Here’s How To Know When You Should Avoid The Restaurant Special

how do they decide the restaurant special

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Restaurant specials can be hit or miss. It’s always exciting to hear what the chef is cooking up when you go out to dinner, but it’s not always as “special” as it sounds. Yes, there is a guaranteed amount of creativity involved, but the ingredients used might not always be the freshest. Often, dinner specials are designed as a way to eliminate food waste in the kitchen. Here’s how most restaurants decide what’s gonna make it on the specials menu.

Expiring Or Recycled Ingredients

When the chef notices that an ingredient is about to expire or that there is a solid portion leftover of something, it’ll usually be turned into a special. This could be anything from a sauce to a meat to a cheese. Let’s say the chef puts a pesto pasta on the menu and then the kitchen runs out of pasta. The next day, you might see a ricotta and pesto toast on the menu. This is how chefs recycle ingredients so nothing goes to waste.

how do they decide the restaurant special

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You should also keep your eye out for expensive cuts of meat that are cooked in a way that might not optimize its flavor. This might be something like a salmon and pasta dish or some kind of braised tenderloin. When you add a fish like salmon to a pasta dish, you’re not focusing on the tender butteriness of the fish on its own. Instead, the kitchen might be distracting the diner from week-old fish with other ingredients. The same goes for a tender cut of meat that’s braised instead of seared. Braising is a technique used on tougher and sometimes cheaper cuts of meat. With a nice cut of meat like a tenderloin, you’ll want to see it listed as the main act of the plate.

A Trip To The Farmer’s Market

No matter where a restaurant is located, chances are there’s a farmer’s market nearby. At farm-to-table style restaurants or restaurants with a regularly rotating menu, the chef will often make a trip to the farmer’s market on a Saturday to check out any new or obscure ingredients that could be added to the menu.

Maybe the chef found a rare cheese or an exotic fruit to transform into that night’s special. In situations like this, the chef will usually only buy a small amount of an ingredient, which means only a limited number of customers can order it. And we all know how exclusivity makes us want something even more…

how do they decide the restaurant special

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The Chef’s Personal Cravings

Menus are usually designed based on the chef’s personal preferences. The chef could be craving something random like sardine toast and, all of a sudden, you’ll see it on the specials menu. Specials are also a time for the chef to experiment. If a chef receives a bunch of compliments on a special, they’re likely to make it a more permanent part of the menu in the future.

Bottom line: If you’re eating at a restaurant with a rotating menu, you don’t need to be so skeptical of specials. But if you’re thinking about ordering the Friday night special at your local dive of a diner, you might want to proceed with caution.

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