Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2007 | Page 100

life - FOOD & DRINK

Chefs Tales!
We went out and asked island chefs and
restaurant managers to let us into a few secrets,
funny things that have happened over the years.
MARK YOUNG - ST HELENS
RESTAURANT
One funny thing I remember
is when I was working at The
Chequers a woman sent a Lasagne
back because it had cheese on it.
Another time when we were doing
a lunch production one Friday at the
IW College and there was a trainee
chef who was making a dish of
which one of the ingredients was
Tabasco. The recipe called for 1.6fl
oz, however he misread this and
added 16fl oz. Anyway the dish
went out and was served to this old
lady and it literally blew her head
off, I thought we were going to have
to call an ambulance. After the dust
settled I asked the trainee chef, did
you not taste the dish as you were
cooking it, to which he replied, don’t
be stupid it had 16fl oz of Tabasco in
it!

ANDREW MORGAN
MANAGER, SEAVIEW
HOTEL
In February this year we had two
Hollywood A List film stars stay,
together with their entourage,
they took over the top floor of the
hotel. Their agent had planned
three months in advance for the
four day stay, and the day before
their arrival the agent called and
insisted they have 12-24 bottles of
“96” Don Perignon, which the only
place I could find it at such short
notice was Harrods at a cost to us of
£200 a bottle. In the end they only
consumed 10 bottles over their 4
day stay, however they were kind
enough to purchase the remaining
10 bottles and were very generous
to the staff and house-keepers.

CHRIS TURNER, HEAD CHEF
PRIORY BAY HOTEL
Last year I had a family in and
they ordered a seven course meal
and the only complaint they had

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was that it took to long to eat it,
although they did say the food was
delicious. Another time when I was
working in London I had a customer
who wanted a Sirloin steak cooked
medium-well, so I sent it out but he
sent it straight back and said it was
too pink for him. We re-cooked it
and sent it back out and once again
he sent it back after eating nearly all
of it, apart from a piece the size of
a 50p coin. He then asked if I could
cook that piece again which I did
and served it up on a small plate. He
was really happy.

TIM MORGAN - MORGANS
RESTAURANT
I remember when I was at The
Chequers we had a £6.95 seafood
platter on the menu. An order came
through for one of these and within
a few minutes of sending it out I
was summoned into the dining
room. The gentleman in question
turned round and asked me where
the orange roe of the scallop was, I
tried to explain to him that all the
seafood in the platter was frozen
and had been covered in batter, after
all it was only £6.95. With this the
gentleman got up and walked out
not without saying how angry he
was that it was not all freshly caught
fish on the plate! You cannot please
them all!

ALAN STALEY - THE ROYAL
Just very quickly I remember when
I was on the QE2 there was a whole
rack of plated lobster ready to go
out into the dining room, approx
100 dishes. All of a sudden because
of the bad weather we heard this
almighty crash, we all looked round
and there were a 100 plates of
lobster with all the trimmings laid
out on the floor. We all rushed to
pick it up (no joking) it all ended up
in the bin!

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