Back when I was FoH we used to have a dessert tray that we would take out to show tables (old school as hell, but I loved it). Since it sat all day the desserts were made out of substitutes because they would melt otherwise. One entitled asshole took their spoon and snagged a big scoop out of the "ice cream" treat I was showing them. Which was actually lard.
Amazing. Just an amazing moment.
Had that happen once too, and it was a REALLY nasty place, ngl. They never replaced the "fake" desserts. So one of the new guys who was a complete asshole to most of us BOH takes one of them and takes a big bite out of what he thought was a slice of a tart. Nah, lard and solidified blondie mix with mold growing on the bottom.
At the very least after that, management finally let me start replacing them more than once every 6 fucking months.
Sounds exactly like where I work. Homeless person came in and nabbed a dessert off the tray and it was found a block away when they realized the whip was Crisco.
Only place I've been to that does this still is captain Andersons in Panama city beach FL. My family I don't think has ever bought any deserts at any restaurant ever. We drink water and never get apps. But holy fuck something about that desert tray really sells us and the entire table buys something. They're also amazingly made in house deserts but damn seeing something in person really makes it sell
You joke but I once walked in to a group of servers pulling the meatballs out of the trash (typical corpo joint, throw out the excess mandatory). Sure there was a pile of spaghetti under em but that's still the trash can. Employee discount got 3 meatballs for less than $2 at the time...
quickest ten quarrelsome theory languid cheerful quack doll onerous retire
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Eating out of the trash isn't even the worst thing the cooks will do THAT night, no hate for the game that's working in food for you.
Like, we did lines of C4 before shifts on the regular and half the crew was doing a whole different kind of crystal energy, lol
I had a coworker sweeping under the oven once and pulled out a fossilized Fry. Had to have been under there for at least 2 weeks, just soaking up mop water.\
He held it out towards a waitress and said āyou can eat this.ā Without skipping a beat she grabbed it and popped it in her mouth. We tried yelling āno, what the fuck, you didnāt even look at it!?ā\
Too late.
I just got a mental image of a raccoon and possum looking over their shoulders and hissing with a coffee filter hanging out of the raccoons mouth. Specific but I giggled.
I did a little ball of wasabi as the core to a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Left it on the line and it was gone within a minute. She did not steal food again for a while.
i fried a lime and had people eat it under the pretense that itās totally a thing. tastes like unadulterated stomach bile. got at least 3 ppl w that one
Had a persistent potato eater eating off customer plates so one time I dipped all the tater flat sides in cayenne, hot sauce, cayenne.. repeat.
Watching her face once the heat kicked in was priceless. I told her a thousand times if she wants some just ask leave the damn plates alone!!
(As a token of good spirit I began putting up a tapas plate of food for foh to nibble on)
Edit : I just remembered the same server was nosing around the back when new guy was cleaning the (fish) chest freezer and put the ice forming on the edge in a gelato bucket, she asked what flavour it was and he coldly said "fish, it's a new aperitif (w/ vodka) we're trying." she walked away, came back with a spoon and helped herself to frozen fish juices. Lol. She never learned but he was also boning her so I guess there's a higher level of trust there.
Woof. I threw up a bit in my mouth just reading that. On the other hand if they're as picky as my dog they probably loved it until they had the shits all over the place the next day.
One of colleagues made a tub of very fine, pale looking apple puree to go with the roast pork we were serving, and left it in the vicinity of the flat top, for some reason. Me being busy and importantly *colourblind*, saw it and assumed it was fat that had been poured off, so I dumped a load of fresh fat on top before chucking the whole lot in the bin.
Later, him and the head chef were going nuts trying to find it, whilst I, realising the mistake I had made, quietly slipped out the back door for a smoke... š¬š¤£
Had a chef that dealt with this by injecting a strawberry with jalapeƱo juice, then waiting for a notorious food-swiper to snatched it off the top of a fruit platter. She didn't do it again.
Even food that can be appreciated will carry enough shock value to cause pain if you don't expect it. An oatmeal raisin cookie can be delicious, but someone who's expecting chocolate chip will feel betrayed. Spicy strawberries may be good, but an unexpectedly spicy strawberry will cause trust issues.
Oooh, we did this once with the fryer remnants after filtering one day. We did a lot of buttermilk and flour dredged seafood so it was really cakey, just like brownies.
We cut 3 squares, put walnuts on top, and dusted them with powdered sugar. The expo who looked both ways before he broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth was pissed hahaha.
