Marinara Madness

Several years ago from dining at the "Macaroni Grill" in Dallas, Texas, I had one of the worst experiences of my life.  With wine, appetizers, salad, and garlic bread, I ate the "Pasta with Marinara Sauce" having earlier assurance from the waiter that it was vegetarian.  Hours later at home the fun began: hot and cold flashes, incredible gastronomic pain, headaches, vomiting.... and the awareness that clearly, the human body is hard-wired to to point out when you've eaten something you should never eat again.

When enough symptoms subsided so that I could speak,  I called the restaurant and asked for the manager.  "The sauce is vegetarian," he insisted.  "Let me talk to the Chef," I asked. A few minutes later: "Chef, tell me exactly how you made this sauce."

"Itsa simple," he began, "first we take all the left-over bones from meat-carving for the day and put them inna big pot of water..."  Unbelievable, I thought.  Mystery solved. There's no way I could have known it in advance from reading the menu.

Epilogue: 

This morning my godson was telling me about his starting day (yesterday) apprenticing as a Chef at a Northern Maryland Italian Restaurant:

"I did a lot of prep at the beginning, but then... then I got to make the Restaurant's Special Marinara Sauce!" he told me excitedly, "and it's really really simple:  first, I add two huge chunks of pig fat to a large pot of water..."

Some things never end...

Comments

[Jane]

I would have sued them! You ordered a non-meat dish, as evidenced by the bill, and you got a meat dish - a BAD meat dish. They should have been held accountable, at least for your pain and suffering.