{"id":14586,"date":"2018-02-14T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=14586"},"modified":"2018-02-15T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T21:28:29","slug":"menu-busters-anonymous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/menu-busters-anonymous\/","title":{"rendered":"Menu-Busters Anonymous"},"content":{"rendered":"

February\/March | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Dare to call the shots? When you\u2019re craving a dish and nothing else will do, these top Maine eateries will go off the menu<\/strong> just for you.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Olivia Gunn Kostishevskaya<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FM18-hungry-Eye\"Finding a five-star meal in Maine is not an issue. We\u2019re in the golden age of a culinary growth spurt, with top chefs serving up award-winning, original dishes celebrated around the country. Foodies, always ready for the latest trend, can hardly type their hashtags fast enough. But even with all the acclaim circulating, will chefs turn away a diner craving a tried-and-true favorite or regional delicacy?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny chef, especially at a fine dining establishment, will be interested and proud to have his or her guests taste a unique creation,\u201d says Hugo Aguirre<\/strong>, Director of Food and Beverage at Grace White Barn Inn <\/strong>in Kennebunk. \u201cBut without sounding pretentious, when you\u2019re a five-star, five-diamond restaurant, the name of the game is pleasing our guests and going above and beyond their expectations.\u201d Should someone request, say, Lobster Thermidor [See \u201cThe Curious Incident of the Lobster Thermidor,\u201d Summerguide 2017] several days before a reservation for a special evening, White Barn Inn will make it, even if it\u2019s off the menu, says Aguirre, but not before adding that a spectacular alternative is already offered by the Inn\u2019s Chef Matthew Padilla, \u201cthe Kennebunkport Lobster Fettuccine. It\u2019s very popular.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some menu selections are eternal. Think martinis. If the classic martini isn\u2019t available on a trendy-tini menu at a great bar, don\u2019t imagine James Bond is going to be turned away. <\/span><\/p>\n

Michelle Corry<\/strong>, co-owner of Portland\u2019s 555<\/strong> and Petite Jacqueline<\/strong> with husband Steve Corry, says they\u2019ve taken special requests at both restaurants since day one. \u201cWe need plenty of notice, and it\u2019s often restricted to product availability and how busy we are on any given day,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve done lobster dinners, past menu items, specialty desserts, cakes, strict dietary menus, and kosher menus for people, just to name a few.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

At Petite Jacqueline<\/strong>, French cuisine classics are at the heart of the menu, but visitors might be surprised to see Coq Au Vin<\/em>\u2013chicken braised with red wine\u2013missing from the list. Not to worry. Chef Nick Dalaimo<\/strong> says he\u2019s happy to serve this magic standard if given at least 24-hours notice. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to make good food for good people,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s no problem. While a chef\u2019s first instinct is to be most excited to cook something different,\u201d menu vagaries don\u2019t prevent a chef\u2019s exploring the fragrance of things past, especially since memories are most vividly evoked by the sense of smell. Think Marcel Proust and his madeleines.<\/span><\/p>\n

1) First, be polite.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine any chef wanting to disappoint a hungry patron\u2013chefs get hankerings too\u2013but how do you make one of these dinner requests without being that guy? For starters, says Corry, try to give as much advance notice as possible. \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to convince a chef to serve a sentimental favorite, be ready to make your case\u2013something that the chef either cooked before\u2013that\u2019s always a compliment\u2013or something uniquely special to you and your party or your special occasion.\u201d <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2) Be ready to tell your story.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, Aguirre says, White Barn Inn was happy to oblige a couple that recently requested a replica wedding cake to celebrate the couple\u2019s ruby anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating special moments is all part of the service industry, but there are still some things that just won\u2019t fly. \u201cDon\u2019t ask for a dish from another restaurant, and don\u2019t bring your own food,\u201d Corry says and laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s insulting to both the restaurant and the chef.\u201d She says it doesn\u2019t hurt to suggest that you\u2019d come to the restaurant either way\u2013ultimatums are so much like an ultimatum. <\/span><\/p>\n

3) Be flexible. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If the chef is sentimental enough to make your meal, you should expect to come in at an earlier or later time and possibly be asked to prepay. \u201cIf ingredients are brought in with extra time and labor, there needs to be a safety net if you don\u2019t show up,\u201d Corry says. You also need to keep in mind other restrictions. When asked if he could serve the rare and potentially dangerous Japanese delicacy Fugu <\/em>(blowfish), Masa Miyake<\/strong> of Miyake<\/strong> says, \u201cYou actually need to be licensed even to acquire it.\u201d The preparation is to be taken quite seriously as the fish contains tetrodotoxin, a poison much deadlier than cyanide. Still hungry? Miyake is more likely to depart from his menu to source the famous Japanese Wagyu<\/em> beef for adventurous guests.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s surely no one who understands a food craving more than a chef. Asking for a favorite dish or nostalgic dessert is certainly no crime and might even tickle an ego or two, if you follow the correct course of action. Maine chefs are creative, inventive, and, it appears, accommodating. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2018
\nDare to call the shots? When you\u2019re craving a dish and nothing else will do, these top Maine eateries will go off the menu just for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[199,191,158,198,182,127,160,189],"class_list":["post-14586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-chefs","tag-februarymarch-2018","tag-food","tag-food-porn","tag-foodies","tag-maine","tag-portland-maine","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14591,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586\/revisions\/14591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}