Seriously this did happen, as crazy as it sounds some people just feel entitled.
So many moons ago I was working for an English family as thier head chef at a local pub. Together we built the foundations of a successful busy pub within the first year of business. We had loyal clientele and excellent food and with weekends being standing room only most times..
This delusional situation was on a friday night, about 2 months after we opened and towards the end of my 14 hour day when one of the owners, James, said that a table wanted to speak to me. I asked James if everything was okay and he said he believed so "they ate all thier plates clean." he said; Alicia, the customer's guest service engineer, said that they dont want to pay for thier prawns but had eaten them all. So after a quick change in apron and chef jacket I headed out to the table to see what is going on.
"Yes sir, how can I assist you?" I ask as I arrive to the table, curiuos as to what is going on.
"First of all I want to say what you are doing here is fantastic and the meal was excellent, but the problem I have is that these are shrimp and not prawns and will not pay for them." he says all smugly. I quickly glance at the table of guests, noting that they are embarassed by his actions then quickly glance at james whom is standing to my right.
"I assure you they are prawns sir. The case which I order is Black Tiger Prawns which comes from the Indian Ocean. " I reply.
"No they are not! Besides The Keg serves bigger ones!" he replied while starting to give serious attitude.
"I am sorry sir, you ate it, said you liked it and you are going to pay for it." i said then turned and looked at James and went back to the kitchen.
As I am walking away I hear James say "Pay your bill and get the fuck out"
I ignore what was going on because I was pissed at the audacity of the situation and the moron who is the cause of it. After about 10 minutes James comes back to the kitchen, "Did you hear that?"
"No, what?"
'You walked away and he said something to the effect of "keep walking fat ass!" so I told him to pay his bill and get the fuck out" James told me as he was still amped up about it,
I was pleased to see/hear that James had my back and stood up to the rudeness that buddy displayed.
I don't know why some people feel self entitled to act the way they do. The fact of the matter is that prawns and shrimp are interchangeable in the cooking world.
When searching the difference on line this is what I found:
Prawns have claws on three of their five pairs of legs, shrimp have claws on two of their five pairs of legs. Their gills and body shape are different too. As far as cooking them goes, they are virtually identical and interchangeable.
Most chefs know this and 99% of the customers can't tell the difference as the taste and flavor are the same. Although this is a rare occurance for this situation there have been many times over the years that people have felt entitled to compensation of some sort, and most times it is warranted, to a certain degree; however there are too many people who are over zealous with making a scene and standing up and making it known to the room and world that they demand satisfaction. All i can say is when these people show up is that while you may be correct in your situation, being an ass and making a scene just makes you look like a dick. When you treat others with respect you will get better results as had he probably would have recieved a discount from me or I would have bought it for him out right had he not caused a scene or been rude.
Being in kitchens and having pride in what you do you have to have thick skin.
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