Stephen England
Executive Chef, Millennium Alaskan Hotel,
Anchorage, Alaska

“My wife and I opened a catering company back in 1995 and, after five years of customers asking us where they could buy our culinary creations, we decided to open a restaurant. One of my best ‘well-done’s’ is my Dungeness Crab and Ricotta-Stuffed Manicotti, created especially for that restaurant. It is pretty awesome and we now serve it here on Valentine’s Day and other special occasions. As for ‘half-baked,’ I guess the winner of the ‘First Musher to the Yukon’ last year thought my special victory meal was less than stellar. We are the host hotel to the Iditarod, and the Yukon River is just past the halfway mark for the mushers. I go there and cook a seven-course meal on a three-burner camp stove for the first musher to arrive. Last year the menu included Alaskan King Crab Thermador, Braised Musk Ox and Shiitake Mushroom Stew, and Buffalo Tenderloin with Roasted Garlic Yukon Potatoes. When last year’s winner Paul Gebhardt got there, he said, ‘Just give me a cheeseburger, I’m not into all the frou-frou stuff.’ Maybe not a culinary defeat, but an interesting twist nonetheless.”

John Cruz
Executive Chef, Remington’s Restaurant,
Scottsdale Plaza Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona

“One of my best creations began as a disaster. Several years ago, we had a wedding reception scheduled for 6PM and at 3PM we realized that we forgot to order the wedding cake. My sous chef and I hurriedly drove to grocery stores and bakeries looking for sheet cakes we could work with. We ended up putting together a three-layer wedding cake with fresh fruit and a Bavarian crème center in about an hour and a half. The response? It was judged the best cake they’d ever had. We also had a close call on another large occasion where the client really loved chocolate mousse and requested it for dessert. Close to serving time on the event day, I prepared 25 gallons of mousse and had just poured it into the serving glasses, only to discover that the sugar and salt had been switched. With 20 minutes to go, we turned out another 25 gallons, surely a record time. Then there are the periodic power outages where sometimes we are standing in three feet of water cooking outside. It’s times like these when I ask myself, ‘And I’m in this business—why?!’”

Klaus Mueller
Executive Chef, Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa,
Aquatica Beach Bar and Grill, Miami Beach, Florida

“Sometimes our most creative efforts come from designing menus for cuisines that we’re not that familiar with. For example, we did an entire East Indian wedding and our research included dining at various Indian restaurants around town, sampling the food and observing the presentations—then we went back and created our version. It consisted of 25 dishes and the client was very pleased and maybe even surprised that a couple of Austrian boys did it. One of my disasters was an initial tasting for a Kosher-style bar mitzvah. The client rejected almost every dish I had prepared, finally finding two that she approved of. Another near disaster was an event for 50 GMs and their wives, which was to be served on a cruise ship. We were already running late and just as we were about to board the ship the entire container of food flipped over—and we had to redo the entire meal in about 45 minutes. After the initial shock that follows a disaster like this, the team goes into high gear because the show must go on, regardless.

Corey Fidler
F&B Director, Hotel Santa Fe,
Santa Fe, New Mexico

“It was one of those ‘whatever could go wrong, did.’ We were catering a party for 750 guests, which a news mogul was hosting in honor of the firefighters who had battled New Mexico’s wild fires that year. First off, when we arrived at his home, we learned that the water filtration system was on the fritz so we had to get a beverage supplier to quickly bring us 100 cases of bottled water to cook everything with. Then, one of our catering trucks, which held the beef tenderloins, caught fire. So we raced back to the hotel, located 35 miles away, to fetch more meat. Next the TV crews that were filming the event popped the breakers in one of our two makeshift kitchens. Then when it was time for coffee and dessert, we discover the coffee makers were electric, which were useless because the power had been tripped. So we grabbed pans, poured bottled water in them, boiled them on top of burners, and strained the liquid through filters. About this time, the host comes back and asks, ‘Where’s the coffee?’ Well, I poured him a cup of the nasty stuff, complete with coffee grounds, and darn if he doesn’t say: ‘That’s the best cowboy coffee I’ve ever had!’ I guess that qualifies as both our well-done and half-baked creation.”

Pam Leigh is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B EXECUTIVE.