Restaurant Etiquette

Should apply in the Culinary/Pastry School environment as well. WTF could I be talking about?

It's truly rude to criticize someone's work in their own turf in the most humiliating manner possible, aka laugh to their face.

Today at lunch, the Culinary students prepared multiple pizzas for the entire school. They also baked off HUMONGOUS chocolate chip cookies a la White House recipe. The platter at the table I sat at had some cookies with what looked like crystal sugar sprinkled on top. Turns out it was sea salt. The guy at my table learned the hard way when he took a bite out of the cookie and found out how salty it was. The other girls at the table, as loud as they could have been, laughed out so loud, they were drawing attention in our direction. They continued to poke fun at the cookies saying that Culinary students can't tell the difference between crystal sugar and kosher salt. One of the girls even went as far as picking out the ones with kosher salt on them and showing them to Chef Sumchet, further humiliating the person that prepared the cookies, whoever that may be.

I looked around at the Culinary students and they all were looking our way with embarrassed, upset, and angry eyes.

"How unprofessional and immature these bitches can be," I thought. I was so embarrassed to be associated with these people at that very moment.

We, as students, are told to provide constructive criticism and have a critical eye of each other's work, but this was so rude, amateur, and was taken too far. "Maybe they wanted the sweet and salty effect," I said. My preference for cookies isn't so much salty, but I give a benefit of a doubt whenever I feel there should be.

It made me pretty upset at my classmates. Whoever prepared them must've been so embarrassed; I felt their pain. It's not fun to put out something that looks and tastes bad. Or maybe they were really proud until these bitches tore into these cookies. It takes so much work and energy just to make a quality cookie. We're all human and mistakes are expected!

Another girl said to me, "They should know better." But really, in theory, none of us do, which is why we're in school. It's like saying "All Pastry students should know how to build a cake and fine pipe," but I've seen a lot of shit in class, most of which the Culinary students have been very cordial about as far as criticism goes.

Also, what the eff are my classmates expecting from the Culinary students anyways? I never expect a five-star lunch. When I get a really great meal, I'm polite about it. And when I get a shit meal, I'm STILL polite about it. I eat it all and I thank them for lunch. They feed me everyday and I'm thankful for it.

Ugh. Some people just have no tact!