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Food

These Are Chefs' Biggest Grievances in the Kitchen

We rarely hear from the people who spend hours a day breaking their backs preparing our meals. What are their pet peeves? MUNCHIES investigated.

This story was originally published in Dutch on MUNCHIES NL on September 14.

Nobody complains quite like the Dutch. When it rains, everyone is busy telling everyone else how much it sucks. As soon as the sun starts shining again, that sucks too. Everything sucks all the time. Thankfully, because we live in The Netherlands, we're all quite tolerant when it comes to complaining.

We also enjoy the good life—that's what we tell ourselves, at least—and we like to go out to dinner. Again, though, the culture of complaining about everything is rampant. Websites like IENS [the Dutch Yelp] and TripAdvisor overflow with restaurant reviews that are mostly geared towards everything that's wrong with the food we ordered. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with the food the reviewer ordered, but he couldn't help but notice that "the meal on the neighboring table looked terrible".

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Oddly enough, we rarely hear from the people who spend hours a day breaking their backs preparing these meals. What are their pet peeves? MUNCHIES investigated and compiled a list of the things chefs find most annoying.

Mitchell (27), has been a chef for 12 years Of course the customer is king, and I will always try to make their experience worthwhile, but sometimes people do annoy me.

For instance, when they don't tell you they have an allergy until the very last minute. It's perfectly fine be allergic to something and altering dishes keeps me on my toes, but please say something about it right away, and don't wait until the food is almost ready to be served. Also interesting is when people want to create their own dishes. There's a reason we have a menu. It takes a lot of extra work [to custom create something], but I'll do my best. You do want people to go home happy.

Masterchefs

Photo via Flickr user Theen Moy.

Jay (21), has been a chef for four years How much time do you have? There are plenty of things that annoy me. Perhaps it would be good to share them with people for a change.

One of the things that really gets to me are people who order off the menu, finish their meal, then decide they didn't like it and expect an entire new dish. It's like asking for a free movie ticket after seeing a movie that didn't live up to your expectations.

Another thing: people who take to TripAdvisor to express their grievances about my restaurant. If you have a complaint, let me know, and I'll do my best to make it right. But don't say everything was fine, only to go online later and write a negative review.

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I also really dislike it when people tell me I look tired or drunk on my night off. Of course I look like this; I'm working my ass of in the kitchen to serve healthy, less tired looking folks their meals. Oh, and people who ask me if I want to become Gordon Ramsey: of course not. I'm not an asshole.

Stijn (27), has been a chef for 12 years Made-up allergies are my biggest pet peeve. Just be honest and say you don't like something. One time, someone said they were allergic to Italian herbs, and especially bruschetta. Another customer tried to convince me he was allergic to forgotten vegetables. Come on people, I went to school for this stuff. I know these are ridiculous, non-existent allergies.

That's really my only pet peeve. I love my profession way too much.

Sam (27), has been a chef for nine years Groups. Groups suck. And I'm not even talking about groups who made a special reservation, like wedding parties or something. Those are fun; you can create something special and the people are happy. No, I'm talking about groups of eight or ten on a Friday night. The group of eight which eventually turns out to be 10, or the other way around. They never arrive on time, and though they didn't state any special preferences beforehand, there's always that one person who doesn't like fish. That's difficult in a seafood restaurant. They monopolize a certain number of tables all night long, drink too much, and eventually get on the nerves of all the other customers. This one group of eight or 10 turns 'their' section of the restaurant into an area nobody wants to go to. While we barely take reservations for groups on Friday and Saturday evenings anymore, sometimes they still show up. I grit my teeth and try to get them out the door as quickly as I can, so I also have time to take care of the other customers.

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READ MORE: How Chefs Prefer to Kill Lobster

There was also a woman once who stopped by in the afternoon—she had a reservation for that same evening—to go over food additives with me in the kitchen. She was supposedly allergic to them. It was very difficult not to burst out laughing. Aside from one chorizo sausage and a stabilizer in the cream, we didn't find any.

jaume-escofet

Photo via Flickr user Jaume Escofet.

Eduardo (36), has been a chef for 16 years Customers don't really bother me very often. I have a lot of experience and I'm creative enough to deal with things that come up last-minute. I look at it like a game of sorts, which makes my job all the more interesting and fun.

One thing that does bother me is the constant pressure I'm under as a chef. Sometimes a supplier doesn't answer their phone after they fail to deliver something on a Saturday afternoon. That means people who have come to the restaurant to eat something very specific will end up waiting, which causes me a lot of stress.

I'm also annoyed by other chefs who don't have a passion for cooking, or are plain lazy. I really don't like that. Surprisingly it's the young people who are very easygoing in the kitchen, and it's mostly the older people who don't seem to have any fun anymore. Young chefs are good at following directions and want to prove themselves, so they work hard. The older guys get sloppy at the end of a long day, while we're still busy closing containers and putting them in the fridge, to make sure the food doesn't go bad. I've had times when upon first inspection the freezer looked organized, but when I looked closer the back of it was a mess. You'll see a piece of recently slaughtered chicken touch a nice lamb chop. That's contagious and very dangerous. Trying to cut corners so you can go get a beer and get home early—that drives me crazy.

One last thing: when servers are late picking up the plates from the kitchen and serve the food after it has gotten cold. That makes me feel like I might as well not be cooking at all.

Willem (35), has been a chef for 19 years My biggest pet peeve is when the servers are late picking up the food from the kitchen. We have this light I turn on when a dish is ready. Oftentimes, it takes a long time for the dishes to be picked up and served, so they get cold. Customers aren't happy with that, of course, and for me it also feels like I'm cooking for nothing.

Classic pet peeve: a group of five enters the restaurant to eat at 9.55 p.m., though the kitchen closes at 10 p.m. Obviously everyone will have to stay later, and I think [the annoyance is] mostly psychological: you think you're almost done, so you're not ready to stay thirty minutes longer (or sometimes even more than that). Every single person who works in the restaurant absolutely hates it.