Quotes

Quote 385 of 521

"Saving for well-done" is a time-honored tradition dating back to
cuisine's earliest days: meat and fish cost money.  Every piece of
cut, fabricated food must, ideally, be sold for three or even four
times its cost in order for the chef to make his "food cost percent."
So what happens when the chef finds a tough, slightly skanky end-cut
of sirloin that's been pushed repeatedly to the back of the pile?  He
can throw it out, but that's a total loss, representing a three-fold
loss of what it cost him per pound.  He can feed it to the family,
which is the same as throwing it out.  Or he can "save for well
done"--serve it to some rube who <em>prefers</em> to eat his meat or
fish incinerated into a flavorless, leathery hunk of carbon, who won't
be able to tell if he's eating food or flotsam.  Ordinarily, a proud
chef would hate this customer, hold him in contempt for destroying his
fine food.  But not in this case.  The dumb bastard is <em>paying for
the privilege of eating his garbage!</em>  What's not to like?

Anthony Bourdain, <cite>Kitchen
		   Confidential</cite>, p. 69

Tags: dumbbastard meatandfish timehonoredtradition foodcost incinerated finefood rube sirloin hunk contempt privilege garbage lt cuisine money