Tbitty
AH fanatic
I had a nearly identical situation back when I was grill cook for a Steakhouse. Knew the customer to notoriously send back a well done steak as undercooked, so I grabbed a cut from the fridge, pounded it down thin, and put it on the hot spot of the grill. Stacked all my free steak weights on top (maybe 10 or 15 of them) flipped it after 10 minutes and did the same for the other side. Sent out that horrible piece of meat without any of our butter sauce, so there wasn't a drop of moisture left in it. I thought for sure I'd get in trouble for serving a charred brick I wouldn't want to feed to my dog.I used to work in a restaurant, mostly tending steaks on the grill.
I often got perplexing requests, but one frequent customer was always complaining about the steaks not being cooked enough. The other cooks hated when she visited the restaurant because she would send a steak back 2-3 times.
On my shift she ordered her usual well done ribeye, and I obliged with my own rendition of “well done”. I put her steak on the back of the grill (the hottest part) and put a grill iron on it (reserved for quick searing chicken). I left it there for 20min, and when I finally removed the charred brick from the grill I thought for certain she would never return. Order up!
20 min later she came back to the kitchen, and, with a smirk, I awaited my “grilling” about the obviously burnt “meal.” She responded, with a huge smile, that it was the best steak she ever had and that she hoped I would always be the cook on duty when she stopped in for her “steak.”
I’ve never forgotten that shift.
20 minutes later the server comes back with a $20 bill and said it was a tip from the customer as the best steak they'd ever been served.
