Stuff that annoy chefs
We often talk about restaurants and cafes, what we expect from them and how we should be treated, as well as the quality of food. For a change, let’s look at the other side of the coin and see their point of view.

As much as we want to have a good dining experience, restaurateurs also want to please you and offer the best service. It takes a lot to run a food joint, and more so to serve so many different customers with such different preferences.

Let’s look at some of the pet peeves of chefs and restaurant owners. — Compiled by PATSY KAM

1. Presenting fake allergies

Allergies are serious. If a customer was served the wrong kind of food unawares, it might even result in hospitalisation. Chefs have a duty to inform diners about the ingredients in the food in case of food sensitivities. However, some diners are just a pain and out to make life difficult for others. One chef recalls how a diner walked into his Indian restaurant, and announced that she was allergic to spice! Luckily the chef was astute enough to realise that she probably meant that she couldn’t take spicy food, and after some discussion, recommended something mild that she loved in the end.

Food allergies are a serious matter, so don’t carelessly claim to have one if it isn’t true. — Filepic

2. Being rude and unreasonable to servers

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats wait staff. If they are rude and unreasonable, you can be sure they’re probably not very nice as a person either. These people are probably status-conscious and treat people according to what they feel is “deserving” and discriminate against waiters as they feel they are above them. This is clearly not acceptable behaviour and should not be tolerated – by the restaurant or fellow diners.

3. Seasoning food before tasting

Surely you’ve seen people who sprinkle a ton of salt and pepper, or load up on ketchup even before trying the first mouthful of food. Chefs put a lot of effort into creating a dish (of course, we’re not talking fast food here), so you should really give it a try and see if you like the taste first before blindly assaulting it with salt and pepper!

4. Complaining about the food

It takes a lot to work their way up to become a chef. These people have acquired a certain culinary expertise and know what they’re doing in the kitchen. So, while it’s fine to not agree on certain dishes, it takes a lot of gall and plain meanness to polish off everything on the plate and then complain the food was bad. Or worse, some diners complain even before trying the food!

5. Giving bad reviews

Let’s face it – social media can sometimes make or break a food business. And unfortunately, there have been instances when some food reviewers demand a free meal and when they don’t get what they want, they intentionally give a bad review out of spite. Come on, everybody’s just out to make a decent living, let’s not break a person’s rice bowl just because you can’t get a free ticket!

Some people purposely give bad reviews. — Filepic

6. Making unreasonable changes to order

Some customers don’t like certain items in their food, for instance, maybe remove the red beans from the ice kacang, or ask for a certain type of sauce. That’s fine, but it’s not OK if the customer insists on a whole list of changes to the dish until the flavour profile changes altogether! Or, let’s say the customer orders something for five persons, and then suddenly decides to cancel this particular dish altogether at the last moment – who will be responsible for the wastage of ingredients and the chef’s time taken to cook something that you “don’t feel like having anymore?”

7. Fussing over every detail

Have you met fellow diners like that? They complain about the colour scheme of the restaurant, the decor, the plate design, the location of the fan, the air-conditioner ducts, they don’t like the seating arrangement, they hate the menu design, don’t like the music and even find fault with the look of the wait staff. I kid you not, there are diners like this, and the most shocking part is that they haven’t even started eating yet. This type of diners should probably not even step out to eat.

Making a restaurant reservation then not turning up is a terrible thing to do. — Filepic

8. Not turning up after making reservations

This is probably the worst sin to eatery owners. It’s becoming quite common for would-be diners to book a table and change their minds at the last minute about going. Think about it – the restaurant would have blocked a certain number of seats for you but since you cancelled last-minute, they would have lost out in terms of revenue as it would be too late to let other guests take your slot. This is especially crucial during celebrations like Christmas or New Year’s Eve when dinner seats are premium. So it’s understandable why many restaurants choose to charge a deposit these days as an insurance of sorts against no-show guests, because the business has costs to cover. If you really have to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances, do try to inform the restaurant.
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