Person Wanted To Know What Are The Menu Items Chefs Hate Making And Got These 20 Answers

Article created by: Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Even if you have your dream job and enjoy it thoroughly, it is normal that there are parts of it that are less exciting than others and maybe even insufferable. Most jobs involve more than just doing the task you like.

For example, if you’re a chef, that means you like cooking, but the downside is that you don’t cook what you want to, but what the customer wants instead, and they may ask for something that you would rather skip.

Chefs, cooks and amateurs came to this Reddit thread to vent about the dishes that they hate seeing ordered but have to just do it. This is not their first therapy session and Bored Panda has another article you can find here if you would like to know what not to order to not burden your chef.

More info: Reddit

#1 German Apple Pancake

Our German Apple pancake.

First you sauté Granny Smiths in clarified butter.

Then add three ladles of our German batter into sauté pan.

Throw in oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and add clarified butter and cinnamon sugar.

Flip delicate pancake with spatula and a dash of learning curve.

Return to oven and cook 5 more minutes.

Flip pancake onto plate and insure it makes it to the table in less than a minute as it deflates rapidly.

Bonus points for when it’s ordered 10 minutes before we close.

Edit: those who are apologizing for ordering it, don’t it’s our job. Kitchen staff are gluttons for punishment.

Image credits: RateBackground419

#2 Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwitch

Worked in a sandwich shop for a bot in college. Not fine dining by any stretch of the imagination, but a couple steps above Subway.

Every time someone ordered a PB&J off the kids menu we had to clear off both lines, change our gloves, wipe down every surface the peanut butter got close to, and wash the knife we used to cut it. Like, I get it. But having to treat peanut butter like nuclear waste in the middle of a lunch rush was never fun.

Plus, the peanut butter was too thick for the bread we used for the PB&J, so the bread ended up tearing half the time

Image credits: FoxFyre1

#3 Soufflés

Soufflés. We make the creme pate in advance but when it’s ordered the process is:
Warm creme pate over a double boiler, while that is warming you need to hand whip a fresh meringue. Once the creme pate is warm, you have about 3 minutes to fold in the whites, fill your molds to make sure you don’t touch the edges(as it makes them rise crooked). Into the oven for 3 minutes, open oven and rotate for 2 minutes. In those 5 minutes you have to plate the rest of the tables desserts, which all have 8-10 components. Soufflé comes out to a waiting waiter, has to go to the table immediately or deflates.

While it’s not the most difficult thing in the world, when you’re busy and have 4-6 on order and each one needs to pass a 3 finger test(height above rim of mold or it gets sent back and you need to restart), it can get quite hard and demoralizing when they don’t work.

And then you send out 4 at once and someone at the table gets up to go to the bathroom or have a cigarette and the tray comes back and you start again and cry inside.

Image credits: LaviRavi

#4 Type Of Schnitzel

When I briefly worked as a waitress in a restaurant the chef would always scream at me when someone ordered that one meal we served. It was a type of schnitzel but in a very special dough that would burn very quickly when fried, so he had to watch it very carefully and couldn’t work on anything else for a few minutes.

(Sorry if I butchered some words, english is not my first language)

Image credits: JuniRef

#5 Lean Beef Burger

I used to work at McDonalds. Years ago we had this promotional burger we called the ‘lean beef burger’. It was aimed at people who wanted to be more healthy – haha.

Normally the meat patties are cooked on the grill, but this one was nuked in the microwave. When it was heated, it looked grey, and it smelled so putrid no one wanted to work near the microwave so they wouldn’t have to smell it.

