much mannies they wanted to make the normal person sick because after
two tablespoons of mannies, I could start getting really sick.
What food was this on?
Yeah.
What was the dish?
A turkey club sandwich.
Oh, just a sandwich.
Okay.
They wanted the mannies dripping onto the plate, like coming out of the side.
That's why I had to...
So you called the guest.
Probe a little bit and ask the guest what's going on here, right?
Okay.
So I finally get a hold of the guest and it's like, hey, Mr...
Smith.
Mr. Smith.
So how much mannies do you want on this sandwich because the communication is kind of broken
down here?
Like you just want like an extra side of mannies or would you like a cup of mannies?
And he says, listen, I spoke to the operator and I said, enough mannies to make you sick.
I was like, okay, so two tablespoons of mannies makes me sick.
How much mannies makes you sick?
It's very subjective.
Yeah, right?
Totally.
And so he says, okay, so take two tablespoons of mannies.
You have five layers of ingredients in the sandwich.
I want two tablespoons of mannies in between each layer.
Each layer.
Gross.
So like to put it in perspective, turkey club, bread, mannies, turkey, mannies, lettuce,
mannies, cheese, mannies.
Oh, there's bacon on the club.
Bacon, mannies, cheese, mannies.
Yes.
So was he trying to commit suicide or?
Very, very slowly.
Wouldn't all that just do it right then?
He wanted an ambulance ride.
Okay.
So I do what he asked.
I meet him, you know, two tablespoons of mannies on each layer of sandwich, have it delivered
to his room.
And then he calls down and he's like, you know what?
I need more mannies.
He needs to dip his sandwich in more mannies.
So I gave him a side of like two cups of mannies on the side to dip.
I'm sorry.
Using your best judgment, how much mannies do you think was on his original sandwich?
At least like a half a cup.
Yeah, about a half a cup of mannies.
Oh, I have good math in my head.
So okay, so he already has a half a cup of mannies on his sandwich.
He wants you to give him an additional two cups.
Yes, two cups of mannies for him to dip his sandwich into.
Oh my God.
So that's like a half a jar of a normal jar of mannies that we would buy.
True.
Right.
And this just in from our research department.
Ring, ring, ring.
Apparently a tablespoon of mannies is between 90 and 100 calories.
Whoa.
All right, so then what do this guess want?
I'm just dying.
So give him two more cups of mannies on the side for dipping and it didn't hear from him
for the rest of the evening.
His heart gave out.
From what?
What?
How many thousands of calories are we at now?
I don't know.
Math department?
There is no math department here.
Let me phone the research department.
So then a week later, I get this review.
It better be a good review.
Oh my God.
So he gave me a two.
Oh.
Which is not good for food quality.
Well yeah, he had too much mannies.
Oh my God, I'm dying.
My stay was really great, but there was not enough mannies in my sandwich.
Stop it.
Stop.
And it just, I went by the exact formula which you asked.
That is insane.
I just couldn't believe this.
I was literally the second week I had just worked at this hotel and my manager is like
all about, you know, survey review, polls me into the office.
You can't short the guess.
I'm like, listen, I told her the story about the mannies and she still didn't believe me.
She's like, you sure the ticket?
I would have taken a picture of that.
No, I would have framed that.
Yeah, that would have been funny.
Like your rave sheet artwork, I would have totally framed that receipt.
Take a picture of the sandwich as well with like the mannies like dripping out each layer.
Oh gross.
God, you know what, based on some of our stories, could you have been using the mannies for other
things?
Oh, maybe.
Okay.
All right.
I'm just saying.
We're getting graphic here.
It's too early in the night for that.
So that's Mr. Mannies.
And so every time I make a sandwich, you think of him?
I think of that story and I just think about this guy and his mannies and he just really
loved mannies.
Every time you skimp someone on mannies, you're like, I'm saving your arteries and your heart.
You're welcome.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Do you have another horror story for us?
Yes, I do.
So this same hotel, it's 545 AM.
Nice and early.
Yeah.
I usually get to work around 5 AM morning.
Okay.
So 5 AM, get a room service call, another room service, so a lot of shady stuff happens
in room service, right?
Oh, I love it.
For a can of whipped cream.
Oh, champagne.
The cheapest bottle that you could find.
The Grand Crew.
That's funny on a level that you don't know yet.
Yeah.
Whole strawberries.
Of course.
It sounds kind of romantic.
Don't tell me like chocolate syrup too.
There she's chocolate syrup.
All right.
What else are we missing?
Anything else?
Yeah, monostat for the resulting yeast infection.
And 10 extra towels.
