Restaurant staff and your food.

The Gibzilla

Does anybody ever send back food and worry about a disgruntled member of staff doing something to it?
I was out the other night and noticed a chap in the pub sent his burger and chips back for some reason and a friend of mine mentioned that he'd heard some disgusting stories of kitchen staff messing with the food of a picky customer.
Personally I always try stay on the nice side of anyone dealing with my grub because as they say revenge is a dish best served with snot! :P

LighterGuy

Why not share this :pac:

In 2003 I worked in McDonalds drive thru .
Some guy accidently dropped a big mac patty on the floor. Grabbed it said "shush" to me and prepped it to go out.

sick.
So yeah, places are willing to mis handle your food in the first place, lol. You can use your imagination if it gets sent back. :pac:

Oranage2

I've family members that have worked in top quality restaurants in dublin. Also have a family memeber that use to own a restaurant - and I myself have worked in a takeaway and I can tell you that it does happen but its far more likely that it wont happen!

Saila

I once sent a steak back in france for being too rare for me, came back like wood OWNED!

Amalgam

I have been beside kitchen staff that have 'abused food', it does happen..

What provokes it..? ..sometimes the customer is being an arse, ignorant (French chef being asked to cook his dish 'properly', chef went out to the punter and had a proper exchange of culinary views..)

Other times the food is abused out of spite for the employer, messing around with wages\taxes etc.

No excuse for it though.

The Gibzilla

I never worked in a restaurant myself but when I was still in school I worked in a supermarket and witnessed the bloke who worked in the Cuisine de france bakery stick a petite pan between his arse cheeks and stroll around the stockroom.
He then stuck the bun(:P) in the oven with the others to be baked and sold! It was hilarious at the time but when I think back on it now it still gives me a giggle!

OPENROAD

Amalgam wrote: »

I have been beside kitchen staff that have 'abused food', it does happen..

What provokes it..? ..sometimes the customer is being an arse, ignorant (French chef being asked to cook his dish 'properly', chef went out to the punter and had a proper exchange of culinary views..)

Other times the food is abused out of spite for the employer, messing around with wages\taxes etc.

No excuse for it though.

such as?

shannon_tek

Ya'll are gonna be da death of me

Amalgam

OPENROAD wrote: »

such as?

4 staff members hocking into a cooking pot. (meat stew) Proper phlegm hocks.

Animal hair and waste added to meat\pastry shoe dishes.

Spitting into frying dishes.

Food stored in 'dodgy places' (down beside the chef's shoes), knowingly, spitefully.

Not condoning any of this, the first listed, I became extremely nauseous witnessing it. Hocking in general I find hideous, but on food.. ugh.

hondasam

I'm going to stop reading this now before I get sick.

I don't believe to many staff members treat customers like this.

No chef would allow this to happen in his/her kitchen.

Degag

Note to people reading this thread:

Things like this DO NOT happen in professional kitchens often.

teddy_303

Yes they do... I've seen it too...

Hank Scorpio

I worked in a fairly decent place before, they used to take the spuds etc coming in off dishes and re-use them for other dinners.

Some of them would be bitten so they just cut them in half and used the good side, fairly manky tbh

brokenhinge

Worked in two kitchens, never saw anything like it. Not saying it's not possible, but doubt it.

You'd have to be a serious dick for them to bother. Like if you send something back for a reasonable reason-not cooked, cold etc-only the worst of the worst would do anything to it..

Lucyfur

I've spent 12 years working in restaurants. I've never seen anything like this happen. Sure, a chef might get a but @rsey at food being sent back....but hocking in the stew???......I'd call the health inspector myself.....

mikemac

Urban myth OP

Chefs take their job seriously. And under the hotplate with chefs and management and the porters and the serving staff around no chef is going to risk a sacking by messing with the food

Maybe messing goes on with teenagers in fast food places.

But a professional chef would never do this

Doesn't stop the friend of a friend told me the chef spat in the soup :rolleyes:

Joey the lips

I dont send food back. If it comes out and i am not happy i go up to the manager and say i cannot accept it and have heard to many stories about sending food back.

I then mannerly point out that if i wanted macdonalds/burger king style i would have gone there but now i have 2 kids waiting on food and i cannot trust you to get it right a second time when you got it so wrong the first.

Thats it and i go.

I never order food from a pub/restaurant too busy or too quite unless i know of its reputation.

syklops

As others have said, most professional Chefs would not dream of messing with food. In fact some Chefs I know respect the food more than the clientèle and the management(Imagine Gregory House with a floppy hat and an apron).

Anyway, that aside, is it not a bit illogical to mess with someone's food, after they have sent it back? Surely, once you bring it back to them, they are going to look at it again, and if they find a hair or other unidentifiable floating object they will scream the house down, not to mention getting the place shut down.

Again, many professional Chefs dont bother trying to 'fix' the sent back food, as the customer will have ruined the layout and presentation of the dish, and instead they just give a fresh one - tweaked to the customers preference.

