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Kitchen disasters, chefs’ edition!
5 top chefs share fun stories about a food faux pas they fixed
Hot turkey
Vicky Ratnani
“I put a thermometer in the cavity of a turkey to check the temperature and left the kitchen for a meeting. My sous chef packed the turkey and sent it off. The guest later thanked me for the Xmas gift – the thermometer!”
Duck out
Manish Mehrotra
Once, as a young chef, I had to marinate ducks. We ran out of the red tandoori colour so we mixed raspberry and yellow colours. The ducks turned baby pink. When our head chef saw, dead ducks flew around the kitchen! We washed and re-marinated them with soy sauce and spices. After cooking, they returned to their normal colour!”
Flying spinach
Kunal Kapur
“I used an upside- down plate as a lid on a mixer to puree spinach. It flew all over the kitchen. When I looked at the plate I thought the spinach residue on it could be used as a garnish. I made a similar pattern on the other plates and was praised for my creativity!”
Big fat mistake
Manu Chandra
“As a trainee, I was asked to cook a foie gras terrine for an important banquet. I misread the degrees F as degrees C and cooked till it was nothing but rendered fat. The chef had a meltdown. I blended the fat with truffles and spices, and made a canapé. The restaurant later adapted and kept the recipe.”
Going bananas
Pooja Dhingra
“I baked banana bread and forgot to add sugar! Luckily bananas are sweet and I topped it with a cream cheese frosting!”
From HT Brunch, March 8, 2020
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