Those stains are not going to come out, Bill.
Did it happen to be February 14th?
No, it wasn't.
It was a weekend.
So I thought 5 in the morning.
545 in the morning, because I remember, because we didn't open until 6 AM, but with room service,
we could call half an hour earlier to pre-place your order.
To pre-place your order.
They wanted to be like high up in the queue.
So our room service attendant goes, chef, I need you to look at this order.
Can I bring up a whole can of whipped cream?
Like, why would they want a whole can of whipped cream?
I don't even have a button for that in my gross.
I mean, what do you do?
A quantity of 10 on a side of whipped cream?
Like, I don't know.
That's an open ticket, $20.
So I read the whole entire ticket.
And you're like, ooh, this is not good.
Wait, and I'm sorry, this level of spicy is at 545 AM, right?
Yes.
Okay.
They wanted their wake up call.
Okay.
So then...
Somebody's going to be up early.
So I read this ticket and I said, hey, this doesn't seem right.
So it's 545 AM.
I'm not really thinking clearly.
I decided to tell the sous chef, hey, chef, you need to go with the room service attendant
because she's a female and I just don't want something weird to happen.
And deliver this order.
And he gets mad and he's like, this is not my job.
Like, please, like, you know, I hate when they pull that card.
So they go upstairs and they deliver the items.
The lady who opens the door is like half naked.
Makes sense.
And then she won't open the door all the way.
She's just kind of, okay, just leave everything outside.
Yeah, because you need to like push the cart like into the room.
Correct.
So then the room service attendant goes, hey, I really need you to sign this check.
So she has her hand over her towel, her brush, and then she has her, you know, her brush
and then, and the sous chef got a free show.
Oh, okay.
She had to move her hand.
Yes.
So they both come downstairs giggling and report back to me because on that weekend, I was
the M.O.D.
Of course.
You know, double dipping chef.
They report to me about, hey, you know, we, um, booby, you know, there was a naked woman
trying to get whipped cream and it smelled like cigarettes and there is a dog in the room.
There wasn't, you know, you know, she didn't pay for the pet fee and cigarette smoke.
So I use my best judgment and I call the assistant general manager who wasn't very bright himself.
He and the chief of the hotel, the director of engineering decides, hey, we're going to
go upstairs and check this out.
They wanted a piece of the show.
And then I said, listen guys, she's busy.
You might be interrupting something.
I said, Hey, it needs to be.
I'll go up there because I'm a female and one of you guys go with me because if two
guys go up there, it's going to look like you're trying to do something to her.
So then we're going to put our ears to the door just before we knock to make sure nothing
bad is happening.
So then I got to the room, her friend had left and she lets me in.
There's just like garbage everywhere.
You tell she was, um, you know, doing something a little weird, conducting a side business.
Who knows, right?
Hey, it's the service industry.
Yes.
But at the end of it, there was this little Chihuahua that was just frightened under the
bed.
And I felt so bad.
I snatched that Chihuahua and called animal services.
Really?
Good for you.
And that was the end of the story.
But you know, you never know what you would encounter on just a food order.
You know, you have Mr. Manet's, you have whipped cream, can, um, whipped cream cans.
I didn't.
But, um, was this woman evicted from the hotel?
Oh yeah.
She was evicted from the hotel.
But you know, I think that dog went to like a good place.
Um, like maybe.
Is it dead?
No, no, no, no.
It got adopted.
A good place of adoption.
Yeah.
Okay.
A better home.
So I don't know what she was doing with the little dog in the room at all.
Well, that's okay.
I looked over at Bill.
Cause when you were saying, you know, all these things and then there's whipped cream
and then there's nobody else in the room that's kind of freaking me out.
I hope the dog did not play a part in all this.
I was thinking that.
I just didn't want to say that.
Well, I said it.
We, we don't, we don't kink shame.
Okay.
No, I'm sorry.
I can shame that kink.
If that is your kink.
Dogs.
No.
That goes far beyond my, there's a foot out there for everybody's statement.
So there's a foot out there for the majority of people.
Okay.
And nine and nine percent don't involve dogs.
That's just gross.
You know, well, the thing is, I saw the dog and I knew there was something wrong and
I was like, I need to take this dog and I need to save it.
Oh, I love that.
Oh man.
I imagine the dog just like running out the door, like in your arms like, thank you,
I'm free.
With whipped cream.
Shaking the entire time.
That's a chihuahua for you.
Nervous little animals.
That's crazy.
That's a good story.
Mrs. Hermane's and Mrs. Whip Cream Cams.
Yeah.
