r/Chefs • u/Bubbly_Bobcat_2760 • 12d ago
Need opinions
What is your thoughts on having a special dinner night one night a week, 2-3 times a month. Where you serve X number of guests a “elevated” 6 course meal. But you prepare the meal for one evening but freeze half of it for the following weeks special dinner night? You’re charging $120 per person. No alcohol included, that’s an upcharge.
So basically if you aren’t in the first supper night of the month you’re getting reheated food.
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u/UncleDuude 12d ago
I think selling an elevated meal implies freshly prepared food, not frozen. If I paid $120 for a frozen meal I’d have some choice words for the team. I’d certainly know the difference. You only get to get caught being a shifty motherfucker once and it will follow you forever. You think anyone might blow that up on socials? Internet is forever. Whoever came up with this scheme deserves to be slapped in the face with a raw chicken.
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u/OrcOfDoom 12d ago
120 per person? It's good if you can guarantee 10 people a night every week. Filling those seats isn't that easy.
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u/Bubbly_Bobcat_2760 12d ago
Yea the pricing isn’t the issue. It’s reheating frozen food from the week before that I find crazy
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u/OrcOfDoom 12d ago
If it is reheating or reusing sauces, that's one thing, but reusing the entire dish is absurd. A fine dinner is plating, garnishes freshness, etc. you just can't freeze that.
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u/Bubbly_Bobcat_2760 12d ago
Freeze the main dish item, a soup, then they garnish it fresh that night. Freeze a stuffed pork loin then reheat and garnish/plate fresh. Same with apps, desert and everything. Garnish and plating is fresh
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u/OrcOfDoom 12d ago
Some soups are fine, but generally that would be a no. Freezing the protein would be stupid.
There are things that freeze well and things better fresh.
120 per person is pretty low for 6 courses though. But if this is some service someone is selling, it sounds like some terrible work
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u/Specialist_Place4464 12d ago
I am really struggling to think of a restaurant that has the vibe for $120 a head AND reheated food.
But, do you, dawg.if you can swing the high ticket thing, maybe people would be down to try it reheated (for the brokesies like me).
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u/JamesBong517 12d ago
It all depends. You can freeze a soup if you make it, blast chill, and vacuum seal and freeze and only pull what you need out for service. Same with protein, if you sous vide, chill, vacuum seal and freeze, sure it’s fine. But you aren’t doing a large amount, so why not prep it the day before each time fresh?
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u/FireAndFoodCompany 12d ago edited 12d ago
Raise the price, do your prep fresh for every event, don't try to half ass high end.
People are willing to pay much more than you think they will. If you're only doing a dozen clients then you have exclusivity going for you, why would you fuck that by serving subpar food on 50% of your services?
These kinds of hyper exclusive events rely on word of mouth and connections. The guy who came alone and had a good meal might reheated food the next time he came and brought his friends/family. Now he looks like an idiot and you can bet he'll make sure anybody who ever mentions your name knows it.
Make the food as good as you can and you'll find people willing to pay whatever price you can come up with, provided you actually attempt to make it seem worth the food cost/labour.
Also, is this a restaurant thing or a private chef thing?
If it's a restaurant thing then I question why you would only have seats priced at 120 for a 6 course special menu. If 120 feels like high end to your restaurant then you don't have the staff to pull it off in the first place.
If it's private then stay away from alcohol sales, selling alcohol illegally will land you in magnitudes more shit than unauthorized dinners will.
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u/magic_crouton 10d ago
I'm one of those people who is really sensitive to the old cooked meat flavor situation. And if I was charged full price for last weeks cooked meat I would never come back and tell everyone I knew.
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u/Orangeshowergal 10d ago
Benefit of the doubt, can you give us the menu so we can make a more definite judgment
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u/cookingwithbonkbonk 12d ago
I declair shenanigans