Posted on 12/19/2012 11:47:18 PM PST by nickcarraway
Holiday cooking catastrophes are nothing new, but when you're in the restaurant business, they can be doubly disastrous.
See also: - Chefs, What's on Your Holiday Wish List This Year? and What's Your Most Horrifying Kitchen Accident Story?
This week, Valley chefs and restaurateurs share their holiday cooking horror stories and let us know how they recovered from them.
Chef Taylor Domet, North, Kierland Fire years ago, I was working at a resort restaurant and let my executive chef help me with a Christmas event -- a plated dinner for 120 people. He said, "I'll take care of the chickens." Ten minutes before plating, he left for the night and I assumed he did what he said. The first five plates we sent out came back with undercooked chicken. It was almost a disaster. We managed to bring the chickens up to temperature and execute by the skin of our teeth! Lesson: Always double-check your misé en placé -- even if the executive chef prepped it himself!
Silvana Salcido Esparza, Chef and Owner, Barrio Cafe and Barrio Queen My biggest cooking screw-up was Christmas 1991. I was starting a new catering project, and it was my first paying gig. My staff was on site, but I got stuck at a train crossing and I had the food. I got there 15 minutes late and the host had already ordered Domino's. My staff and I went home, with hundreds of dollars worth of shrimp and finger foods, and had our own party. The following day, I signed up for culinary school in Scottsdale. To this day, I have a phobia about being late for catered events.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com ...
sorry that one made me laugh!
I am from the Deep South... but I attempted a nasty oyster stuffing for my family. I pulled it out of the oven, put it on the counter.. the Pyrex shattered from the sudden temp change. Who knew Pyrex would do that??? Fortunately I already prepared a large pan of my Cornbread Dressing for myself because I had not intention of eating oyster stuffing. The fix was sharing my famous cornbread dressing with family. Fortunately my kids have some Southern DNA. If you are wondering what the difference between stuffing and dressing is... don’t ask. It’s a Southern thang.
i had bear meat once - at a guide camp in Maine....with the most racist guide/person ive ever met (another story perhaps)....found it greasy and it made for an interesting next day in the woods....it should suffice to say I came back without a t shirt as i had to tear it up into strips and “use” it
anchovy pasta.
a staple for Christmas eve
Our kitchen isn’t outfitted with all the extras. One Thanksgiving, I fixed turkey and dressing from scratch. It was in a glass oven dish (first mistake). I placed it on top of the woodstove, then later moved it onto the wooden butcher block. It exploded all over the kitchen, and we were severely limited on the dinner we served the guests. Husband had BAKED a country ham, which didn’t work; it was tough as whitleather. - Husband’s brother announced that very day that they would “be staying home for holidays from then on”; then gave an excuse for it instead of the truth - which was “this is the cruddiest Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had!” - I couldn’t fix it as there was glass all through the dressing.
I was 18, away at college, and having my first-ever Thanksgiving away from home. Several frosh buddies and I decided to cook a Thanksgiving feast — how hard could it be? We’d all seen our Moms do it many times.
I thought it would be great to have homemade bread, so I whipped up the dough, popped it into the pan and shoved it in the preheated oven. 45 minutes later out came this glob of a mess in the pan — I didn’t know what “letting it rise” meant. The rest of the meal was actually pretty good.
We barbeque our turkey on the Weber charcoal grill every year and use my Mom’s bread and sausage stuffing recipe. Her “secret” is to moisten the stuffing with the water used to boil the giblets. Turkey always comes out perfectly cooked with crispy golden-brown skin. The Weber is really fool-proof and highly recommended (plus no danger of a huge kettle of oil catching on fire). Just use the indirect method and fill up the charcoal once an hour.
When we were pretty sure that the giblets were cooked, we opened up the pressure relief valve and waited until no more pressure was released. We also placed the cooker under cold, running water to cool it down. We were sure that the pressure had all been released, but the lid wouldn't twist the one inch it needed to twist in order to open. It had to be broken or something.
