Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Chef Debbie Says: Seems I Touched A Nerve

Yesterday I posted on Facebook about a client who didn’t like my Slow Roasted Rosemary~Garlic Lamb Shanks with garlic mashed potatoes. He only wants his lamb grilled as a chop with lots of mint jelly.

Seems I touched a nerve. Mine.

Most of my chef friends who commented on my FB post told me to shake it off ~ he’s allowed to smother a perfectly cooked baby lamb chop with sickening sweet mint jelly if he wants to. After all, he is the client.

Yes, he is. But it still pissed me off a little. Well, to be truthful, probably more than a little.

He’s a retired physician. He’s traveled the world. He’s eaten in more 5~star restaurants than I could ever even hope to walk by someday. He should have a more refined palate than mint jelly for God’s sake!

And, yet, he picked me as his personal chef.

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about him. He’s pretty much a saint. His wife was sick a couple of years ago and it left her in a wheelchair. He is her primary caregiver. And, he’s a good one. A really, really good one.

Looking back over the initial Food Questionnaire we all went through when I added them into my weekly cook rotation, it seems she doesn’t like lamb. And he does.

She’s not allowed to have sweets. And he loves sweets. They never have sweets in the house.

Face palm!

A good way to eat something sweet in front of her without her feeling left out is to eat lamb chops. Smothered in mint jelly. It was a long drop to the ground off of my high horse.

After an hour awake, I realized that if my dear client wants lamb chops smothered in mint jelly every week, it would be my honor to make them for him.

And then I was able to go back to sleep.

1 comment:

Chef Sandy Hall said...

And that my dear is why he hired you, you are smarter – and more compassionate – then the average bear.