In a busy kitchen, an angry outburst can cost a lot more than a bruised ego.

So, what would you do if your boss screamed at you for not having enough of a rarely ordered side dish ready for his family’s reservation?

Would you stick to the efficient system that keeps waste to a minimum? Or would you follow his orders and prepare everything in bulk, no matter how much waste it produces?

In the following story, a chef gets yelled at by his manager and stops caring about saving money.

Here’s how it all played out.

You want us to have everything ready for alacarte? Fine, enjoy the thousands in losses

I’m a chef, and I work in a restaurant with a diverse menu.

There are only 3 of us. Two helpers and I were on shift. It’s a lot of work, but we have our systems in place. Since the menu is diverse, we usually prefer to handle some items on the spot if an order comes in.

For example, tomato salsa, which is just cubed tomatoes with olive oil, basil, and condiments. Since it’s used in only 2 dishes, we prefer to do it on the spot so it’s as fresh as possible.

The boss’s sister came in for dinner.

It definitely adds to our workload, and maybe the order takes an extra 2-3 minutes to come out, but it’s better than having it pre-made and then throwing it out if it’s not used.

We also do small portions of things we know don’t get asked for often, but we can’t make them on the spot, like sauces, which need time to cool and thicken. Our boss knows about all of this, and of course, he prefers this system since almost nothing goes bad and ends up being thrown away.

The issue we had a few weeks ago is this: My boss’s sister had a reservation for about 15 people, and EVERY SINGLE ONE of those girls wanted baked potatoes as a side dish for their main.

They didn’t have enough baked potatoes.

We didn’t have 15 baked potatoes on hand, since it’s not often requested, and we only baked about 6-7 that morning, since they take about 45min-1 h to finish.

This wasn’t a problem in the past, but our boss got in our faces, screaming that we weren’t ready, that we’d embarrassed him in front of his family, and that we were being lazy. From now on, he needs us to be prepared for everything à la carte.

We followed through, for the next 2.5 months we prepared for EVERYTHING, 20 portions of baked potato per day that we throw out in maximum 2 days? Done.

The manager got what he asked for.

Salsas made in advance for 10+ portions? Done. Soups? Done. We also communicated the boss’s order to the other shift, and they started doing the same. We prepared everything in bulk, nothing we could run out of.

The consequences were catastrophic for the business. Everything went up significantly in cost, from the materials we used to utility bills. When it came close to the end of the year, and the big inventory came, our boss finally noticed how much money he lost for his tantrum.

We simply played stupid and told him we did exactly as he told us to.

Wow! That sounds like a lot of food waste.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think about this whole thing.

Probably not.

Such a good point.

Too funny.

This person is on the right track.

Sounds like the boss is inexperienced. Otherwise, he would’ve known this was a bad idea.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.