Bill, you got another question for us.
I don't know if I should.
Are you ready for another question?
I don't know if I should.
Oh, you should.
It's an employee question.
And in my time in operations, I have seen people do some egregiously stupid things.
Like I've seen caustic chemicals that people have dispensed right into their own hands.
I caught a kitchen steward that was mixing bleach and liquid detergent together because
that was his good idea to scrub food and beverage racks like the sheet tray racks.
You typically want to mix bleach with water and that is it.
So mixing it together into this mystery concoction.
Oh, it's interesting.
I've caught rumitin that's mixing room's chemicals into the same bottle, you know, so it's not
yellow.
It's not yellow, green, blue and pink.
It's this weird brownish color or this strange purple or yeah, I mean, just kind of make
up whatever.
So I've seen egregious things on our side.
I got to ask, what is the worst thing that you've ever seen an employee do in the kitchen?
Oh, I'm so intrigued.
Like something you saw and you have to question yourself like, how did you get this job?
Did I hire you?
Yeah.
Why are you still here?
I'm lucky because what I've seen is just very minor stuff.
But in the hotels that I've been in, I've always been the manager.
If I see it, then it gets corrected right away.
Yeah.
But I have seen servers before making cocktails and then mixing it with their finger.
Oh, I think.
And then tasting the cocktail with their finger and then re-dip the finger back in there and
mixing it.
Groting.
Sanitary things when it comes to bartending or just serving drinks that could be an iced
tea or a Coke.
It is disgusting.
Like when they take, this is also dangerous, when they take like a pint glass, like straight
into the ice well.
Okay, stop calling me out.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, that's really dangerous.
I didn't know.
If you're in your own home, sure, do whatever you want.
But like if you were in a restaurant and you were doing that, I think that is so disgusting.
I use the scooper.
You know what gets me is when the servers, bartenders, whatever will grab a glass by
the rim.
And you have to drink from that rim.
Here you go.
Yeah.
Like my mouth is going to be on that.
Yeah.
Grosses me out.
Yeah, I wish I had a little bit more juicy stories in regards to that, but I just don't.
I think that's a good thing.
It is.
You know, I picked some right places to work, I guess.
But over the years, I've seen in front of house a lot more disgusting than back of house.
Okay, that's good.
Okay, I do have a question.
I mean, a lot of times you see these horror stories of these Karen's going to restaurant
and being like, oh, my steak isn't good enough or my steak is overcooked.
Did you ever just pull that plate to the back and like done some like magic to it and like
sent it back to the table versus like making a full new plate?
And by magic, I think she means not do anything, put it back and they like it.
Not actually.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I've had steak sent back quite a few times working in the hotel industry and, you know,
we'll have multiple attempts from different cooks and it's never the right temperature.
And so we actually just took the steak and put it through the cafeteria microwave.
Got it to the guests.
They probably loved it.
And she's like, this is the best steak I've ever had.
It's better than, you know, a high end restaurant.
Yes, a high end restaurant across the street.
And so you are so welcome.
Yeah.
And you know, that's going to cost $56 for the microwave for the microwave steak.
And I didn't microwave the steak.
You know what?
You had witnessed it.
We had a sous chef who would just do anything just to get the job done.
Fair enough.
And he's like, I dealt with these type of people before.
They just want a microwave steak.
Oh, that's so funny.
Yeah.
Those are pretty good groups that we got.
I think it's more of a danger when you don't order correctly.
Like a lot of times we'll be like, oh, I'll have it medium, but they really want it
well.
They're like, oh, can you do it a little bit more?
Can you cook it a little bit more?
Can you just throw it on another little minute?
You're like, okay, can you just learn how you like your steak?
See, unless it's raw, I'll just eat it.
Well, the thing is they ask like, hey, can you cook it more, but don't have char on the
outside?
And like, how do you want your well done steak?
How do you think we're going to cook it?
A microwave.
Yeah.
Okay.
So on that note, I'm sure, you know, being a chef, you've gotten done with family, friends.
Is there anything like you're looking for and you see at a restaurant that if they do,
you cannot stand it?
I guess what's your pet peeve going out and eating?
I'm really selective where I go.
Good for you.
You know, because I still trust people.
I've lost a lot of trust in restaurants.
I can take a guess.
You don't go to very many like chain restaurants.
I don't.
I observe what's going on front of house first.
Okay.
And that relates a lot to what's going on in back house.
Okay.
So if I get a iced tea and my lemon is not a fresh cut lemon, it's been sitting there
for a couple hours or even a day.
Just take a smell and look at it.
