Top chef channels Soup Nazi to tell fussy diner: ‘No food for you!’

Seinfeld famously had the “Soup Nazi” who yelled “No soup for you!” at anyone who wanted something not on his menu. Now Sydney chef Attila Yilmaz has channelled the same sentiment by publicly outing a fussy diner after refusing to meet her demands.

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Seinfeld famously had the “Soup Nazi” but Sydney now has its own version, a restaurant owner who told a fussy diner this week: “No steak for you!”

Attila Yilmaz has already hit the headlines this year for banning iPads and colouring-in books for children in his award-winning Middle Eastern restaurant Pazar.

Now he has shared an ­online exchange with a diner who had an “intolerance to just about everything” on the menu and demanded a custom dish to suit her needs.

Pazar owner Attila Yilmaz dealt with a fussy diner. Picture: Bob Barker

The ‘Soup Nazi’ in one of his iconic scenes on sitcom Seinfeld.

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But Yilmaz told her “this isn’t the restaurant for you”, evoking Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi, who yelled “No soup for you!” at anyone who wanted something not on his menu.

“I get messages like this all the time,” Yilmaz said.

“I will accommodate anyone who has a food allergy. We always do anything we can to work with them and that’s something I take extremely seriously.

“But when you have someone saying they are on a diet and there is nothing on the menu that they can eat … you have to say to them: ‘Well, maybe this isn’t the restaurant for you’.”

The diner’s email to Pazar owner Attila Yilmaz.

Yilmaz said he received mostly supportive feedback when he shared the ­exchange in a bid to “educate” diners about the harsh realities of the business.

The diner emailed Yilmaz to say she planned to book a table with a group of friends but due to a food intolerance: “We will go elsewhere unless you can provide a lean steak and sweet potato with leaf and sheep’s milk fetta or goat’s cheese salad.”

She also stated she would be with a group of eight and asked she be given exemption from the set menu price.

A part of the email exchange between chef Attila Yilmaz and the demanding customer.

But Yilmaz hit back.

“If you and seven of your friends were going to a concert and you were the only one who didn’t like their songs, are sensitive to offensive language and had an ­intolerance to loud noise would you contact the band and ask them to tone it down, lower the volume and edit their playlist so it is more to your taste?” he wrote.

When the diner wrote she works in catering and therefore versed in accommodating dietary requests, Yilmaz fired back: “You work for a caterer? That’s great! Can I book you to cater for one person? Me?

“I will require you to supply a cook, tableware, water, cloth napkins, a waiter, a venue with a chair, table, music, aircon or heating dependent on the weather. Please email me your quote ASAP.”

The diner’s response when Yilmaz called her up on her demands.

Yilmaz said that even though his restaurant is successful, he still only takes home about “five cents” of every dollar.

“And I think this is something that people don’t understand,” he said.

Originally published as Top chef channels Soup Nazi to tell fussy diner: ‘No food for you!’