The dishes that never make it on the menu

Sometimes a dish doesn’t make it on the menu, not because it isn’t delicious, but because you just can’t find a way to execute it well, consistently, and profitably.  

Supply chain issues are one of the culprits—you can’t get the product reliably, or at the quality you want. Margins are another, of course.  There is always a ceiling to what someone will pay for a dish, no matter how delicious it is.  Other times it’s execution. Too many steps on the pickup. Or the quality drops off fast if it’s not à la minute, and there’s just no way to support that in your service style.

Hopefully there is still a version of the dish that lands on the menu, but sometimes you just scrap it altogether.  I hate that feeling, but, you know, that voice that tells you, “%^$# it, if it can’t be done the right way, then we won’t do it at all”.  

There are a few of these dishes that come to mind for me.  I remember a Rabbit dish with a Yucatecan Recado Rojo marinade that was killer.  Marinate the little rabbit loins in the recado, sear them lightly.  Then wrap in a banana leaf w/ a little more of that recado, sear the wrap on the plancha, then finish in the oven.  The loin cooks quickly so it’s a small window of error.  The legs were cooked barbacoa style, and the shoulder confited in simarly spiced bacon fat.  Searing the livers on the pickup as well.  It was pretty ridiculously delicous, but with everything else on the meat station at the time, it just wasn’t feasible.  

The recipe below was from a sandwich shop we opened in Union Square (NYC) called Make Sandwich.  The sandwiches at this place were bonkers good and every system was totally dialed in.  We opened in the winter, and I wanted to hand something warm to guests when they came in.  

We were sourcing some of the best ingredients in the world, and in this case, in my opinion, by far the best Parmigiano Reggiano, from the oldest producer in Parma, called Valserena Solo di Bruna.

But we couldn’t keep it on the menu!  Why not?  Well, turns out keeping enough parm rinds on hand to make enough broth was next to impossible.  We found ourselves racing to Whole Foods to buy more rinds (yes, they sell just the rinds, and no, it’s not cheap) and also defeated the point of showcasing the Valserena Parmiggiano.    

The broth was delicious, and you didn’t need much of it.  But given we were a sandwich shop, I just didn’t see folks paying the kind of money we would have needed to charge to make it work.  RIP Parm Broth.  Though as I’m writing this, I’m thinking—damn, maybe it should’ve just been a loss leader. Limited quantity. Short supply. Why didn’t I think of that before?

Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try.  It’s obviously super simple, just make sure to use the best parm you can get your hands on (you can get Valserena through Roger’s Collection or Regalis that I know of)

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I’m curious if you’ve had dishes that never made it on the menu?  Ping me here and we can post about it, or possibly even have you on the meez podcast!