Truth In
Service
A lie
gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants
on.
Winston
Churchill
Truth or Consequences, a city in New Mexico or
a game show or a life lesson? I know, I know, all of them. Well it is the life
lesson we will concern ourselves with, truth in service and what are the
consequences for either disobeying or obeying the truth. As a chef I will use
my industry to be an example, but it holds true for all industries.
We are a"five star" restaurant
states the manager to a guest, it's a lie. No one awards 5 stars, the best is 3
stars from the Michelin Guide, 5 diamonds awarded by AAA and Zagat's rates on a
point system as does Wine Spectator. For someone to claim such, shows how
little they know little about what they are talking about and if they can lie
about their rating what other lie's may be found upon the menu.
Common
menu lie's are over inflating the ingredient used, (farm salmon touted as wild or even Copper River salmon sold fresh in
October (the Copper River season is mid May until July) cannot be true.
Other menu lie's are the latest catch words such as sustainable, local or
organic. These are the latest hot button terms in the greening of a restaurant,
but do you really receive what they claim on the menu. Certified organic means
there is a record to track the product, sustainable is a philosophy and subject
strictly to to the claims of the farmer
or operator, local often refers to product farmed within 100 miles of the
operation (something that can be verified but often is not.) Many restaurants
use these terms without providing the
required documentation. I dined in a restaurant just today who made these claims,
in Canada, in winter you cannot get any
fresh produce grown within 100 miles, the ground is frozen. So they clearly lie
to the customer. There are times of the year when ingredients are simply not
available within that 100 mile zone, strawberries may come from California or
Florida or even Chilie. Apples are waxed and stored in the fall, getting a
fresh one in May it simply doesn't happen although the apple from Washington
State may be available year round it still may be last season's apple (which is
ok as long as you don't claim it was just picked). In defense of the chef who
actually goes to the farmers market (very few do) they need to be asking the
right questions as well, the farmer may be getting what he is selling shipped
in from elsewhere too. Many farmers will sell other regions until their own
product is ready.
The
restaurant operator must present what is stated upon the menu, so if they claim
an ingredient comes from a certain area then it must: Scottish salmon; Atlantic
salmon (can be both a type and a region); Crassostrea gigas or Pacific oysters;
Bluepoint oysters raised in Long Island's Great South Bay ; PEI or Idaho
potatoes; Bay scallops; Gulf shrimp; PEI Mussels, Smithfield ham; Limerick ham;
Alaskan king crab; Long Island duck; Florida stone crabs; French white
asparagus.
Leeway
may be given for styles rather than districts, New England, Manhattan and Boston style clam chowder, New York style
cheesecake, Maryland style crab,New York or Chicago style pizza, Kansas City or
New York strip is commonly accepted and most realize that it is a style of cuisine
rather than a district, we all understand that Chinese food does not come from
China but rather it is the preparation method of the food.
Often
restaurants boast of servicing the" finest" and "freshest"
ingredients however when questioned they use terms like IQF (individually quick
frozen) to refer to the food ingredient, no matter what frozen is, it is still
not fresh. I recently watched a TV commercial referring to bagels as "fresher
than fresh" because of the IQF process, still frozen is not fresh, thus it
is a lie. Often compounded with the lie
there is just out and out fraud. Veal cutlets made of pork, shrimp used instead
of scampi, common beef sold as Black Angus, Kobe or Wagyu (watch out any
restaurant that claims the burger is made of these) wild mushrooms must be
wild.
Bar's
who use well stock instead of the requested brand name knowing most people
cannot tell the difference once mix has been added to the drink. How much more
money can I get if my customer orders a Masterson 10 year old whiskey at 4.00
an ounce but I give him a Centennial 10 year old at 1.00 per ounce, if they add
cola will they know the flavor difference.
The Masterson would sell for 25.00 per drink and the Centennial for 6.00
(at the bar 17% liquor cost) so if two drinks are served with mix I can charge
50.00 and only have a cost of 2.00 instead one of 8.00 (after all he will never
know) so the bartender has lied, committed fraud and theft, (after all who is going
to pocket the 38.00 difference in just those two drinks?