Image credits: Arkady2009

#6 Something Off The Menu

When someone is just “big” enough to be able to get away ordering off the menu

Image credits: QuesaritoOutOfBed

#7 Fillet Steak Cooked Well Done

People ordering fillet steak cooked well done. ☹️ They will always send it back because its like a ‘rubber boot’ or ‘too tough’ well DUH what do you expect, fillet is not the right cut to be served well done in the first place. Takes a good 30-45 minutes to butcher the steak without burning the outside, order a thinner cut if you would like well done. It’s my job so I still fulfil the requests as that’s what I am paid to do but I do die inside when I see that on the ticket 🤣

Image credits: CabbageCat5000

#8 Quesadillas

I’m not really a chief, just a Taco Bell line cook. Think what I’ve got to say is relevant though.

I hate making quesadillas. Especially multiple in a row. First off, because of their shape they need to go in the largest bag on the bottom, meaning that if it’s ordered last I have to let food pile up taking up space so that I can put it in the bag first. It requires two scoops of cheese, being the only item that does, taking up extra time. It then has to be melted inside a hot steam machine that’s finicky and doesn’t want to work sometimes. Then it is carefully removed, folded, and plopped onto the grill where the jalapeno sauce likes to leak and make a mess on the grill. After grilling it has to be slipped into a sleeve, put in an open space and cut, and finally put into the bag. Having more than one makes it harder, as there is a limited number of steam machine and grill spaces so they end up backing up and taking up space. Finding the space to cut a quesadilla when you have many items taking up space is really frustrating. People hate how expensive they are here, but I think it’s justified.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Image credits: Spyblox007

#9 Clementines In The Pre-Cut Fruit Boxes

I used to work at a grocery store and I was the person who made all those pre-cut fruit boxes. I didn’t particularly mind any of them all that much except clementines. We had to peel clementines and put them in a box. First, it was a huge waste because no one ever bought them (why would you pay $5 for 6 peeled clementines when you could buy a whole bag unpeeled for the same price) except for old people who couldn’t peel the fruit themselves, and secondly because the acid would eat through our gloves and then destroy our nails and leave orange smell on your fingers for days.

The only other thing I hated making was 5 mix. We have a mixture called “six mix” which is just 6 different kinds of fruit together, but this one guy would come in and ask for six mix without the cantaloupe in it. We actually started calling him 5 mix. When he walked in someone from a different department would ring us and let us know 5 mix was there and to start making some 5 mix. I hated it because when he asked we’d have to go get a whole watermelon, a whole honeydew, and 3 other fruits and cut them all up just so he could have like 5 cut up pieces of each instead of just eating around the cantaloupe. And he always showed up right as our department was starting to close down for the night too. So we had to them rewatch all our surfaces after five mix came in

Image credits: throwawayable5

#10 Charcuterie Boards

Charcuterie boards. Stuff falling off all over the place.

Image credits: ALiteralPotatooooo

#11 Anything Puréed

Slightly different take, but I was a chef at a nursing home and anything puréed for people who are on that dietary restriction was gross to me. I literally had to take whatever meal I made, throw in a blender and put it in a bowl. I always felt so bad.

Image credits: Bloodragedragon

#12 Breadsticks

When I was working as a waiter, we had one customer who we called “The Spaghetti Lady”.

She came in 1-2 times per week for lunch. She always ordered spaghetti with sauce on the side. Salad with Pepperoncini and ranch on the side, Coke/no ice, breadsticks/no butter. She camped for 1.5 hours, then stiffed the tip.

Lunch was always a nothing shift, so tying up one 4 top for all of lunch killed the whole shift.

Most of it was side work, but the breadsticks were a huge pain. Chain restaurants aren’t really built for special orders, they break the rhythm like a car slamming on the brakes on a highway.

Image credits: npanth

#13 Crepes

Making crepes .. and boning quail for pate’ .. things young chefs do in training .. mind numbing .. yeah, about those crepes, so many of you mention the finished product (filled, etc) or using a crepe maker .. I’m talking about making them in a pan, in large amounts , like a big catered event where you have hours pouring and flipping .. beyond boring ..

Image credits: Sfswine

#14 Panini

I’m a chef working in a lunch cafe. I absolutely hate it when someone wants a panini.

