Burnt the demi-glace during a 40-cover Friday rush
Lost my focus for maybe 90 seconds at the pass in Portland, and the whole bottom of the pan went bitter and black. I had to tell the server special was off, and the table next to them already smelled it, so I ended up comping their apps to smooth it over. Has anyone else recovered a sauce that scorched on the bottom but looked fine on top?
The "looked fine on top" part is the trap, because the bitter stuff already moved through the whole pan by the time you see it. Skimming the top only saves you if you catch it in the first few seconds, so the move is to pour it off into a clean pot right away and leave that black layer stuck to the old one. Even then, you are just making it less bad, not fixing it, so calling the special off was the right call over trying to serve something you knew was off.