Chef shares customer comment that always makes his 'heart sink' at restaurants

13 February 2023 , 13:03

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Chef Joe Hurd has shared comments restaurant customers should try and avoid making (Image: Lifetime Training)

Eating out at a restaurant is one of life's little luxuries - having someone prepare and cook food for you and bring it to the table, while you enjoy a drink with a friend or loved one.

But during your visit, you might want to think carefully about what you say to chefs and waiters as your words may hold more weight than you realise.

This is according to TV chef and Italian ingredients expert, Joe Hurd from Lifetime's Chef Academy, who shared some of the worst offending comments restaurant customers can make, including one which he claims to find the most "demoralising" and another that always makes his "heart sink".

Speaking to The Mirror, Joe explained that he's not keen on customers asking for ketchup, mayo, or other condiments - and then proceeding to drown their plate in the stuff.

The expert shared one request that always makes his 'heart sink' (stock photo) (scu)

He said: "I am all for condiments and sauces, and to a degree, I think all restaurants should keep these handy. However, it's so demoralising to see your hard work drowned in a commercially-produced household product."

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Another comment that irks the expert is "can I have this cooked a bit more please?"

"I'd always like to think that we cook meat, fish, vegetables, etc to a high exacting standard, and how it arrives on the customer's plate is how we would cook it for ourselves," Joe explained.

"It's usually no problem to get something cooked a bit more, but it's never going to go down well with a chef."

But one of the biggest no-nos is a request that is often made at around 10pm - "Can we get a table for four please, but don't worry we all just want medium rare steaks..."

This is a comment that always makes the chef's "heart sink" as it's so close to closing time.

He told The Mirror: "Usually at this point in the evening service we tend to be breaking down our sections, turning off grills, wrapping, labelling, and cleaning. Something as simple to the customer as a post-theatre steak can mean turning a whole cleaned-down kitchen around and prolonging a shift by a couple of hours.

"Of course, we will do it for you, but it does make your heart sink."

And when it comes to asking a chef to make something that's not on the menu, it's probably not a good idea either.

"There is this bizarre kind of assumption that if a restaurant is good, it should be able to make you anything," he added.

"As chefs, we plan and order to meet our very exacting/tight gross profit margins. It's not usual to keep extra ingredients that aren’t part of a menu, of course, and I think kitchens should always try and accommodate if possible.

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"When I worked at Little Sardegna, we never had carbonara on the menu but if someone asked for it, we could probably make it.

"If they asked for pad thai or paella then that would be a different story," he added.

This comes after a top hairdresser shared the "wince-inducing" comments their clients make that they wish they would avoid.

He told how he never wants a client to say "we can always change it back" at hair appointments, ahead of making a change.

"This is a phrase clients say often that makes me wince," he admitted. "You should never go in with this as your starting idea or as a caveat. If you're unsure, maybe it's the right colour but certainly the wrong time."

Courtney Pochin