Miss B is a big iced tea drinker, so she probably needs these notes.
I do.
And if they squeeze it with their bare hands, I just, I can't.
I'm out.
You know, I thought I remembered dining with you once and oh yeah.
See, that's what I was thinking.
So we were in Texas.
Yeah.
Right?
You were in another state?
Yeah.
Okay.
Traveling for work.
Yep.
Okay.
And we, you know, had a little bit too much Tito's.
And they try to pull a fast one on us.
It was supposed to be like a skirt steak, but it ended up being a flat iron steak.
Wait, they served you a different cut of meat?
Yes.
And it wasn't cheap.
It was expensive.
I didn't notice she did.
So she's just eating away and I'm like, no.
And you're like, no, this is not what I ordered.
This is not what I'm paying for.
The chef didn't even come out.
The server's like, no, chef says this is the right cut of meat.
And then I didn't want to be that person.
Well, I'm a chef too.
It's like, okay, listen, this is not skirt steak.
You know, this is not what you advertise.
I don't even want to eat it.
Just take it back.
And then so then I just looked like the, you know, you look like the jerk.
I know.
But she knew how to identify that it wasn't that kind of steak.
I'm just like, it's me.
Yeah.
So the chef never came out.
No, they didn't because they knew.
That's embarrassing that they were wrong.
And he's just staring at me from behind the line because it's an open kitchen.
You can see him.
And then I'm like, okay, we got to get out of here because they're going to spit in
our food.
Right, out of the skirt steak, just 86 the steak.
Yeah.
But I remember too, it was something about like the way it was cut against the grain
with the grain, something.
And you explained to me exactly.
And I was just like, whoa.
Yeah.
So you're supposed to cut steak against the grain and it was with the grain.
And so just, you know, they took this piece of meat that this animal died for and this
murdered it more.
Yeah.
You know, buttered it more.
They just, you know, they just didn't put any care into it.
No.
I'd rather go to a place that's going to take care of the product.
Yeah.
Respect it.
Yeah.
You have expectations.
If I go into McDonald's, I know my expectations about going to McDonald's.
I know that I'm going to get a burger that's going to taste the same at every McDonald's.
You know, you know, filet of fish, you'll probably have a stomach ache after.
Yeah.
But I mean, you know the expectations.
So going into this restaurant that has really beautiful facade, it was in this really hip
area of like, it had good reviews too.
Yeah.
Well, we've spoken this podcast before, all reviews might not be true.
Yeah.
Hashtag cancel Yelp.
But that's just, yeah.
That's very disheartening for like that chef to hypothetically put a lot of care and effort
into curating a menu.
And then you're just going to serve that dish with another cut of meat and just serve it
like it's no problem.
And cut it wrong.
Yeah.
And try and hide it.
Oh, no, it's your mistake.
And you know what?
He probably wasn't the executive chef or the person who put the menu together.
We were there pretty late at night.
Yeah.
And you know, I've had cooks before serve the wrong kind of steak before too.
And they're like, no, that's the ribeye.
Like no, that's actually New York, but they don't know.
So it really boils down to like having the cooks know they need to get educated.
You know what I think happened?
They judge you.
These girls are drinking tea does are having a good time.
We can serve them whatever they won't notice.
Probably.
Little do they know.
Who's beeling anything but chef knows.
So yeah.
So it is hard to go out to restaurants and be really confident in what I'm eating.
Yeah.
You must feel like you're kind of working when you're eating in a restaurant.
Yeah.
And I hate going out to restaurants with friends.
What do you think of this?
What should I order?
Yeah.
Would you put that with this?
I'll go with my boss.
Oh, you should put this on your menu.
Oh, I like this.
Oh my God.
I like this presentation, take a picture of it.
Do you know what's funny?
It's the same with me and hotels and whenever someone in the sales department goes to another
hotel and the front desk or hotel does anything, they bring me back pictures and says, we need
to do this with our front desk.
I'm like, just because it works there doesn't mean it's going to work here.
And in the same thing to you, when I go to other hotels, I do have a harder time enjoying
myself and relaxing because I constantly feel like I'm auditing that other hotel.
It's no fun.
No.
I'm not going to be working in hotels.
Yes.
Miss B, how many years experience do you have with front office?
I want to say 12 to 15, but I'd have to do math on how old I am.
No, I've literally never worked at a hotel really and never worked front desk or front
office.
I do the same damn thing and I don't even have experience.
It's hard because I had to explain this to my husband, you can't turn it off.
Like even when I go into the actual room and there's no people around to judge, I'm now
looking at the beds, I'm pulling back the sheets, I'm looking for hairs.
