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Dear FloFab: Send It Back!

Florence Fabricant answers questions on sending back a meal, photography at the dinner table, and the use of butter plates.

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1.
Rachel
New York
April 30th, 2010
9:07 pm
no bread?! I say, make bread and definitely serve it, on a board in the middle of the table (along with yummy, room temp butter on a nice dish, yes). Making bread is easy -- especially with Sullivan st.'s technique of no knead (see recipe in NYT) -- tho I usually knead -- and homemade bread ALWAYS makes people happy. My husband says I shouldn't put it out when company first arrives b/c then everyone is really stuffed by the end of the night, but I say, bah. And you've got to have some good bread if you serve a saucey thing (at least if the sauce is delicious) and with salad.
2.
Ferdinand
New York
May 1st, 2010
11:46 pm
The article about sending back food as a right, because the customer is always right, assumes that everyone, or let us say every client, is a reasonable person, aware of what he is doing. Experience of everyday life shows that this is far from the case. There is a statistic that 50% of people over 65 have alzheimers. This speaks for itself.
3.
Charlotte K
Massachusetts
May 1st, 2010
11:46 pm
When I was a girl in the South every meal featured some sort of bread, usually biscuits or cornbread. But it was taken on the dinner plate, and we did indeed share a butter knife. But butter we did! And lucky us!
4.
A. Renaud
New York
May 1st, 2010
11:47 pm
Room temp butter, really? Surely, it shouldn't be hard as a rock, but the quasi-translucent easy-spread state is not very palatable. It best expresses it's freshness and aromas when it melts in the mouth. Ideally, butter should be served around 58 F.
5.
Kim
Arkansas
May 1st, 2010
11:47 pm
I'm with Rachel (#1). My guests always like good bread. I'm fond of the no-knead bread Rachel mentioned, but I and my guests also like a good roll http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com...
or biscuit
http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com...

One of my favorite bread-and-butter memories of growing up are my grandmother's individual butter molds for special dinners.
6.
Chris Columbus
Marfa, Texas
May 1st, 2010
11:47 pm
Send it back. Why am I reading/commenting on this. In my experience, it is rare that the restaurant serves food that I find so unacceptable as to send it back. Rather, I find that those who send it back need the attention and not the food. If the restaurant persists in presenting me food that I find unacceptable, I don't go back. This is not rocket science.
7.
David T
Roosevelt, NJ
May 1st, 2010
11:48 pm
As a professional photographer, I have covered thousands of catered affairs. The last thing any sane photographer wants to do is photograph tables. Personally, I usually refuse. It is never our idea; rather it is something requested by the customer. Nobody wants to be the one to get up, and there are often obnoxious guests like the one who wrote the above question who make the job more difficult than it has to be. If such people would cooperate, the whole thing would be over in less than a minute and they can go back to stuffing their faces. BTW, it's amazing that people think the photographer can photograph the entire room full of tables in the minute or two between when they finish the course and get up from the table.
8.
sweinst254
nyc
May 1st, 2010
11:49 pm
Most people who send food back in restaurants are ridiculous, petty, don't know what they want and make life hell for the staff. Anyone who would give an answer like that obviously has never been a server and had to deal with arrogant customers.

I'm vegan, but I wouldn't send food back if it had, say, bacon bits in it, I'd pull as many as I could out as I was eating and suck up that I didn't ask enough questions when I was ordering.
9.
TJ
Rochester, NY
May 1st, 2010
11:52 pm
Just try serving a salad to French friends without bread on hand. It must be there, even it they only take a little nibble, like some culinary security blanket. I love bread with dinner. It complements anything sauced (sopping is sometimes frowned upon but I give my guests the option of not leaving a drop of that sage beurre brun on their plate) and is indispensable with a cheese course. Special plates, little knives, and butter might be optional, "but the cry of the belly dominated, and a roar blew like a tempest, sweeping everything before it: 'Bread! bread! bread.'" (Emile Zola, Germinal)
10.
Wendy
Massachusetts
May 1st, 2010
11:53 pm
Set out the butter knives if you have them! Let everybody have her own! I'm a girl who tears and smears each bite of bread just prior to popping it mouth-wise, and having a dedicated butter knife is greatly appreciated.
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