We were catering a 750-person, sit-down dinner for the University of Chicago Law School, one of our largest and most prestigious events. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court was the honored guest. The meal was being served in the open foyer of one of the university’s buildings in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The entrée was beef tenderloin or our special chicken breast. We had decided to cook the tenderloins on charcoal grills outside the building, while the chicken breasts would be sent in vans from our kitchens in thermal boxes. The trip would take about eighteen minutes. Weather was great and all was moving smoothly.
This was before cell phones (yes, I’m an old timer), so we used a pay phone to call our kitchens to make sure the chicken breasts were on their way. We confirmed that they had just left and were on their way. What could go wrong now? Like many cities, Chicago has a traffic law that prohibits commercial vehicles from traveling on certain roadways. In this instance, it was a boulevard. Our van carrying the chicken breasts was stopped by a Chicago Police car for driving where it was not supposed to drive. The van was just three blocks from the event when it was stopped.
The police officer decided to take possession of the van and had the driver follow him to police headquarters to be booked. This took another twenty minutes. When our driver called us from the police station, our hearts sank to the floor. We had built an extra hour into the delivery time, so we now had about forty minutes before we needed to serve the chicken breasts.
What to do? How to save the day? One of my happiest catering clients just happened to be the superintendent of police. After a call to the superintendent on the pay phone, the chicken breasts got a police escort back to our Hyde Park location, with sirens blasting and lights flashing. You gotta love Chicago!
Note: I’ve taken this directly from my newest book Secrets Of Catering Management. It’s just one of the many stories I offer readers!
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