Top-end fine dining restaurants are renowned for having high-pressure kitchens, where perfection is the standard and any slacking could see you on the wrong end of a Gordon Ramsay style dressing down. This practiced perfection allows these places to charge large sums of money to eat at their exclusive establishments, but there are more than a few tricks to get some freebies or cut down on the eye-watering bill.
I worked for a few years under an executive chef at a one Michelin star restaurant. I worked briefly as a waiter before going onto become a chef working 70-hour weeks in an understaffed kitchen. Through this intensive crash course in haute cuisine, I fell into the cooking world and really saw how the saucisson (sausage) was made - while learning a few tricks of the trade along the way that might make your next visit to a posh eatery a little easier, or even cheaper.
Whether you want to know what not to order, which wine to get, or even just how to turn plates of food into works of art, there are plenty of tricks to make sure your experience is catered to you. After all, the customer is always right.
