We had a large corporate group here for the last 2 days...147 people. Their farewell dinner on Wednesday night was a grand reception with a carving station, wok station, pasta station. The whole works. It was planned for 3 hours with an open bar.About midway through the event I notice the cook behind the pasta station asking one of my waiters to get him more pasta from the kitchen. Ok. So she goes to the banquet kitchen to get some more. After 10 minutes I notice my waiter hasn't returned yet. So of course now I'm heading to the kitchen myself.
What do I see? My waitress pacing the kitchen and giving me that look. You know THAT look. The look that comes over a person that realized someone else screwed-up big time.
The banquet chef is nowhere to be found. The banquet sous chef is missing too. WTF!
Apparently their are rummaging around in the basement storeroom looking for more pasta. MORE pasta?
These a-holes apparently forgot to order enough pasta for this event. That's the stupidest shit I've heard in a looooong time.
Pasta is the cheapest crap to buy. That's why we sometimes will even throw-in a pasta station just to lock-in a sale. It doesn't cost us much. Now these 2 knucklehead chefs are trying to pull some farfalle & tortellini pasta outta their asses before I shove my shoe up in there next.
End of story...
The pasta station turns into 2 chaffers of leftover baked ziti that was not used from our staff meal from lunch. I'm now stuck trying to explain this BS to the group contact who proceeds to break my balls about it and that she will be calling "Sales Chick" in the morning because we ruined her event.
We get through the night. The chef won't even look at me. The waiters are all pissed. The attendees don't know what the hell happened to the pasta. A shit night all around.
I head to my office to make the banquet check that I will NOT be presenting to the host. Then comes the Captain's Report. I fill it out in full without placing any blame on the kitchen full of jerks that couldn't keep friggin' pasta in the house.
My report gets emailed-out to the GM, Dir of F&B, Dir of Sales, and the Executive Chef. Tomorrow's stand-up meeting in the General Manager's office should be fun.
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7 comments:
Good luck at that meeting. That sucks!
I know "the look" you are talking about. I once gave my manager "the look" when I realized that pastry had sliced, and plated the wrong cake for the wrong table. Now, that was "a look."
That's a great story.
There's a lotta different looks in banquets.
There's the Did you really just ask me that question Look that Sales gets when they asked a condescending question.
There's the See this letter confirming a reservation at Christmas buffet dinner for fifteen people I got from a customer on Christmas day that you didn't add to the absolutely full reservation sheet and I had to figure out how to fix it by setting up a fucking fifteen top anywhere it would fit and it's not like it's bad enough I have to work on fucking Christmas day while you are at home with your family I have to fix your fucking mistakes on what should be the least stressful work day of the year Look.
There's the dimwitted prep cook who's gotten the Did you really just pick that parchment paper that fell on the floor and use it to tray bacon and tell me that It's only bacon Look.
There's the I don't care what you do, as long as you're not stealing and the work is getting done but why were you so stupid as to get caught by the fucking front desk mecha streisand and now I have to defend your actions to the gm because you really do good work but there's no way you should have been caught .
There's the Did I really just see you pull that drink under the counter and use your hand as a strainer after someone said they didn't want any ice in their drink Look.
There's more looks but I'm getting tired.
Wow, those are great looks. Gimme some more...
Great post. Wow, choas! Kudos for getting through it somehow! I hope you fill us in on the aftermath.
Great story haha.
You changed the template...
There's the You can't be fucking serious Look that I gave the sous chef one day after I had just started working there as a banquet captain. We had a legacy event, some bridge club, that was the recently deposed banquet manager's social group, and the contract for the concession called for sandwiches on white and brown bread.
So they made the sandwiches with one slice of white and one slice of brown.
I said these sandwiches have to be all white or all brown.
He said it's no problem.
When they ask for brown bread, hold the brown side up.
If they ask for white, turn it over.
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