Chef Maliciously Complies, Pranking Customer Who Wanted His Meal As Spicy As If The Chef Hated Him
Interview With Author
I’ve always wished for my waiter to just choose what I’ll be getting and surprise me. I know it’s kinda weird of me, not to mention annoying, to saddle these poor innocent workers with decision making for someone else, but I’m sure you too have had days when you just couldn’t choose what you wanted and would’ve liked an expert opinion.
Well, today’s story is from Reddit user CarltheWellEndowed, who was at first unpleasantly shocked by the chef with a surprise dish he specially requested, leading to a hilarious conclusion.
More info: Reddit
Maybe it isn’t the best idea to ask your chef to “surprise you” with what you’ll be eating
Image credits: zhang kaiyv (not the actual image)
CarltheWellEndowed took it online to share how a chef surprised him when he asked for his meal to be cooked “like he hates him”
Image credits: u/CarltheWellEndowed
Image credits: Prince Photos (not the actual image)
The waiter came back with his meal, meat burnt to a crisp, veggies uncooked, and everything oversalted
Image credits: u/CarltheWellEndowed
The waiter came out a minute later, laughing, with his actual meal, which was fantastic when Carl got around to eating it
This malicious compliance story starts with a man talking about how familiar he is with a small local Chinese restaurant, visiting it a couple of times per week for a year now.
He’s gotten acquainted with the staff quite well and although there is a language barrier, he’s quite familiar with them by now.
On this occasion, he came in, wanted something even more spicy than his usual extra spicy and asked for the chef to make it “like he hated him” and “wanted him to hurt.”
To his surprise, the waiter came back with charred crumbs of meat, uncooked veggies, and salty like the sea on top of that.
A little while later, they came out with the actual meal, laughing about it. Although it had already put off OP’s appetite, he still appreciated the joke.
In the comments, the poster clarified a couple more details, saying that he usually gets something off the menu, which is usually fantastic and “hot as hell” just how he likes it.
Just in case you were wondering – the meal was fantastic, very spicy without compromising the flavors.
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual image)
To get some more interesting details, we here at Bored Panda actually reached out to CarltheWellEndowed, who graciously replied to our questions.
Asked about his relationship with the staff, Carl said that he is on good terms with them.
“Even with the wait staff there is a bit of a language barrier, they always seem excited when I arrive, and we always talk quite a bit even if I struggle to understand what they are trying to say.”
It’s the first time they’ve pranked him like this, but they have made jokes in the past, even if Carl struggles to understand the exact punchline of the jokes at times.
The first time Carl got something off the menu, he told the waitress that he just couldn’t make up his mind and asked for whatever her favorite was.
The waitress came back with a dish of chicken and mushrooms in a strong oyster sauce.
“Had never had anything like that and it was fantastic.”
Turns out OP’s secret to getting on good terms with restaurant staff can be traced to his own experiences with the industry.
“My father owns a couple restaurants, and he raised me to be extremely nice to wait staff, as well as trying to build relationships with them.” This is further reinforced by being a frequent customer and tipping well – some tips straight from the horse’s mouth, if you wish to be so friendly with staff as to be pranked by them in a friendly manner.
Image credits: Marion Pintaux (not the actual image)
There are a lot of good reasons to be friendly to restaurant staff. Really, any service workers in general.
Did I say service workers? I meant people, like, you know, in general? All of them?
But I digress.
Waiters are simply messengers, bringing messages and orders to and from the kitchens. If there’s something wrong with your food, the waiter probably didn’t mess it up intentionally – they didn’t even cook it.
While the chefs and the cooks themselves are overworked, underpaid, and understaffed at the same time, so you being rude is certainly not going to help.
A Guardian article talks about how little people know about the experiences of restaurant workers when they are rude to them. Especially when they’ve been on the other side of the barricade themselves, they know how much they are aching, how much work they’ve still got to do, the fatigue, the tip-stealing upper management.
