Out of school and full of arrogance.... bad combo to be. The sous chef, nigel hated my arrogance (and me too... can't say I blame him). Put the smuck in pastries he says. We had a function for 300 plus for a christmas luncheon and the dessert was pumpkin pie. the pastry chef says... let the smuck make the pies. In my stupidity and inexperience I some how multiplied the ground cloves by ten possibly 100 times by the amount I needed. The way Murphys law works no one smelled them cook (good fans eh) and of course no one tasted a smidge. The day of the luncheon they were plated. I had to help put a scoop of cranberry sauce and parsley garnish on the lunch. And Voila the dessert went out .... all 300 plus. The first one came back and nigel was commenting the portions of turkey must of been to big. by the time the twentieth one came back he was digging his fork into a piece. The rest was kind of in slow motion. lots of yelling, lots of embarassment......
I never got fired.... I saw a lot of potatoes for the next month. Nigel and I had a trip into the dry stores room for a talk........... (not even in the office, I thought he was going to hit me..... he took off his apron, his hat....... then his apron (gulp!)) It was the talk that I now fondly refer to as the deprogramming talk; the one that everyone fresh out of school gets sooner or later.
I changed after that...... a lot.
I worked internationally, on boats, in France, high end, low end and everything in between. Seven years later I walked into the chateau Lake Louise in Alberta Canada. Lord and behold.... Nigel was there, he saw me and he was in the office and before long he and the chef were grinning ear to ear...... long story short... we are friends now and I hate pumpkin pie
Worst culinary disaster 
Looking forward to reading your responses.