After about 10 minutes of struggling, I finally realized that I could probably take a screwdriver, wedge it between the top and bottom handles, and pry them apart horizontally to twist the lid open.
It worked.
You can guess the rest.
Something had clogged the pressure valve to keep air from escaping. Once the lid twisted far enough, the remaining pressure threw the lid across the room and spewed scalding water and giblet chunks all over the kitchen. I got burned a bit (nothing serious) and we were cleaning turkey parts off of the ceiling and from every crack and crevice in the kitchen for the next week.
(raises hand)
Learned from similar experience.
Honestly, i am rolling on the floor and ROARING at these stories on this thread! i’d have blown my brains out had any single one of them happened to me!
A friend of mine was officiating at a Scottish gathering and he was to open the first bottle of champaign for the evening. Dressed in full kilt, doublet, festooned with sgian dubh, dirks and steel flintlock pistols. He pulled out his two handed broad sword and swung it with the intention of cutting the neck off with the sword in a grand manner. The bottle went into the air, shattered on the floor and bathe some of the meerymakers in Dom Perignon. People laughing so hard they were holding each other up.
And that is how the Scots celebrate in Texas.
Thanks for all the dinner invites but I am very busy for the rest of the year! lmao
Your story has to be the winner of this thread! Oh my gosh I never thought about a champagne cork hitting the chandelier. lol
God did NOT want you all to have pasta that night! lol
My ex girlfriend (wonder why she's an ex?) decided she was going to be nice and make me some sugar cookies. To do this, she, of course, needed 3 cups of baking power and 2 tbls of flour.
Yes...you read that right...3 CUPS of baking powder and 2 tbsp of flour. She mixed up the recipe...had to go out and buy something like 12 cans of clabber girl...and it never donned on her that something was wrong. Imagine my surprise when I bit into her nice deed.
Initially...you could taste the butter and for about 1/2 second...it was "interesting'...then the baking powder taste hit me. That was 20 years ago and where I was and my reaction is etched upon my mind. She had the nerve to get mad at me because I didn't like it.
Any stories you can share?
After the initial shock, the women rallied. The able ones flocked into the kitchen to clean the considerable greasy dripping extended all over the floor. The intact turkey was rescued from where it had slithered and was put on the big wooden cutting board for the required "rest" before slicing.
My mom, an excellent cook, was able to swiftly make considerable and delicious gravy from the browned pieces in the bottom of the pan.
Within twenty minutes or so the beautiful turkey was grandly placed on the festive table, the savory gravy was in the gravy boat, the prayer was said, the bird was sliced, the feast began....and the menfolk and the older aunts who had been sitting in the living room were never aware of the extent of the near-catastrophe in the kitchen.
As an aside, I might mention that today's turkeys are bred to have huge (and lean) white meat breasts. The bird is now like one big breast. Therefore, there's nowhere near the huge amount of drippings and scrapings after roasting as was the case in yesteryear. This is also the case with other fowl and meats today due to "leaness" being all the rage....very little drippings and pan crusties after roasting.
Moral of this Thanksgiving saga.......always have a couple jars of store-bought gravy on hand for holiday emergencies. It could happen to you.
Leni
Shot a bear in Alaska and it had dark blue colored meat. It ate blueberries. Was so excellent I hunted bear in PA and got one from the city dump. Big difference. I’d like to buy a bear and turn him into a blueberry eater, cause the taste was so different. It all depends on what they eat and how you cook it.
LOL...I think if you are a certain type of Italian it is, but for many people, they go "Eeeeew!"
I am not a big fan of it, but my Italian-Armenian mother used to make it and my siblings all liked it. I kind of picked at it, but it didn't make me gag. I just didn't have much enthusiasm for it.
I made it for my wife one time, who adores it, and she told me that's how she KNEW I loved her!
I had bear meat once...didn’t taste bad at all, but you are right, boy, was it ever greasy!
Thank your God you don’t live my life. Sometime I’ll tell you about me, the cat, the fish I was dressing and the homeless guy.
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