The week we ran out of everything but still pulled it off

This was back in my first year at The Harbor Grill in Newport. Our main supplier's truck broke down two days before a huge wedding booking. We had 120 people coming and half our order was stuck in Portland. The owner just looked at me and said, 'Figure it out, kid.' So we hit every market in town, bought whatever local fish we could find, and I had to rewrite the whole menu on the fly with what we had. We used every scrap, made stock from bones we'd normally toss, and even the dishwashers were prepping veggies. The bride never knew. I still think about that stress, but also the crazy teamwork. Anyone else have a disaster that forced you to get creative with nothing?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugobarnes12d ago

We once had a party of forty show up an hour early during a power outage. We cooked their steaks on a camping grill out back by the dumpster. In my experience, nothing makes you feel more like a real chef than trying to explain grill marks while swatting flies.

diana64112d ago

Yeah that story from @hugobarnes reminds me of a podcast where a chef talked about cooking for a festival in a storm. They had to use car headlights to see the prep tables. It's wild how the real problem is always trying to keep things looking nice when everything's going wrong, like those grill marks.