You're inspecting the room?
Uh-huh.
And I look under the sheet for BBs.
I can't turn it off.
My husband's like, stop, you're not working.
Bill, do you want to do it?
You're not auditing this room.
Do you do this?
Yes and no.
So like for myself, when I've traveled, if it's me myself, I don't really care.
I try not to look.
I don't think about it.
If I'm with someone and a comment is made about, oh, have you noticed?
Then it clicks in the work brain and then I can't stop and that gets really frustrating.
I agree with you.
If I'm by myself, I care about the interactions more than the level of the building.
How like if there's a scuff on the cabinet, I don't really care about that stuff.
I'm looking for hairs and BBs.
That's like my brain.
Like I can't turn it off.
But if someone had a great interaction with me, you know, valet, bell, front desk, bartender,
server, that is so much more meaningful than the actual property itself.
Yes.
But then you have a bad interaction because this just happened recently.
I was at a hotel.
We had a negative interaction at the bar and my work brain immediately I'm like, I should
be emailing blah, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, this is not how you conduct service.
This is there.
Where's your name tag?
Like I'm just, and miss B literally asked that at this hotel.
Where's your name tag?
What is your name?
I really might have had be like, huh, you seem to be missing a name tag.
What's your name?
Like why are you out of uniform?
I think we conducted at the end of the evening.
They were task force.
Something to let it affect.
And they didn't really give a hoot.
They weren't like normal task force.
So it was like a security company or whatever.
Like, but yeah, they were mean.
Yeah.
I can't turn it off.
I can't either.
So when I travel a lot for work and the first thing I do is after I get my keys to get to
my room, I take my luggage and I go straight to the bathtub and just stick my luggage inside
the bathtub.
And then I walk to my bed and I lift all the sheets up and I check for BBs.
Yeah.
See if I don't see anything suspicious.
Oh, because you're protecting your luggage and like your clothes.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
Hard case.
No fabric luggage ever.
And then if it's to my standard.
Then I will bring my clothes, my luggage out and everyone that I've traveled with, they
think I'm just crazy, but no, you've never had BBs in a room.
Have you ever experienced BBs in a room?
It is the scariest thing on earth.
I'm sorry.
Or horrible.
Any bug, you know, like I know BBs like are horrible, but I think that's a good habit
of putting your luggage straight in the bathtub and like protecting it, protecting yourself.
Yeah.
And then I'm like, what kind of hotel you fork at the nicest of the nicest hotels.
There's no like automatic way to disinfect everyone's luggage.
People come from around the world and they bring them.
So it doesn't matter how nice you are, how expensive your room rates are, BBs do come.
There's no hotel that has not had them.
And when you've had to deal with them, there are some stubborn infestations that popping
up no matter how many treatments you just get like PTSD.
I'm sorry for the listeners.
I know we've talked about bed bugs, but we are obviously talking about bed bugs right
now when we were talking about BBs.
I don't think we gave the explicit definition of BBs tonight.
Probably not that clear.
No, we're not allowed to say the word.
Yeah.
That's that's true.
For us, it's like screaming at a Ford and church.
Yeah.
What's your, what's your code name?
It's like ballman and airport.
You don't say it.
Yeah.
Don't you guys have code names and hotels for it?
Yeah.
It's a hotel specific by my apologies.
It is true.
I know hotels will call it different things, but yeah, you don't say that word.
So you have different names for them.
You have no idea who's listening.
You never know.
I recently actually heard this term in my current workplace when giving criticism to
a lifeguard.
This is very like random story.
He was seen hanging out in the hot tub like on the point shift.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, you got to, you got to stay warm.
You got to stay limber.
Right.
Apparently he was cold.
We've been having gloomy days.
He was just in it.
Oh, like hands on the side.
No.
Just straight chilling.
So it wasn't like a, oh, you know, you know what?
He should have had a beer next to him or a fricking daiquiri.
Like he was that relaxed.
Oh my God.
It wasn't like he could play it off like, oh, well, you know, a towel fell in.
I had to retrieve it kind of a thing.
Oh no.
It was just kicking it.
I think he was, he was kicking it for like 10, 15 minutes.
No way.
You know, another manager graciously came out to me and they were like, this went around.
You were off.
And I was like, I'm going to make sure you know certain lifeguard was seen in the hot tub by X number of managers, including the general manager.
No.
I want to just make sure like, you know, and like you can address it accordingly.
So in my property, the pool deck is overlooked by the restaurant patio.
So if you're on the patio, you can see the entire pool deck, the bay, the hot tub, like all of our outside facilities very easily.
