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Walked into the wrong kitchen door at a wedding gig in Napa and saw the whole truth about that banquet hall
So me and my crew were catering a wedding at a winery outside Napa two weekends ago, and I ducked through what I thought was the service entrance. Nope. Ended up in the venue's actual kitchen, the one the guests never see, and y'all, it was a war zone. There was a half sheet pan of salmon sitting on a rack with a sticky note that just said "Dave, 5 min" and Dave was nowhere. A line cook was reheating a tray of green beans in a microwave you could hear from the parking lot, and the head guy there told me flat out, "we do 200 plates with three people, we just cook everything at 9am." What got me was the walk-in. I opened it looking for ice and saw nothing but boxed mashed potatoes and a bucket of pre-peeled garlic the size of my dog. Meanwhile out front the couple paid $18k for dinner and the menu said "chef's garden vegetables." I get it, volume is volume, but standing there in my own apron I felt like a snitch just being in the room. Has anyone else catered a venue where the back of house looked nothing like the plate that went out?
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nelson.vera1mo ago
That walk-in tells you everything you need to know right there. Boxed mashed potatoes and a bucket of pre peeled garlic means they never even pretended to cook from scratch, so where did that $18k actually go besides the venue's cut? And here's what I really want to know, when the head guy told you straight up they cook everything at 9am, did he say it like he was proud of it or like he was just worn down and didn't care who heard? Because those are two very different kitchens. Did the couple or their planner ever get a look at the back of house before they signed that contract, or was everybody just sold on the photos of the garden and the string lights?
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