Chef gets into online food fight with customer over pumpkin pie

Embarrassing behavior from both parties. Inexcusable but understandable from an amateur food blogger, just inexcusable from a professional chef and restaurant owner.

I had Pigalle on my list of places I want to try, but it just got pushed down to the bottom of that list.

The original complaint on Pigalle's Facebook page was from a customer. A food blogger (at something called We Love Beantown) was the one who noticed the exchange and brought it to wider attention. For some reason, that blog post is no longer available (the sudden attention maybe used up its daily allotment of bandwidth?). Meanwhile, Pigalle has deleted its Facebook page in an apparent act of morning-after regret. But the Internet has a long memory: as you can see, Eater Boston got its own screen shots.

Not smart, but not shocking really. I don't know this chef personally, but I spent many years in the trenches in some of Boston's trendier kitchens. His comments are right about at the level of most (the vast majority) of chefs I've worked with. I used to shake my head at all of the fawning press these chefs would get in the local magazines. A chef would be presented as this seasonal ingredient seeking, wine pairing, cultured sophisticate, when in reality they were boorish drunks who couldn't find France on a map. There are exceptions to the rule, but by and large the elevation of chefs to refined gentlemen was largely a product of the media wanting it to be so. It's still a rough trade and kitchens are particularly rough and rude places.

Enjoyed a few dinners at Pigalle. Probably not going back.

Keep your boorish, ignorant, painfully low-brow rage to yourself, and no one would know you're a dick, eh?

Confirmed by Grub Street Boston: http://boston.grubstreet.com/2012/11/pigalle-faceb...

I have sympathy for the restaurant industry; unfair commenters and ignorant Yelpers must be a constant, galling annoyance. But this is flunking Social Media 101, just really bad for business.

I wrote Pigalle off years ago after having a disappointing meal there with my parents and husband. We thought we'd go have the steak frites prix fixe meal for fun, but it was very clear the entire time that our waiter was irritated with us for not spending more - mind you, it's not like we all shared one meal and drank only tap water. Nor are we a particularly uncouth group. Since I received the distinct impression that my business was not wanted, I haven't been back.

So this moron has a thin skin when it comes to his overpriced gruel,eh? Well, sir, I had the displeasure of eating at your establishment once and young Sandy was being kind in her remarks.

From the French onion soup for $17.00 that was cold to the $21.00 burger that tasted like a failed McDonald's experiment, it sucked out loud. My Dad's scallops were like rubber for forty bucks and I had to keep the rents from getting up and walking out half way through the meal. My Dad then uttered the words that have made meals cringe worthy since I was a kid;

"We'd been better off at Jeveli's, fer chrissakes"

The server was nice though.

Orfaly seems to be one of those egotistical "chefs" that looks in the mirror every morning and repeats the same mantra:

"Today I'm Mario Battali. Today I'm Todd English. Today I'm Lydia Shire".

No, Marc. You're an asshole. A BIG asshole. I can't wait for your descent into obscurity. I can't wait until you end up as the house chef at some hotel in Vegas. Off strip.

I ate at pig alley once years ago. I thought the food sucked, and the service was shitty, so I never went back. I think given the fact that the waitress laughed at the customer when she expressed dissatisfaction with the crappy food, the customer was justified in taking her complaints to the web. I think more people should do it.