Hi!
The culinary fuck ups usually strike you, when you are already late and a crowd of hungry people are waiting for their food. I had a lot of them in my professional career, it is the part of being a cook/chef.
I believe there is a way to save most of ruined dishes by using "the number one rule of Judo" - your oponent's strenght can be used in your favour.
This technique has spectacularly saved my ass twice this year.
First one was a huge birthday cake fuck up that almost killed me. I was doing a 20 people VIP bithday party at the restaurant. I cooked all day at full speed and left the pastry cream making and the asembling of the strawbery layer cake for the very end (I will never ever do it again). I like doing a custard version of the pastry cream but sometimes when I am in hurry I beat vanilla infused heavy cream with mascarpone cheese. It is quick, simple and... risky! If you overbeat it, the butter separates and the thing turns liquid. You probably know what happened to me back then. I was in hurry, there was no more mascarpone cheese left, the guests (VIP type of them) waited for a cake and I had a runny pastry cream. After 5 minutes of throwing things, cursing, sweating and turning red and purple on my face I thought about "the number one rule of Judo". Ok, what if a runny pastry cream was actually a good thing - I thought (at first I totaly didn't believe there was any point in thinking like this). I poured the stuff into a blender, mixed it so there was no butter pieces any more and ended up with a nice, cold vanilla sauce. Vanilla sauce goes well with strawberries- I thought. What about building layers in an individual glass for each guest. I had to cut circles of my sponge cake, soaked them in a strawberry/marsala wine mixture and build a glass version of birthday cake with the layers of strawberries slices, sponge cake circles and cold vanilla sauce. I piled the glasses up in a pyramid shape and it looked spectacular. people where so impressed that they didnt even notice my wet clothes and red eyes.
Second one was an egg salad disaster (Yes, i managed to ruin an egg salad). I run a diet catering now and have to prepare 5 dishes daily for people. Once, I had everything done except of mixing an egg salad. The time was of (it usually is) . I grabed an egg, trying to peel it and noticed that it was undercooked, as well as the rest of them, about 20 softboiled eggs. I had steamed them for 10 minutes earlier so they should have been perfectly hard boiled with nice pliable yolks, theyolks were perfectly runny instaed. I guess the flame was to low and there was not enough steam in a pot. I tried to make a salad any way, and the result was disgusting. The cold runny yolks mixed with mayo and dijon where far from acceptable. Classic situation: people waiting, no time, the heart atack is coming, cursing, throwing stuff, shouting, turning purple. "THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF JUDO"!!!!! Yes, do think out of the box. A runny egg salad is what I want, I want a runny egg salad, I really want a runny egg salad. No way! it didn't make sense. The salads are not runny, the soups are... wait a minute...a soup... an egg gazpacho? This may do the trick. I added some yoghurt, lemon juice, more diced, crispy veggies and it was really tasty. The customers were satisfied with this new, cold, creamy soup.
The more world dishes, food science and culinary techniques we know, the better we deal with such problems.
Now I would like to hear your stories. I am sure you have something to share. Do you think like a judo fighter when things go wrong?