Truth
will prevent the restaurant from using many canned and RTU items as well. Is
that sauce on your steak Oscar really Bearnaise (eggs, butter, white wine,
lemon juice, tarragon, salt and pepper) or is it something made of modified
milk ingredients, palm oil, wheat flour, modified corn starch, monosodium
glutamate, corn syrup solids, hydrolyzed protein (corn, soy, wheat), salt,
onion powder, silicon dioxide, locust bean & guar gum, citric acid, spices,
hydrolyzed casein (milk), hydrolyzed soybean oil, garlic powder, disodium
guanylate, disodium inosinate, color. With allergens of milk, wheat and soy. Would it not
be far nicer if the cooks only knew how to make the sauce in the first place
instead of relying upon a microwavable "something". The big factor
here is most restaurants proudly declare themselves as MSG (monosodium
glutamate) free zones, cooks simply make an instant product that calls itself
Bearnaise sauce and states to the server no MSG because they have not read
through the ingredients listed upon the package. Reading labels prevent's
problems in the dining room as well, maple "flavored" syrup is not
maple syrup for pancakes.
We may ask ourselves, how is that we are not
speaking truth? This is so easy to answer, in doing so lets look at what a lie
is. There are two kinds of lies, both wrong, both destructive. What there is
not is what we call a big lie or a little lie, a lie is a lie. So what are the
two kinds of lies, white lies and black lies.
Something white has always been thought of as day,
light, beneficial, good, pure, not presenting any harm. Whereas something black
is considered dark, night, destructive, very harmful. Other terms we use this comparison
with: white and black magic, black and white ideas or choices, seeing everything
in black or white, an agreement written in black and white.
So then a "little white lie" can't
be harmful, can it? Most white lies are conceived to manipulate someone into a
course of action that who favor the liar, not usually beneficial to anyone
except the liar. In a restaurant my menu white lie manipulates the customer
into buying an item at a cost higher than what I should charge or reassures the
guest I am offering them what they want when in fact I knowingly am not. Morality
says we don't lie, compromising our morals gives us the needed permission to
tell little white lies. We want our
customers to think highly of us therefore we tell them what they want to hear
so that our self-esteem or our confidence in our business skills do not come
under question.
The little white lies are ok because we have
not harmed anyone, right? Wrong for we have caused harm first to our sense of
morality which devalues who we are, once caught in our lie we generally tell
another and yet another cover of the first, it eventually gets lost in a maze
of lies and our integrity is now gone. Some may believe that the telling of the
white lie is really just being kind and showing kindness. To be kind is defined
as being: useful, to lie to someone only serves you and has no good use ever. People
want the truth regardless of the circumstance, you're not being kind to tell
them anything less than the truth. If the truth cannot be expressed because of
a possibility of harming sensitivities, just ask yourself what will be the repercussions
be in the end? If they will be harmful (and they will be with a lie) then tell
the truth. Everyone can be truthful, just word the answer in a way that holds
integrity.
Truth is kindness, those who receive the truth
have knowledge upon which they may shape their future, immediate or for the long term. "Is this the best thing you ever
ate?" asks the new cook, when it was not so good at all, the comforting lie would be a simple yes, the
truth could be worded "there is potential for you to produce the best
thing I ever ate if you will only do...." No lies and the cook gets a
useful bit of knowledge. We place greater value on hearing the truth so we may
move forward than hearing a falsehood that only strokes our ego.
No matter the circumstance there is never the
place for the white lie, especially in service. We want to build relationships
and to do so on the grounds of a falsehood will only catch us in the end and we
suffer the loss of the relationship. What price have you placed upon your
integrity.
A black lie of course is any lie spoken to
cover and protect ourselves or out and out deceive another for our personal
gain. We talked earlier about Bernie Madoff the King of the Liar's he did only
that which pleased or made gains for himself, all based upon black lies. Be
sure that the fall is great, I wonder what price Bernie had upon his son's
life.
Most bartenders, like car salespeople,
insurance salespeople are masters at the lie, telling the customer what they
want to hear rather than what they need to hear, that is the kindness we cans
serve, speak the truth.
Service demands truth and if you want the best
of your customer than give them the best you have, the truth. Many states,
provinces and most city health departments actually have "truth in menu"
laws, and the operator could be closed for misrepresenting their menu with
lies. Homemade (house made) must be so, not a purchased product, using
ingredients which are claimed to be not in the building (MSG), Most government
law enforcement can enforce truth in menu laws and literally hundreds per year experience
some punitive action for lies expressed on the menu.
"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously
in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either." Albert Einstein
"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice
may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." Winston
Churchill
"Our duty is to encourage every one in
his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to
make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth." Swami Vivekananda
"Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us
to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same
happiness." Khalil Gibran
"Tell me I'm clever, Tell me I'm kind,
Tell me I'm talented, Tell me I'm cute, Tell me I'm sensitive, Graceful and
wise, Tell me I'm perfect - But tell me the truth." Shel Silverstein
"And ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free. " John 8:32 Jesus The Christ
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