And he said, does a lifeguard know like he's literally in a fishbowl?
Yeah.
I've never thought of that.
He literally is.
So when I gave the criticism and coached the lifeguard on it, like, bro, you're in a fishbowl.
There might not be anyone on the pool deck like you can see.
But look at that restaurant right up there.
That's like all the land that you own.
Yeah.
People can see you bro.
And I'm sure hotel rooms and you know, you name it.
G T F O of the hot tub.
Did he get fired or she?
I don't know.
They're contracted.
They technically hire them, but they have been contracted for numerous years.
So we've grown a working relationship together.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's like, well, it was cold.
There was no one on the bull deck.
I don't care.
I was cold.
Go for a lap of running.
I'm swimming.
No.
Running.
Grab a sweatshirt.
Look at that too.
Why are you like shirtless and just your board shorts and your little lifeguard buoy?
You might like think you're freaking cool being a lifeguard and hanging out shirtless at this nice facility.
Put a fricking jacket on.
Why are you going to hang out in the hot tub?
What is the thought process?
They did it on Baywatch.
You can put a jacket on too.
Oh my God.
So is that like in your line of work, the equivalent of like a chef making their own food on the
line and then going and like eating it in the restaurant?
It happens all the time.
Really?
Especially with the servers.
Oh my God.
That's funny.
You know, we are fortunate that we have this great cafeteria that everyone could enjoy their
meals in.
It's like a blageau buffet for associates.
It's really nice.
We'll still have those associates who just feel like they're above and beyond when it
comes to the cafeteria food.
Oh, it's too good for them.
Yeah.
So they'll go behind the line and start making themselves something and then they'll go.
A server behind the line.
They do it all the time.
Shye?
They just do.
And like, you know, you belong on the other side.
And it's one of those things I can't control because I have maybe about 38 associates that
work under me.
And I'm not there to constantly babysit them, but I'll see them.
They'll walk behind there, make themselves a really nice like sandwich or burger and then
walk off.
And then so usually the servers are really nice younger females.
They make friends with the cooks.
Yeah.
Do you want to make me something?
Yeah.
So it happens a lot.
I'm sorry.
I've been guilty of it.
Have you not?
No.
Oh no.
That's not good.
No, that's like a big note.
Like go behind the line and cook.
Oh, I would never go behind the line, but like through the window like hi, John.
No, that's totally different.
How are you today?
One of the chefs to make you food.
I've asked permission to like, can I grab that thing right there?
Can I step into your space?
Because I've worked with chefs who have been like, you don't touch our domain.
Like, you don't go behind a line.
Safety.
Yeah.
We're trained.
You're not.
You're going to slip and fall and your face can be the grill and you're going to die.
Are you wearing special shoes?
No.
Ow.
You know, well, it happens a lot and I hate to say it's usually the female servers who
of course some of the male cooks into giving them extra fries or whatever, you know, oh,
oops, I dropped this dessert.
You can have this for free now.
Oh my gosh.
Can you imagine?
Oh, this crumbly isn't good.
You want it?
It happens all the time.
Oh, constantly.
Constantly.
I will say I walk through our kitchen like through our wait station like Hawaii.
A lot in my current job.
I'm so jealous when the cooks are just back there like cooking up like whatever they want.
Chefs doing like whatever he wants for lunch or dinner and all of like the front of house
managers.
My chef does not let that happen.
Get whatever they want.
And then they like go hide in their office and like shut the door and eat their gourmet
lunch.
I'm like, man, I had to get 30% off and like for a $25 salad and like all I want is like
a salami sandwich, man.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
I don't know if this does not allow that, but it's for a reason.
She's like, there has to be a ticket for everything.
You don't get just to make your own food free from the materials that I buy.
I have 100% agree with that.
And so everybody has to have a ticket if you have food.
Yeah, well you know, servers will ring up the ticket and then all of a sudden, oh, the
guests didn't like the food anymore.
The guests had walked off.
Oh, there's so many.
I hate to say it because I'm just throwing people in the box.
No, no, no.
It's true.
They're all walking around.
