[pete]

One of my favorite articles in "Food Arts" is an article they run two-three times a year. In it chefs talk about dishes that they have put on the menu that they think guests will love and for some reason or another the guests never order it. I would love to hear about any such dishes you have created that you just love but can't give it away.

We just changed our menu over to our fall menu. On it we put a guinea hen choucroute. Pan-roasted guinea breast, housemade guinea sausage, smoked ham hocks, and a saurkraut braised with onions, bacon, carraway, juniper, and white wine. The dish rocks but in 5 days I have only sold 2 of them.

 

[chefjohnpaul]

I ran veal cheeks for two days and sold nil. Then I billed the same dish as fork tender braised veal and sold out. People said it was the best veal they ever had! Psychosematics...................

 

[nick.shu]

heheh, isnt it always the way.

Its all about the marketing hee.

 

[m brown]

dried fruit terrine, they hated it. come to think of it, so did I!!!!!

if go with what you know is a mantra, sell what they know. it's all in the semantics!

 

[mezzaluna]

Pete, I'd guess the word "guinea" was a turnoff. Don't ask me why; maybe it seems too exotic or strange in some visceral way. Is there a more benign name to use? Example: 'boudin' sounds more palatable than blood sausage. The dish sounds fabulous to me, as I adore choucroute garni- especially with a cold beer at an outdoor Paris brasserie.

 

[pete]

No Mike, it is a very diversified clintele we have. As for the rest of this thread, we have gotten away from what I was orginally asking. I wasn't concerned with how to try to market this dish, I wanted to hear stories for everyone else about things that they put on their menus that they thought were great, but just couldn't move them. Sometimes, what we think is great, or that our customers love, falls flat no matter how you market it. I want to hear about those dishes.

 

[momoreg]

GROSS!

 

[shroomgirl]

OH MOFO that is a wonderful combo~ I'd order it.....

 

[chefjohnpaul]

I really have found that where you are at or what the perception of your establishment is has a lot to do with it. Sacramento clientele, how should I say, well it's like Sacramento is a city beamed in from somewhere Mid-West, perhaps Indiana. We are 60 miles from Napa, 80 miles from San Fran, and 2500 miles from them cusine wise. I should say perhaps more conservative, you can sell pigs trotters in aspic in Napa, you can feed them to your staff in Sacramento, now call them ham hocks with black beans and you'll sell out.

Well it's still a great place to live and our NBA team is leading the West, and they sell sushi at ARCO arena where the KING'S play- so we're not all that backward.

 

[cape chef]

 

[momoreg]

I have a girlfriend who's as sick as me, and we try to come up with the most disgusting dishes, made out of human body parts and waste products. Not to be repeated, but we invent some really fancy names for the stuff.

 

[cape chef]

A few months ago I found what I thought was a fun recipe for "pineapple carpaccio" with herb marinated goat cheese and saffron oil.
It was easy to make...and the color's where fantastic. quick run down. I peeled and slice pineapple rounds on a slicer super thin.made a light simple sryup with saffron infused in it and poured it over the slices,covered and chilled. Sliced 2 inch discs of vermont goat cheese...hit it with a little S&p fresh tarragon,mint and chives and drizzled with a little fruity olive oil.to plate all you do is lay 3 or 4 slices of the pineapple on the plate,place a disc of the cheese in the middle (room temp)and the take some of the saffron syrup and blend with some olive oil and drizzel the plate and top with Chive sticks. The cook's ,waitstaff etc all loved it. It was light,nice texture and color. Don't you know I sold only 2 orders I was bummed out
I thought the quest that evening would try something different and innovative. I guess i was wrong
cc