The holidays are a crazy time in the restaurant business. There’s always too much work to be done and not enough time to do it in. It’s just the way it is. Especially when you work in an upscale eatery that’s busy all year and twice as busy during the Holiday Season.

That’s always been the case for me until I opened The Fiery Chef 7-years ago. Now, I try not to work that hard.

Every Thanksgiving, regardless of where I was cheffing, we would do an extravagant buffet. If they weren’t doing a buffet before I got there, you can bet your last dollar I’d convince them to start one. Yes, I know it sounds crazy – me adding more work to my already hectic schedule, but not being able to prepare all my favorite holiday desserts, soups, and especially GRAVY seemed like a sin to me.

Considering I make some of the best turkey gravy to be found, what kind of chef would I be if I didn’t share that with the rest of the world?

So, here’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving “Restaurant Stories.”

It was Thanksgiving day at the restaurant, we were about to open and it was time for me to head out front to put the finishing touches on the buffet. But I was still in the kitchen, cutting up 100 different types of pies, cakes, brownies, nutbars, you name it, and in walks this lady. Middle aged, fairly attractive, dressed pretty nice, so I figured she was on her way to dinner, here or somewhere. The thing that never crossed my mind at the time was, “How did this woman manage to get past the management and waitstaff, into My kitchen, and end up face to face, on the busiest day of the year?”

I had no clue. But there she was, so obviously none of that mattered. To her!

So, I put the caramel apple cheesecake down, wiped off my knife, turned to the woman, and without missing a beat said, “What can I do for you?”

She hesitated, like she was scared to ask her question, which struck me as odd considering she was the one who snuck past the usual watchdogs gaining access to my kitchen. Finally, a little out of breath she said, “I need to buy 4-quarts of turkey gravy.”

Normally, that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but it was past the “Can I buy a quart of gravy?” deadline. Anyone who knows me, knows that I always make at least 15-20 gallons of extra gravy to sell. Hell, even today I have old customers call me on my cell and ask if they can order gravy. Which is even funnier now because they know I’m not running a restaurant — unless you count my own catering kitchen. So, even though they know they’re pushing their luck, they do it anyway. Wonder why? Find out for yourself right here – turkey gravy.

The problem I was faced with was, how do I let her down easy, because I wasn’t entirely confident we had enough to make it through the night as it was. I had no intention of cutting it that close. Not with 350 reservations on the books I didn’t. And there was no way in hell I was going to run out of gravy. Just wasn’t going to happen!

You wanna see 350 people get really pissed off? I mean, really pissed off. Run out of gravy on Thanksgiving. Trust me, it would get real ugly.

So, trying to let her down as easily as possible I said, “I’m really sorry Ma’am, but I don’t have enough gravy left to sell you.” She stood there, stone still for a full minute, silent. Then, her face slowly turned a nice crimson color, her cheeks started to do this little dance as the tears began running down her cheeks, her fists clenched and unclenched, her entire body began to shake. I took a quick involuntary step backwards. It wasn’t so much out of fear – or so I like to think, but more along the lines of “I need to get clear in case this womans head explodes.”

Finally, she stammered, “But.. but… but, I can’t go home without that gravy.”

I didn’t get it and I didn’t know what to tell her. I do remember trying to come up with something whitty, I couldn’t help myselt, it was just too easy, but she cut me off with,”I’ve been buying turkey gravy from you for the last 12-years and pawning it off as my own. If I don’t have that gravy in a pan before my family shows up, I’m dead. That’s all there is to it.”

Now, I could have been a total jerk and said, “Well, if you wouldn’t have been lying to your family all these years…” But instead I walked into the cooler, grabbed the 5-gallon bucket of turkey gravy, and scooped out 4 heaping quarts.

The look on her face when she had that life saving – or should I say face-saving gravy in her hands is why this story stuck with me.

And you know what, I didn’t even charge her. God knows I should have charged her double, because I had to make more halfway through the rush.

The moral of the story – “Always buy your turkey gravy from me — ahead of time. And make sure you tell everyone where you got it!”