Not because it would be a hassle to make one, as they’re all premade, store bought, but because that is exactly why I hate them. All I do is open the packet, slide the bread into the bag it’s served in, pop it onto the grill for three minutes and serve.
If I could make them myself, I probably wouldn’t hate them at all.

Image credits: questerthequester

#15 Fondue

Fondue, it’s a ball ache to make well even if it is just melted cheese, customers rarely eat everything before it burns if using a chafing dish and it’s hell to clean. Also it’s dated and not that nice.

Any order with a genuine allergy concern. (Not because it’s difficult but rather it’s added stress and responsibility for one guest that’s potentially life threatening in a job that’s all about speed and stress already) kitchens are usually very small and while they have adequate measures in place for allergens, the kitchen as an environment is easily contaminated meaning that an allergen order needs to have that section cleaned down and all the equipment cleaned before it’s used for this one guest, even if there is dedicated equipment for allergens, it’s not worth someone having a reaction. I wish there were better ways to do it but the truth is, if you have allergies your food is going to be slow and not as good as the main menu because of this delay. It’d be great if there were more restaurants that were operating as “free from” certain foods specifically for these guests so everyone can have a great time with out the worry. Like a nut free place, or gluten-free place as we are seeing more vegetarian and vegan places being setup.

Source: chef for independent restaurants for 17 years.

Image credits: smitwise

#16 Guacamole

Not a chef but I worked at subway, whenever people wanted guacamole, we always spread it on one side of the bread before adding the rest of the veggies but the way the counter was designed the avocado was the last ingredient so people would always add all their veggies and then want avocado on top. This was a nightmare to spread across the uneven veggie surface and would generally just stick in clumps 🙁 some vegetarian customers also wanted us to change our gloves to serve them but everytime we change gloves we have to wash our hands which makes the gloves near impossible to wear – this would grind our whole production line to a halt while all staff members struggled to change their gloves. I mean I’m vegetarian too so I kinda understand but like if you’re so strict about it you want fresh gloves then you shouldn’t work at subway because the “contaminated” gloves from before still went in all the veggie boxes 🤷🏼‍♀️

Image credits: WeakTry6

#17 BBQ Pork Sandwich

I work at Dairy Queen. We have to cook some things to order, because we don’t get enough ordered to make in bulk. Most of these aren’t too bad, such as the cheese curds, or the onion rings, or the pretzel. But the one I can’t stand, the bane of my very existence, is the BBQ pork sandwich. It’s our only BBQ product. It starts with a plastic bucket of frozen meat. We have to scoop some out, into another container, and pop it into the booster oven for a minute. Now this wouldn’t be too bad, if we didn’t have to boost the bun separately. And that wouldn’t be so bad either, if people didn’t order it exclusively when we are absolutely slammed.

Image credits: not_a_meme_stealer

#18 Something Entirely Veggie

Chef in my own pizza restaurant. It brings me immense pleasure to serve my customers, each and everyone of them. However, when someone orders something entirely veggie I have to spend time cleaning all my surfaces and equipment. Takes a bit of time, but hey.

Image credits: anon

#19 Charbroiled Oyster Appetizer

I waited tables when I was in college. I absolutely hated when certain foods were ordered because I knew it was going to take a long time. One of the worst offenders was a charbroiled oyster appetizer that had butter, breadcrumbs, and cheese on top. It took about 12-15 minutes to hit the table and that is an eternity for an appetizer.

Edit: The restaurant I was working in at the time usually had apps on the table in less than 10 minutes so this app was longer than most but different restaurants are going to have different appetizer timing and may take longer.

Image credits: wickedlyclever

#20 Bata And Haleem

Just an occational cook. In our place, it’s called ‘bata’. Bata is finely ground spices and veggies to make it a smooth paste. Also, a similar dish with mutton called Halim. Very time consuming to make.

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Image credits: roysan