Yeah, and with the hotel industry guests do come down or something and they just walk away or they go check out
And they never come back. So it happens a lot and eventually the staff members, they know the tricks
and then you know, there's certain amount of what you could comp and void for the day and
Yeah, you just
It happens and they take advantage of it
But you know if I see one of my fellow managers that I work with and I'm like hey
Right yeah, so guilty of it too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a hey, I go these these hotel owners
They make so much money anyway
Do remember though because not at my current property as much
But at my last few when we had like really large meeting space and there would be events
You would be sitting there crossing your fingers
There was extra plates and there almost always was and there'd be a ton of extra plates like real good food
Yeah, we get in steak tonight and that was always the best
What's like a surf and turf? I remember once
That was good one time
I got to help with the plate up and the chefs paid us to help with the plate up by giving us one of the foods
Yes, it yes that happens a lot. It's funny cuz like we have a lot of banquets thousand people bank was 500 people
Banked a thousand people all the time. Holy moly and so you always have to do about three percent more
With that being said say thousand you have to have at least 30 more right and so we had
Engineering we can't ever get a hold of engineering like something breaks. They take maybe a couple hours
Sometimes not until the next day to get something fixed, but as soon as I call them on the radio
Hey, we have extra plates downstairs. They're like right there. Are they rain? No, it's like where was your radio?
20 minutes ago, bro. The next time you need something fix say hey, um, we may have some extra food down here
Get them down here be like oh, but before that can you fix this?
boom and
You better work for that boat cooking like something simple like whatever you have extra
I'll make you whatever you want, but it's tied to how long it takes you to fix it
If it takes you an hour you might be getting the kids chicken nuggets and fries
But it takes you 10 minutes. Hey, you might be getting this good steak or whatever beef is on the menu
Yes, honey, I use food as a leverage to get things done. Oh totally not a shame at all
So did whipped cream woman at 545
And a sign of Hershey's chocolate sauce. Yeah, okay. What about leftover booze? Where is a line drawn? Oh, man
I don't get my hands over booze
But if I did then I would take it like half a half a bottle of wine left on the table
Would you take it and drink it? No, no, no, but you know those little tiny bottles nips let those you know little two-shot
Tito's or that's for like Barbie's airplane
There was a call nips really what the call or is it a nib?
All of us are looking at you like you're crazy. I swear. This is a term don't look up an IPA
I'm gonna take you to the research department continue your story not under nips. You're gonna get a lot of tips
I think it's a nib actually. Oh my
So sorry anyways about your mini Barbie bottles nibs. So no, it's nips. I was right
Yeah, okay the research department just got back to me
What is a nip of alcohol a nip is a small amount of a strong alcoholic drink?
Huh, huh? Why is it called a nip of alcohol? Oh my god, it originated in Scotland
Okay as nips or shooters the sling boobies the slang or the term nip originated from the low
German term nipper can not nipple. Okay, got it a single shot is sometimes called a nip a 30 milliliter
Yes, a typical spirit with 40% alcohol is roughly equivalent to one standard drink. Okay. I was right
So housekeeping when they clean up the rooms they would take those little tiny bottles
they'll throw them into a bucket and
For some reason they bring those buckets of little bottles of alcohol down to food and beverage and we are to dispose of it
What yeah, I don't know why they're not used. They're not used. We are to dispose of it
Yeah, yeah
Because it left their possession
Are you talking like okay? Is this like a mini fridge like Vegas status and if they've removed it or are you saying like in Vegas?
No, they like just clear them all no like they bring into the hotel for use, but they decide not to bring it home with them
So any kind of alcohol for some reason they bring it back to food and beverage food and beverage has a way of disposing it
So down the drain. Yeah, what happens is my no one else has a sink. That's not how we dispose of it at my last property
Yeah, I go on so, you know every property has their protocol. So our director of food and beverage
He takes the little bottles
He throws them into separate bags and he calls them goody bags for all the chefs when they leave home
I think it is a huge
Liability yes, but you know they do that but miss B
How did your old property dispose of them? So glad you asked it was so fun
So this was quite a few properties ago, but these were you know guests leaving again alcohols in the room
Sometimes they were completely unopened bottles of wine a lot of these things unopened untouched
But he was very strict about every bit of alcohol got turned to him
So we would have everything from bottles of liquor to wine to beer bottles all of this
And we would go to the dumpster in the back and we got to throw them in and watch them crash and explode and it was amazing
So literally it would be him and I just talking chucking bottles of alcohol in this trash can watch a
Like oh, it's my favorite anger. Oh, yeah
It was absolutely cathartic just to hear the glass breaking and see this booze going everywhere and it's like
I'm sorry like a nice expensive bottle of wine
You're just gonna like throw and see it shatter at this property like technically you really don't know what it's been through
