The client is always right, right?
The local newspapers today carried (to extremes) a story that is comical in some ways. A group of tourists visited a “cabane à sucre”; a restaurant that has a menu based on maple syrup, pancakes fried in lard, beans, bacon, pea soup, crispy bacon. Pigs and sugar for the rest of us.
Except that in this case, the tourists were a group of Muslims. The dance floor was cleared for prayer time. The pea soup was made with chicken pieces rather than ham. A modified menu, to allow for religious practices. So be it. The other clients were asked to be accepting, welcoming. So be it.
Half a century ago, my religion forbade eating meat on Fridays. I don’t remember any Friday nights at the local steak house. Wrong place, wrong day, wrong diet. The religious belief dictated where I ate, in the case of a restaurant. Fried halibut, OK. Forget the steaks and chops. So what happened here? Did the tour organizers not know that their clients did not eat pork? Ever? Did they not know that ham is a pig by any other name?
I guess that in the business world, the client is always right, but sometimes it’s better to choose a cuisine that isn’t quite so opposite to the wants and needs of the client. Maybe the sugar shack was inappropriate. Just a thought.
