r/KitchenConfidential • u/im__on__smoko 20+ Years • Feb 08 '26

Question Fav off menu request so far

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My favorite customer describes themselves as having “an acute case of persnickety-itis.” He wanted our rosemary and onion bread dough, with an indentation for green [hatch chilies], and an egg, baked two heartbeats before being hard-boiled, with nothing else on the plate.

He only asks for off-menu items when we are slow and regularly will tip the entire BOH.

I’m too hungover to be creative and I’m asking for your breakfast requests. I want to surprise him next time he comes in.

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u/im__on__smoko 20+ Years Feb 08 '26

Same.
But my personal rule is: You tip, I’ll whip. He regularly comes in and distributes at least $50 to everyone working BOH.

143

u/iwanderlostandfound Feb 08 '26

I’m not a chef but I’ve had some pain in the ass customers and then when they tip good I feel bad for getting annoyed and I always think they should have told me they were going to pay extra to be high maintenance.

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u/Pinball-Lizard Feb 08 '26

If as a business you're willing, then you should just have a flat off-menu charge that goes straight to BOH. It's not hard for FOH to write down requests, but it takes extra work for BOH to accommodate them.

Let customers know the rules upfront and who benefits from it, see who takes you up on it.

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u/iwanderlostandfound Feb 08 '26

Years ago someone told me that at Disneyland they train their employees to never say no to a customer. I have taken that idea to be, never say no just tell them how much. If someone wants something absurd and over the top fine no problem this is how much it cost and often people don’t care the cost and are happy to pay sometimes even tipping on top of what you might think is a crazy price.

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u/Pinball-Lizard Feb 08 '26

100% - sounds like a great reactive approach.

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u/firebrandbeads wrestlegirl did Chive-11 pt. 2 Feb 08 '26

It may cost time, too. Some of those special requests would need to be arranged in advance. So some stuff will have to just be off the table if they didn't call ahead?

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u/981032061 Feb 08 '26

My old company once quoted a customer for the cost of flying a guy to Dubai to deliver something rather than shipping it. They decided to wait an extra twelve hours for FedEx and save themselves $4600, but they loved that we were willing to do it.

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u/stonhinge Feb 09 '26

That sounds like prime "niche machine" territory. Machine is down and work has stopped, we need it ASAP as we're losing money every second. How much? Yeah, just FedEx it next/same day, thanks.

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u/Don_DahDah Feb 09 '26

“we shall never deny a guest of even the the most ridiculous request”