The “Chef’s Special” on a restaurant menu sounds enticing. It suggests a unique, creative dish showcasing the chef’s flair for the day. While sometimes this is true, in many busy kitchens, the daily special serves a much more practical purpose: it’s a delicious and efficient way to use up surplus ingredients and leftovers from the previous day’s service. The term “leftover soup” can be used metaphorically here for any dish crafted from these repurposed components. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it’s smart, sustainable cooking. But savvy diners should understand what that “special” often represents. Here are twelve types of chef’s specials that often sound fancy but are clever uses of leftovers.
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1. The “Hearty” Beef and Vegetable Stew
A rich, slow-cooked beef stew is a perfect way to use trimmings from steaks or roasts that were cut the day before. It’s also a great home for vegetables from the prep line (carrots, onions, celery, potatoes) that might be slightly past their prime for being served raw or as a crisp side. Slow cooking melds all the flavors together beautifully to make one of the best chef’s specials.
2. The Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie
This classic comfort dish is, by its very nature, a creation of leftovers. The filling is typically made from leftover cooked lamb (Shepherd’s Pie) or beef (Cottage Pie), often mixed with a savory gravy and vegetables. It’s then topped with mashed potatoes, which themselves might be leftover from a previous service. It’s a brilliant and delicious way to give ingredients a second life.
3. The “Creamy” Seafood Chowder
A seafood-focused restaurant will have various trimmings, from filleting fish. They might also have small amounts of unsold shrimp or scallops. These pieces, combined with potatoes, corn, and a creamy broth, make for a fantastic chowder. The special allows the kitchen to use up these smaller, valuable pieces of seafood that aren’t large enough to serve as a standalone entree.
4. The “Quiche of the Day”
Quiche is an incredibly versatile vessel for leftovers. A kitchen can use almost any combination of surplus cheese, cooked meats (like ham or bacon), and vegetables (like spinach, mushrooms, or broccoli) in the rich egg custard base. It’s a perfect way to consolidate small amounts of various ingredients into one appealing and profitable dish.
5. “Loaded” Potato Skins or Nachos
The toppings for these popular appetizers are often repurposed. The chili or seasoned ground beef used on nachos might be leftover from another dish. The bacon bits and cheese for potato skins are readily available kitchen staples. These dishes allow a chef to use up smaller amounts of toppings in a creative, shareable format.
6. A “Kitchen Sink” Pasta Sauce
A “Chef’s Specials” pasta sauce, sometimes called a “Sunday Gravy” or a hearty ragu, is often a combination of various meat and vegetable leftovers. Small pieces of leftover sausage, braised beef, meatballs, and various veggies can all be simmered together in a tomato base to create a deep, complex flavor that is greater than the sum of its parts.
7. Elaborate Bread Puddings
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Bread pudding was invented to use up stale, day-old bread. Any restaurant with bread service that finds itself with leftover loaves can easily turn them into this classic dessert. Soaked in a sweet custard and baked, stale bread becomes tender and delicious. It is the quintessential “leftover” dessert.
8. Most “Soup of the Day” Offerings
As mentioned, the “Soup of the Day” is the number one way kitchens utilize surplus. It’s the most direct and efficient method for turning vegetable trimmings, leftover cooked proteins, and rich stocks made from bones into a new, profitable menu item. This is smart cooking, but it is, by definition, based on using leftovers.
9. Savory Hand Pies, Pasties, or Empanadas
Enclosing a savory filling in pastry is a global tradition for using leftovers. A “chef’s special” empanada or hand pie can be filled with a mix of leftover ground meat, chopped vegetables, and cheese. It’s a convenient, single-serving item that effectively repackages surplus ingredients into a new and appealing format.
10. Goulash or Chili
Like stews, dishes like goulash or chili are perfect for simmering tougher cuts of meat until they are tender. They are also great for using up various vegetable and bean leftovers. These dishes often taste even better the next day as the flavors meld, making them an ideal special to prepare with the previous day’s surplus.
11. “Chef’s Catch” Fish Cakes or Croquettes
A restaurant that fillets its fish will always have smaller, uneven pieces left over. These trimmings are too small to serve as a fillet but are perfect for making fish cakes or croquettes. Mixed with potatoes, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, these leftovers are transformed into a delicious and popular appetizer or light entree.
12. “Special” Casseroles or Bakes
Any dish described as a “special casserole” or “baked pasta special” is a prime candidate for being a delicious combination of leftovers. Cooked pasta, surplus cheeses, various meats, and vegetables can all be combined in a casserole dish, topped with cheese or breadcrumbs, and baked into a hot, comforting, and profitable special.
The Smart Art of Repurposing
The term “leftovers” can have a negative connotation, but in a professional kitchen, it’s called smart inventory management and is a sign of a skilled, no-waste chef. Many of these “leftover soups” are among the most flavorful and comforting dishes on a menu. The key for a diner is to understand that the “Chef’s Special” is often born from practicality, not necessarily from a sudden flash of unique creative inspiration for that day. It’s a delicious way for the kitchen to be both frugal and creative—a lesson any home cook can appreciate.
What’s the best “Chef’s Special” you’ve ever had? Does knowing it might be made from repurposed ingredients change your opinion of it? Share your thoughts below!
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