I worked in a Deli in Dunnes for a year. Despite, being at the bottom of the list cleanliness wise for all Dunnes Delis, I didn't see anything particularly bad there, and certainly there was no messing. As much as the job sucked, it was made clear to us, that any messing about would result in an instant dismissal, and the drinking money was too precious to lose out on. The worst I saw anyone do was eat some deli meat when no-one was looking.

Amalgam

mikemac wrote: »

Urban myth OP
Doesn't stop the friend of a friend told me the chef spat in the soup :rolleyes:

Ah well, what you don't know won't hurt, eh. Eat up.

Kevin Duffy

It doesn't only happen in Dublin :rolleyes: and it's not an urban myth. I've worked in quite a few hotels and pubs, considered to be of a good standard, where I've seen some hideous things done to food, from ignorant bad handling to deliberate "additions".

mikemac

Kevin Duffy wrote: »

I've worked in quite a few hotels and pubs, considered to be of a good standard,

If it's true then name them

Pandora2

The Gibzilla wrote: »

I never worked in a restaurant myself but when I was still in school I worked in a supermarket and witnessed the bloke who worked in the Cuisine de france bakery stick a petite pan between his arse cheeks and stroll around the stockroom.
He then stuck the bun(:P) in the oven with the others to be baked and sold! It was hilarious at the time but when I think back on it now it still gives me a giggle!

What in the name of all that's Holy prompted him to do that??:D

Kevin Duffy

mikemac wrote: »

If it's true then name them

I don't know who you think you are to imagine you can make a demand like that, but no.

Amalgam

mikemac wrote: »

If it's true then name them

..Why? Libel, possible court case, expenses.. having to provide proof for brief events, during a work week. Your word against others.

Just to say, my employer wasn't tax compliant and had been messing staff about for weeks\months. Busy time of year, stress, lack of much needed paperwork (for the staff), knock on effect.

RachaelVO

Jaysus, my stomach is turning reading some of those comments, and I do believe it goes in on some places, but not all.

I'd be more likely to believe that waiting staff would do summit to your food if you're being a total pr1ck/b1tch. I remember being in a restaurant once and there was a table of 3, one of them was a nun (I'd say they were all in their 60's). Holy jaysus they were total fcukers to the waiting staff, everyone in the restaurant was mortified at the way the spoke to the staff. I can't imagine their food was served without additional extras courtesy of the staff.

Right after my dinner I left, on the way out I told them it was their fault cos Wasn't true of course, I was leaving anyway. They probably didn't give a flying sh1te and thought I was an upstart!

mikemac

Kevin Duffy wrote: »

I don't know who you think you are to imagine you can make a demand like that, but no.

More of a request then a demand, relax. I'm not a mod
You said they had good reputations. If you said they had bad reputations I wouldn't have replied

But yeah, lets not gets boards in trouble.

Callan57

Thanks guys ... I going on a starvation diet

prinz

Have worked in bars and in a good quality restaurant kitchen. I have never seen anyone do the sort of things that regularly get tossed about in threads like this. In a professional kitchen the customer would be the last of your worries if you messed with the food.

common sense brigade

this happens. an old friend of mine was a kitchen assistant. one night someone complained about their steak and one of the lads spat on it and threw it in the pan and cooked it again. another time they threw a load of fish in the dirty water with plates etc to defrost it. and this place was a posh enough hotel.

Fratton Fred

Went out for an Indian in Windsor a few years back. It was a mates birthday or something so his boring bank clerk brother came along.

He got wrecked and turned into a complete arsehole and abused the staff. Eventually we had to apologise and get him out of there.

He had to go back the next day and collect his jacket, all sheepish and apologetic like. The waiter told him not to worry about it as they p1ssed in his Rogan Josh. He laughed and they said no, seriously, we did.

**** deserved it too.

JohnMarston

Bottom line: Don't p*ss off the restaurant staff or they'll p*ss on you

EverEvolving

I've worked in restaurants before and the worst I've ever seen is something falling on the floor and being rinsed before being cooked (which would kill any germs off anyway).

Any restaurant worth it's salt would not tolerate that kind of nonsense.

Blobby George

I heard one from a mate who used to work in a hotel kitchen in Dublin. There was a chef there who was a bit of arogue and as it happened didn't last very long there. He was on his last day anyway and decided to go out with a bang.

He took a dead mouse from a mousetrap in the drinks store and added it to a pot of Irish Stew to slowly simmer. After about an hour he removed what was left and out the stew went to the lunch customers.

DWCommuter

I heard from a mate that restaurants serve food.

DWCommuter

I heard from a mate that restaurants serve food.

EverEvolving

DWCommuter wrote: »

I heard from a mate that restaurants serve food.

Don't believe everything your mates tell you :pac:

syklops

DWCommuter wrote: »

I heard from a mate that restaurants serve food.

You can say that again.

The Gibzilla

Pandora2 wrote: »

What in the name of all that's Holy prompted him to do that??:D

I can't really recall tbh, I think the manager might have been on his case.

