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I didn’t like my dish, now what?! Chefs tell how they handle the situation

In 2021, a video by the American chef Dominick Purnomo went viral on the internet. In the scene of a few seconds, he registered his disbelief after a customer of his restaurant, in the north of New York, returned a plate of steak tartare on the grounds that the meat was…raw!

Those who work in the kitchen know that dealing with eventual dissatisfaction is part of the job, but the Is the customer always right? For the chefs interviewed by the report, it depends.

“The customer can request the change of a dish whenever he thinks that its execution does not comply with the description of the menu or with some specification of his order, such as the point of a meat”, he says. Fellipe Zanuto responsible for the success of houses such as inn It is Mooca’s Pizza both in São Paulo .

“We always welcome this question, we know that mistakes happen and the customer has every right to complain, but there are occasions when he changes his mind when he receives the order and asks to exchange it for another suggestion. That is a bad attitude”, he ponders.

In Purnomo’s case, the steak tartar – a classic recipe consisting of seasoned raw meat – was sautéed in a frying pan and sent back to the table, as per the customer’s wishes.

Andre Mifano owner of the restaurant Donna , in Jardins, in São Paulo, considers that in many cases there is a question of lack of reference on the part of the diner. “Sometimes he doesn’t know the recipe very well. I’ve had situations where the person ordered a carbonara, but expected something with bacon and cream. When he received a pasta made according to the original, with guanciale and lots of yolk, he returned the dish because it tasted like an egg. We need to consider that no one has an obligation to know everything.”

Mifano’s position is endorsed by Luca Gozzani, chief executive of Fasano . “According to the group’s philosophy, the customer always tends to be right, even if he doesn’t understand anything about the dish in question.”

Despite not being very common, Gozzani says that it happens that dishes are sent back to the kitchen and that each case is different. “In these situations, we identify whether there was actually an error in flavor or cooking and only then decide what to do.” The most common, according to him, is to ask to change a garnish or even something that is not on the menu. “Fasano is not an authorial restaurant, where the customer will taste the chef’s creations, so there is that possibility.”

Already the chef Tássia Magalhães which this week celebrates two successful years of its Nelita which is on the list of the 50Best Restaurants in Latin America, says that this situation rarely happens, but when it does happen, the dining room staff is trained to talk to the customer, understand why he doesn’t like it and, regardless of the reason, always offer a new option that better suits the diner’s expectations.

She points out that it is important to have this frank conversation to understand if there was an error in the execution, if the dish was “presented” by the team in a wrong way or if it really just did not please the customer’s palate.

“We want all our visitors to leave with the best experience and memory of Nelita possible. Therefore, on the few occasions that this happened, we made a point of understanding what caused this discontent”.

Mifano says that a cook’s work is something “subjective”. “We create dishes for hundreds of thousands of people, not just one person. So our purpose is only one: to make good food.” According to him, “if the dish comes out of the kitchen with a problem, which everyone has experienced, there is no excuse: the restaurant is wrong and the order must be changed, never charged”. For Zanutto, this is always a delicate topic. “We worry about every dish that comes back, we always try to understand what happened, because everything that comes out of the kitchen is tasted.”

According to Procon-SP, the consumer is supported by the Consumer Protection Code to request the exchange or even the return of the dish “if the establishment serves something that is not consistent with what is described in the menu, or when the images of the dishes on the menus or brochures is very different from what was actually served.” The entity, through a statement, also states that “the consumer should always try to reach an agreement with the establishment, in a friendly manner and in good faith”. “If you are unable to do so, we recommend that you make the payment and then seek your rights by registering the claim via Procons – in cases of property damage. However, if there is any kind of threat to physical or even moral integrity, the customer can, yes, trigger the Police and, later, the Justice”, he concludes.

In the end, what prevails is the common sense . “If the customer takes two mouthfuls and asks for a dish to be changed, we offer another suggestion and do not charge for the first one. Now, when he only makes a complaint after eating the whole dish, then there is nothing to be done”, concludes Mifano.



Source: CNN Brasil

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