Restaurant staff and your food.

The Gibzilla · 01-06-2011 02:48AM #1

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 · 01-06-2011 02:51AM

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 · 01-06-2011 02:55AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:01AM

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

OWNED!

Amalgam · 01-06-2011 03:05AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:05AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:10AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:17AM

Ya'll are gonna be da death of me

Amalgam · 01-06-2011 03:20AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:25AM

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 · 01-06-2011 03:30AM

Note to people reading this thread:

Things like this DO NOT happen in professional kitchens often.

teddy_303 · 01-06-2011 03:40AM

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

Hank Scorpio · 01-06-2011 04:24AM

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 · 01-06-2011 04:55AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:05AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:08AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:10AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:26AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:29AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:30AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:34AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:36AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:37AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:38AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:48AM

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 · 01-06-2011 09:50AM

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 · 01-06-2011 10:04AM

Thanks guys ... I going on a starvation diet

prinz · 01-06-2011 11:14AM

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 · 01-06-2011 11:19AM

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 · 01-06-2011 11:25AM

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 · 01-06-2011 11:30AM

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

Restaurant staff and your food.

Comments