In the same job though I witnessed the chap who was in charge of the fruit and veg section spraying the tomatoes with a sanitizer used for cleaning supermarket shelves :eek: and the stockroom manager picking up veg off the filthy stockroom floor and putting them back with the rest when I questioned him about it he just said "always wash your fruit and veg" and I always have since! :P

DWCommuter

I suppose we can only hope that this kind of thing doesn't go on, but I wouldn't be surprised. I worked in a restaurant many moons ago and didn't see it. However, before that I worked in the prep area of a salad kitchen of a certain well known supermarket. The coleslaw and potatoe salad was made on site and were regularly hocked in by staff that didn't even work in that particular area. It was the talk of the place, but nothing was done up to the time I left.

Degag

Blobby George wrote: »

I heard one from a mate who used to work in a hotel kitchen in Dublin. There was a chef there who was a bit of arogue and as it happened didn't last very long there. He was on his last day anyway and decided to go out with a bang.

He took a dead mouse from a mousetrap in the drinks store and added it to a pot of Irish Stew to slowly simmer. After about an hour he removed what was left and out the stew went to the lunch customers.

That is disgusting.

Gone Drinking

Degag wrote: »

That is disgusting.

If you believe any of the "my mate knows a guy who once" shat, get out of this thread.

careca11

The Gibzilla wrote: »

Does anybody ever send back food and worry about a disgruntled member of staff doing something to it?
I was out the other night and noticed a chap in the pub sent his burger and chips back for some reason and a friend of mine mentioned that he'd heard some disgusting stories of kitchen staff messing with the food of a picky customer.
Personally I always try stay on the nice side of anyone dealing with my grub because as they say revenge is a dish best served with snot! :P

back in 1997 I worked in a Bar/restaurant in Amercia ,
man some of the things I seen the kitchen staff get up to (including the manager)
from peeing the ketchup , to putting pubic hair on burgers to wiping bun burger's with their asses ,
ridiculous stuff.

I was guilty of one incident myself ,
this business guy was taking the pi55 out of my accent, so I rinse the dirty cloth for cleaning the bartop with into his Pint (he deserved that one)

Degag

Gone Drinking wrote: »

If you believe any of the "my mate knows a guy who once" shat, get out of this thread.

I don't for the most part, but only a fool would think that it doesn't happen, even if on a tiny scale.

cosmicfart

to many people have been watching Jackass on here, any classy place, unlike NackerDonalds will hardly employ shítbricks who will take pleasure in 'snoting' your food

partyatmygaff

cosmicfart wrote: »

to many people have been watching Jackass on here, any classy place, unlike NackerDonalds will hardly employ shítbricks who will take pleasure in 'snoting' your food

You'd be surprised at the staff employed in "finer" restaurants.

DarkJager

Anybody from Limerick knows of one particular McD's in the city where a few years ago, one guy got caught having a quick hand relief into the mayonaisse. Fired on the spot and legal proceedings bought as well afaik, but he'd supposedly been doing it for months before he got nabbed.

prinz

partyatmygaff wrote: »

You'd be surprised at the staff employed in "finer" restaurants.

I don't know about that. Knowing the chef in the kitchen I worked under, if anyone had been caught messing the food about, he would have beaten them black and blue with a frying pan. Any chef worried about a reputation etc is not going to allow that kid of crap go on in his/her kitchen.

OneArt

I remembr once I was working in a kitchen and someone was making a panini. They took it off, put it on a plate, but it fell on the floor. They were about to throw it in the bin when the chef comes over, dusts it off, and puts it back on the plate. Then he says, hand on heart, "What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve for."

I've worked in restaurants for the last three years and that's the worst I've seen. But I can understand why, restaurants are horrible places to work. I would sooner be on the dole than be a waiter.

ringadingding

I work in the restaurant trade, my team and I and take our jobs very seriously, trust me, in any place that has a reputation for good food, this just not happen.

Firstly the food we serve has been hand picked and prepped by us, we have worked our bollox off making it nice and when a plate comes back, the first thing is to be upset that either you've fecked up the dish or the guest doesn;t like it.
But thats only for a split second, before the kitchen team launches into action to replace the dish, and focus on the other orders coming in, the kitchen pass can not come to a standstill for one dish. You dissect the problem after service.

Also, the manager, the head chef and the sous chef will be focusing so much on remedying the situation that you don't have a spare second to think up a revenge.


Microwaving a steak for 30 secs to make it well done, or finishing off roast potatoes in a deep fryer are pretty much the only 'dodgy' things that go on, and the universal 3 second rule is in place in every kitchen, deal with it.

Any 'chef' who spits in food or purposely drops it on the floor has no respect for himself, his career or his customer and should **** off out of the business.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Worked in plenty of kitchens, never witnessed anything like what was mentioned previously in the thread. From canteens to fast food pizza restaurants to pubs and hotels. Chefs tend to take pride in their work, this crap doesn't happen as often as people claim it does.

Latchy

There will always be some people who work in the kitchen with low standards of food hygiene and a few others who shouldn't be let anywhere near a kitchen , never mind food .

There might be a few paonoid people out there after reading this thread but ' what you dont no wont harm you /ignorence is bliss ' springs to mind and is probably the best option to take regards our eating out in public .