Whether it's anything's been shot into it or resealed the thing no matter how expensive it was no matter if it was untouched or not
It was not consumed and it was destroyed. This is coming from a person eats half a pizza. Yeah, I know
I'm not super
Like super consistent, right
Cuz then I worked at another property we would be like dibs and everyone would be taking home different beers or bottles of wine that night
Yeah
So there's there's a difference between policy following policy
Depending on who your manager is yeah, pretty much for law prevention
It becomes it becomes subjective at that point
But I mean the heart of it is that you never had possession of it
So you don't know the source you don't know if it's been tampered with so there's that aspect of liability
But then there's the liability of you know saying Liz you can take these unopened bottles home
But instead of going home you go to a park first you hang out with your friends you get drunk
You get in your car you have a car accident when they say where did you get this? Oh, I got this from my boss at work
And now I'm on the hook your life. Yeah, I remember that ABC training
Yeah, so okay take away not knowing where the alcohol came from say you work out like a private club like a country club
If I have a specific member that I know pretty well
I've known him for a couple years and they go, ah Liz
I'm not gonna like finish this bottle of very nice cab take it home you best believe I'd be taking it in the back
I mean like who wants them chef miss B bill you want some once put this in a certain world
You'd have to have a red tag for that. Yep, not a small-town country club
It's literally all about who you work for and the rules but also then if they're enforced or not
That is not my current job
Liabilities, too. Yeah, I do
I'm not anymore. We're still alive and good and none of us work there anymore
Off of loss and found alcohol
Chef I've got a question for you. What is the hardest dish you've learned to cook? Oh, I like that
I love the food questions. I know I thought like hardest dish to recreate maybe or just the most unique whether it's it's
cultural and outside your current depth and breadth what
Has given you wise or difficulty or like have you seen the ingredients that go into it and just say hell no oh man
um
A beef Wellington. It's very classic dish that you would see I mean it's making a huge comeback right now
You see it in a lot of these restaurants, but it's a very classic dish that is learned through culinary school
But when you go into restaurants, you're expected to know how to make it beef Wellington miss B
Do you know what a beef Wellington is? I'm gonna guess there's beef. Yes, there's beef and it's fancy. It is
Ding ding ding. There we go. So chef. Do you want to give a brief background?
Sure, so you're taking a a fillet of tenderloin, you know flaming on and it comes in this long
loin that looks like a schlong
and
then you make a
Kind of like a mushroom type of pate called a duck cell and then on top of it
You are wrapping a puff pastry around it and then you bake it
So you're putting this raw piece of beef with with you know mushroom type of a sauce that's going around it
Uh-huh, and then you're putting puff pastry around it
You're putting it blindly into an oven and you pray and yeah
You pray pretty much to make sure it's coming out medium rare and that there's no blood bleeding all over a piece of
Puff pastry that's so weird. Oh, it's a delicious. It's delicious. I've seen people cry because they mess it up so many times
You know, so that's the most one the most complicated but also gnocchi really gnocchi was very hard for me because
They're gross is a lot of love you. You don't eat. I'm sorry. He's like squishy boogers
Like I'm a pasta girl and that is not okay. This is a great clarifying question. Is gnocchi pasta? No
But oh, it's a potato. It's a potato pasta
But yours is probably squishy because they did not good
They didn't cook the potato correctly and they didn't put it through a ricer, huh?
You really need to order gnocchi at like an established like very nice Italian restaurant
You're not gonna order it at a chain Italian restaurant
I mean still maybe I still didn't but I've tried it a couple times thinking
Oh, maybe it's just a place and it's still just I don't like the consistency or maybe you just don't like it. Yeah, yeah
Okay, yeah
Follow up on the gnocchi question. What about risotto? I love risotto
I was that something easy for you to pick up for me. It was easy
But I could see why people mess it up
You know, you have to sit there and constantly watch it and stir the rice and put the broth and then it's a
That wasn't hard for me
But I've you know gnocchi was actually really hard for me and I passed so many times just really
Getting into making gnocchi. I had to really set myself up with putting a theme around it
Like I turned on the godfather and I had a glass of kianzi
You know, but all the best ingredients in the world
So for me when you're making a dish you're really trying to make love to it
I was about to say damn your role playing
Yeah, you really in that you put love and passion into stuff you put on a plate
Yeah, so you kind of have to you know, that was really hard, but once you make love to that plate it really turns out really
delicious
I love it. I understand it. I'm picturing this in this gnocchi now. I'm like, okay, maybe I'll give it a second try sometime
Happen some godfather happens for me with my meals delivered by my UPS man. She's so honest right now. It's so funny
All right, sorry. All right. Well, this has been fun guys. I don't know about you
But I'm about ready to go home and make some gnocchi so
Phil
Gnocchi and Lawson found alcohol awesome place to stop ladies. Thank you so much for being here tonight
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