Just read the post about the diner disappointed in a meal at Le Tastevin and s/he mentioned that the beef was rubbery probably because it had been prepared too far in advance. I%26#39;ve only sent my food back in a restaurant once, when I ordered a steak medium at an expensive steak house and I got one very well done. The restaurant was very gracious about it and even comped our cocktails without our asking. However, would the same be true in a French restaurant? Are diners catered to in this way? Or if you get something that isn%26#39;t just to your taste, but wrong, are you expected to just eat it? I understand that French thoughts on customer service are different and was curious.
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Well, you have the most perfect right to do so BUT crazy people think that the chef will most likely do something silly with your food before getting it back to you... I did it a couple of times too but chefs can be fussy if you criticize their cooking so you don%26#39;t know wether the sauce will spiced up with some bugs or if spit has been used to rearrange you steak!
I guess that is an urban legend but you have no chance to verify this... But as I said it doesn%26#39;t happen very often. One thing though I have noticed in Paris, I love my steaks rare but have to order them saignant (medium?) to get them rare otherwise it is not warm enough. that is actually the subtlety of a rare steak, rare but hot enough all the way through. Anyway just my trick the get the steaks without sending them back!
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The resto biz in the states generally looks at %26quot;rare%26quot; as being cool in the center, med rare as warm, and medium as hot. My understanding of the French equivalents would be rare = blue, med rare = saignant (bloody) and medium = moyen or medium. While a streetside cafe may be more apt to give you the evil eye if you complain about your steak frites, I%26#39;ve never been in an actual restaurant that hasn%26#39;t gone out of its way to make things %26quot;right%26quot;, and have regularly dined with Parisians who%26#39;ve made their feelings known when they%26#39;ve been unhappy, so I don%26#39;t think it%26#39;s all that different.
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ALDC, the concept of %26quot;the customer is always right%26quot; absolutely does not apply in Paris. The customer is expected to simply put up with things the way they are. In a restaurant, the tacit understanding is that the dish is perfectly correct or else the chef would never have let it leave the kitchen. Any criticism of the dish could be perceived as a direct criticism of the chef%26#39;s natural abilities. That%26#39;s also the reason it is generally not acceptable to order a dish %26quot;steamed instead of fried, with the sauce on the side, and could I also substitute zucchini for the green beans%26quot;. Some restaurants that see a larger number of tourists are might be more willing to accomodate slight changes, as would restaurants that cater to the neighborhood regulars (of course, you must be a neighborhood regular to get away with this behavior).
That said, I have twice sent back a poorly prepared dish in Paris. In one instance what I eventually ate was fine, but in the other, the piece of meat had been perfectly incinerated. I%26#39;ve had only one truly awful meal in all the many times I%26#39;ve been to Paris(sorry, Pixfield, but it was Chez Michel). I didn%26#39;t bother to even attempt to send it back since none of the food at the tables around me looked very good, either!
If you%26#39;re really confident and feel ready to take on the world you can try what I did last November when my dad came with us to Paris (some of you may remember %26quot;The Adventures of Dad %26amp; Charlie%26quot;). We went to eat at one of our regular places. I ran ahead of our group to talk to the restaurant%26#39;s owner, explaining that we wanted to eat there, but that my elderly father really possessed no understanding of good food. Even though it would result in an utterly incorrect presentation and a disastrous flavor, would the chef be so kind as to ignore the rules of good cuisine and serve the steak without the wild mushrooms and with the wine sauce on the side. Of course, all this flattery worked beautifully, and we had a fine dinner that Dad really enjoyed. That was where he even tried caviar and goat cheese for the first time!
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Mon ami Truffaut, you must have read Madame la comtesse de Talleyrand-Périgord and memorize her position about flattery :
Le seul capital qui ne coûte rien et qui rapporte beaucoup, c%26#39;est la flatterie.
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Kasthor...appreciate the point about liking your steak rare but ordering it medium--I will remember that! I, too, prefer meat on the rare side (more flavor and not dried out), but I don%26#39;t want a cold piece of raw meat on my plate, either!
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Hi
Not Paris but an illustration of the thread. We were with friends in a restaurant in Azay de Rideau, summer 2003, when one of the party ordered his steak %26quot;bien cuit%26quot;. This was actually refused as the chef would be upset and our friend was advised to go with the Boeuf Bourguignon which the Chef could guarantee had been well done.
Rightly or wrongly, this is what he decided on and enjoyed the meal hugely!
Best wishes
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I find the different degrees of meat “grilling” vary all too widely in the US and vary to a lesser degree in France but with a trend to cook meat a little longer than was once done. (Perhaps influenced by tourists preferring it so.) I should like to offer the following equivalents:
Bleu – not really served in the US
Saignant – rare
A point – medium rare
Medium – medium
(does not exist) – well done
Of course, these definitions are quite subjective and interpreted with my own personal biases. Some restaurants do not necessarily distinguish between medium and a point, preferring not to even bother serving meat cooked more than medium rare. I believe the French are correct on this point (as with all things edible) as after many years a constant visitor (tourist) I too now prefer meat cook to a lesser degree than I once did. After all, don’t the French believe that steak cooked more than medium is perhaps more suitable for footwear than for consumption. My wife, who prefers steak above all other nourishment forms, has altered her tastes from medium to rare, thanks in large part to many restaurants refusing to serve her meat any other way, it was consume or stave. She has repeatedly chosen the former and ultimately adjusted her taste sensibilities accordingly.
Which leads me to the following conclusion: don’t even think about sending a food item back to its French creator. And for those of you who may not know, don’t ask for a doggy bag either.
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I have sent back a few steaks, not because they were bad, but because i eat it very very very cooked and wanted an extra cooking as the meat was not as cooked as i wanted it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, the waiters never said anything, and from the restaurant you can%26#39;t hear the chef maybe upset so don%26#39;t worry...I have been living in PAris for eight years now...I wouldn%26#39;t try it though in a gastronomic restaurant but in a casual place and brasserie i would
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Thanks for all the advice and comments. Hopefully I%26#39;ll never have to worry about it :)
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%26lt;(does not exist) – well done%26gt;
bien cuit! :-)
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