A chef at one of the country’s top restaurants has gone on a social media rant about customers who kick up a fuss about paying a ‘cakeage’ fee.
‘Cakeage’ – a play on corkage – is when you bring your own dessert to a restaurant and the staff cut and plate it for you and a recent opinion piece in WA Today belittled the practice – one line even referenced a $25 per cake levy which was dubbed “insane”.
But a fuming Samad Khan, the pastry chef for Crown Perth’s Nobu restaurant took to Facebook to say it was a justified charge because “the cakeage fee goes beyond covering costs, it pays for an actual service.”
“Not only does it pay for storage of the item but it pays for the time taken to properly present it, redecorate (if necessary), cut it, plate it, run it, serve it, clean up after the job, and neatly repackage it and return it to the customer,” wrote Khan.
“I have to cut your cake perfectly, evenly (I use rulers!), divide up edible decorations to go on the plate, provide sides if asked for, carefully put it back without damaging what is usually a mangled cake TO BEGIN WITH (I’ve gotten cakes that look like they’ve been sat on I swear).
“All of this is usually done on a bloody Saturday night when I’m hip deep in dessert orders and all the other servers are having kittens wondering why I’m not playing their desserts. It’s because I’m totally focused on doing the best that I can for YOUR cake, YOUR special occasion.”
In the lengthy post the frustrated chef added: “We as chefs don’t want to take advantage of your celebrations but please realise that we are still entitled to be paid for something you want us to do FOR YOU! Stop expecting everything free or complimentary
“It’s hospitality people…you want free cake cutting then go to your mumma’s house.”
According to Perth Now Mr Khan’s comments weren’t meant to be insulting to people who question cakeage, but more an insightful.
While the Crown reportedly said the resort “does not endorse these comments whatsoever” cakeage has been a sore point for many chefs and restaurant owners.
In a New York Times piece earlier this year Neal McCarthy, who owns the popular Atlanta restaurant Miller Union with the chef Steven Satterfield, says taking your own cake to a restaurant that employs a pastry chef is beyond rude.
“Am I going to bring in my own piece of Wagyu beef or an appetizer I just whipped up at home and ask a place to serve it?” McCarthy asked.
McCarthy reportedly mocks some of the cakes brought to his restaurant on Instagram, telling the times: “These people sought out a nice restaurant, yet they undermine it by bringing in the world’s most hideous cakes!”
While many in the article backed the practise of charging cakeage – a word that was incidentally added to the Oxford dictionary in 2015 – acclaimed San Francisco pastry chef Emily Luchetti said there might be a way to get around it – and it’s as simple as showing some respect ahead of time.
“If you call ahead,” she said, “nine times out of 10 you can talk to the restaurant owner and the person will probably say fine.”
VIDEO: These bottle-shaped cakes need to be seen to be believed
