Knowledge Base > Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Half Hour)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Half Hour)
This event was on
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.
Question:

As a professional/private chef, how do push back on restaurants owners or clients when they start dictating dishes too strongly?
— Robert Kerr
Answer:
So, uh, that really comes down to, um, what you are and what position you're in. Now as a professional, um, you know, and a private chef, you're basically, you're providing a service for people. Um, right? So if you, if you have a, a client that's hiring you to be the, a private chef and they don't want to do a certain dish, then you typically wouldn't do that certain dish, um, because they're paying you to do what they like. Now, if you're your own, if you have your own restaurant and stuff, then you can do kind of whatever you want on those and you can do, you know, um, beyond as whatever you want. But if a restaurant owner is also saying, look, I don't wanna, you know, have asparagus in the menu if they own the restaurant, you kind of have to listen to what they do. Um, can you break the rules every so often? Maybe, but it depends on the owner, right? But just remember as a chef, um, it is, uh, a position of service. So you're there to be able to, um, let people enjoy the food that you're making. And if they request not to do a certain food, it's best probably not to do that certain food. Um, and that can come down to allergens, it can come down to just a distaste of something. Um, but all kinds of things that you might not think of. It's like you might think, okay, I know this tastes good, but for some reason they don't. And that's okay. So that's what I would say. Um, uh, the way to approach that is if you're working for a restaurant owner or a client is to um, you know, put their needs first, uh, and um, really approach that in the best way possible to be able to be of service.
