Lost 8 pounds of prepped onions when my cooler failed last Friday

I was getting ready for Saturday dinner service at The Grit in Athens when I opened the walk-in and got hit with warm air. The compressor had died overnight and all my onions, shallots, and leeks for the French onion soup were soft and starting to smell. Had to toss everything and spent my whole prep shift peeling and dicing 12 pounds of replacements while the repair guy quoted $700 for a new unit. Has anyone else had a cooler fail right before a busy weekend and how did you handle losing all that product?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.kevin14d ago

Lost 8 pounds of onions? Man, that's rough. I had a freezer go out on me once during a heatwave and ended up tossing a whole batch of frozen pot pies I was proud of, felt like a real kick in the pants. The repair bill always stings worse when you're also counting the cost of the spoiled product, doesn't it?

emma_ramirez14d ago

Oh man, I gotta admit I used to totally roll my eyes at people getting bent out of shape over spoiled food. I figured it was just a minor inconvenience, like losing a few bucks at the grocery store. But last summer I had a whole fridge go out and lost a ton of stuff including some pricey ingredients I'd been saving for months. That feeling of watching it all go bad and knowing the money was just gone really hit different. I get it now, the repair bill is bad enough but the wasted product adds this whole other layer of frustration. It's like a double punch to the wallet and the spirit.