Apparently, “the waiter rule” is such a thing that people from date-seekers to CEOs stand by the fact that you can tell what kind of person you’re dealing with by the way they treat their servers.
Mistreatment of service workers shows that the person may have a strong “us vs. them” mentality, lack empathy and is not a team player or good leader.
So yeah. Be nice to people.
OP’s story got 5.5k comments and 124 comments. Many inquired about the meal and the food, while others said how wholesome the story was. If you’d like to read more about the trials restaurant workers go through, be sure to read this malicious compliance story by another cook on Bored Panda.
Share your own experiences and thoughts below!
The community shared how much they enjoyed the story and the poster’s relationship with the restaurant staff
It's so great when the chef will make it suit you. My favourite Indian place literally has what they call the "CatLady Special" for butter chicken and lamb korma (my two favourites). Apparently it's the spice level they'd give a two-year-old. I'm sure they laugh every time they get the order at the White woman who can't eat spice, but they still make it for me, and I tip extra to thank them for going out of their way.
I'm white af but I was adopted at birth into a Mexican family. I grew up eating spicy stuff as par for the course - hell, even a lot of Mexican CANDY is spicy/hot XD As an adult I've lost most of my childhood tolerance for spicy stuff, and I now ask for stuff as mild as possible because I'd rather TASTE my food XD I'd be ordering the CatLady Special for sure! Hilarious side-story, just last night my boyfriend and I went to our local all-you-can-eat sushi place. They offer scallop sushi, which is mildly spicy, and spicy scallop sushi, which is mouth-death. Boyfriend accidentally marked off an order of spicy scallops. When I ate it, I almost choked. He looks at me with my eyes watering and says, "ha ha, good thing I didn't order the SPICY scallops! ::peers at menu:: Oh wait. Oops. I DID order the spicy scallops." XD
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As a chef I love when someone requests something like this of me. It's not as glamorous as people think when you make the same things however many times over and over again. A little different anything to show off what you got is a great time. That's also a benefit of having a special come off your station. Depending on the Chef some like working different stations as well because although initially more mentally challenging to get it down you become more valuable because of your versatility and ability to slide in wherever.
Even better would be if chef brought it out completely bland and tasteless, proffers a single tiny salt packet, and explains "this is the most I think you'll be able to manage."
It's so great when the chef will make it suit you. My favourite Indian place literally has what they call the "CatLady Special" for butter chicken and lamb korma (my two favourites). Apparently it's the spice level they'd give a two-year-old. I'm sure they laugh every time they get the order at the White woman who can't eat spice, but they still make it for me, and I tip extra to thank them for going out of their way.
I'm white af but I was adopted at birth into a Mexican family. I grew up eating spicy stuff as par for the course - hell, even a lot of Mexican CANDY is spicy/hot XD As an adult I've lost most of my childhood tolerance for spicy stuff, and I now ask for stuff as mild as possible because I'd rather TASTE my food XD I'd be ordering the CatLady Special for sure! Hilarious side-story, just last night my boyfriend and I went to our local all-you-can-eat sushi place. They offer scallop sushi, which is mildly spicy, and spicy scallop sushi, which is mouth-death. Boyfriend accidentally marked off an order of spicy scallops. When I ate it, I almost choked. He looks at me with my eyes watering and says, "ha ha, good thing I didn't order the SPICY scallops! ::peers at menu:: Oh wait. Oops. I DID order the spicy scallops." XD
Load More Replies... As a chef I love when someone requests something like this of me. It's not as glamorous as people think when you make the same things however many times over and over again. A little different anything to show off what you got is a great time. That's also a benefit of having a special come off your station. Depending on the Chef some like working different stations as well because although initially more mentally challenging to get it down you become more valuable because of your versatility and ability to slide in wherever.
Even better would be if chef brought it out completely bland and tasteless, proffers a single tiny salt packet, and explains "this is the most I think you'll be able to manage."
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