Ramekins Upon Ramekins Of Revenge
I take my career and food safety very seriously. Even if I was livid over a customer, I would never do anything gross, dirty, harmful, etc., to their food, and I would shut down anyone who tried to. I prefer my revenge to be petty but noticed.
The restaurant I work in is located in an upscale area. As a result, our customer base is full of entitled, elitist, insufferable people most days. If you have a problem with your food, that’s fine. But if you’re an a**hole or being petty, you’ll get served by Chef Petty — the king of petty.
We had a regular nightly customer place the same order for pickup fifteen minutes before closing every night for four months straight. We hated her because she treated all staff she dealt with like s*** and made ridiculous demands, and then, no matter what, she would send all of her food back to be refired (translation: remade quickly) even though nothing was ever wrong with the order.
One particular thing she’d do is order six shrimp pasta dishes and request three additional portions of shrimp for each one. But she didn’t want the shrimp on top like it comes. She wanted it on the side. This was no big deal, except that she didn’t want it all together. She didn’t even want the four total portions for each order together. Nope, she wanted each of the four portions for each of the six orders packaged separately. That takes a LONG time to do — way more than necessary — all because she enjoys being difficult.
One night, I wasn’t having it. We knew this regular was coming, so all total, I knew I needed 288 shrimp — 12 shrimp per portion times 6 dishes with 4 portions each). And she got 288 shrimp — individually packaged in 288 ramekins.
Regular: *Pissed* “What am I supposed to do with this?”
General Manager: “Make sure they’re all there.”
The regular proceeded to count 288 ramekins as I watched from the kitchen with a grin.
After that, she had no problem allowing us to start packaging the shrimp dishes the way they were meant to be, and she even started tipping. Then, she eventually stopped coming. Wins all the way around.
(Editor’s Note: A ramekin is a small baking dish usually used for a single-serving item, also called a soufflé dish; in this case, they’re likely the disposable plastic variety.)
Related:
Petty, PUNGENT Revenge