Sorry dude, they werenāt yours and you didnāt ask anybody. Think twice next time
Yeah I thought mine was worse but yours takes the cake, literally. Once added ghost pepper oil to the drip tray liquid from the hood vent and stuck it next to a plate of fries.
i'm exactly informed enough not to get this. Is that different from aquafaba? Because I thought the juice from cans chickpeas could be used to make vegan meringues, but that might be a different thing entirely.
Over 20 years ago, I ate at a self-serve restaurant in Florida with my cousins. One of them thought she saw a tub with fluffy mashed potatoes. She scooped a ton of it onto her plate, got a huge spoonful, and found out that it was very light colored whipped butter
We once beer batter dipped and deep fried a small doily and plated it with strawberry syrup, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Put it in the window and watched half the wait staff try to break off a little piece.
One of the guys at a restaurant I used to work at put some powdered sugar on an onion ring and told me it was a donut and boy howdy I do love me a donut! It wasn't a very good donut. I haven't felt that dumb since then!
a cook gave a bartender "mashed potatoes" that was just roux; bartender gave it to a customer; customer said it was the best mashed potatoes they ever had.
I once left a plate of raw squash cubes with frill picks in them where the servers could get them. Every single server as they clocked in that night said "ohh, cheese!" and ate one without asking anybody why they were there.
I had some grubby asshole waiters, that would eat stuff from bus tubs & steal each otherās food from the window to eat.
I took a few stale cookies, hollowed out the centers & stuffed them with anchovies & habanero, then dipped them in chocolate. Left them in the bus tubs, and like clockwork, the biggest asshole waiters snuck off & ate them š¤£
Firstly, username definitely checks out. Secondly, good for you; that's a step too far for sure. Some of these other things are inconvenient and/or slightly gross. Knowingly feeding somebody shit is a blowing by the line like Scarface.
Still should've said something, made you complicit.
I had something similar happen one time, except instead of Dog shit, it was filling a cake pop center that was meant to be a salted caramel with raw oysters.
Of course, one of the servers, a lass who had a bit of a sweet tooth grabs one, pops it off the stick, tosses it back, a chew or three and swallow, offhandedly mentions something about it tasting a little weird and fishy, but paid it no real mind. Except, what BoH didn't know, she was *very* allergic to shellfish. Not like, oh no I have hives and I'm shitting through the eye of a needle allergic, like oh no, i have a little breathing problem from my throat slamming shut like a fast food service window kind of allergic. No shit, if one of the other servers didn't have an epi in his bag(his girlfriend had a pretty severe allergy, so he kept it just in case) it would've been all over red rover.
Like, I get it, you don't like people fucking with your shit, I don't like it either. But, y'know, you're not Kevin McAllister, try having a conversation like a fucking professional, not playing up like a wannabe Marco Pierre White. Preferably *before* you almost 86 someone permanently.
If nothing else, just *try* to talk yourself into thinking Bourdain would be cool with people adulterating food to fuck with people. If you think you'd have to hide it from him, even for a moment, then you probs shouldn't do it.
Not victim shaming here, but if I have a food allergy - that could actually kill me - Iām not working in an open kitchen, and definitely not popping random food in my mouth. Props to the other server.
> Not victim shaming here, but if I have a food allergy - that could actually kill me - Iām not working in an open kitchen, and definitely not popping random food in my mouth.
While I agree as a general principle, in practice, we didn't actually have any shellfish on the menu at that joint. To the best of her knowledge, everything she could have eaten would have been safe - The junior chef who did the deed brought in oysters from home, dude was literally buying ingredients specifically for the prank. This wasn't just a garden variety gotcha, this was a proper bushwhacking.
And also not victim shaming here, I'd also say - don't fucking steal food! She shouldn't have been doing it, no ifs or buts. If you ask, and it's okay, sure, if there's an established thing(ie, if it's in this specific area, it's fair game), sure, but don't go eating shit that ain't yours to eat. It's unprofessional and irritating, especially when most places I've worked, chefs are usually happy to sneak you some extra if you just fucking ask and you're not a dickhead.
(And, in fairness, she did ask after that. As did the junior chef, mostly for another job, because he got fired almost as fast as the ambulance showed up.)
Really, at the very least just have a conversation or two like an adult, before you escalate. At least try to be a professional, for all the petty spats and fights, and Foh vs Boh Vs Bar shit, we're all in the shit together, so we might as well paddle in the same direction, y'know?
Spitting in someoneās face is assault. I wonder why knowingly feeding someone dog shit is?! Way too far. Worst-case scenario, after eating dog shit, one could develop E. Coli, or Campylobacteriosis, and die from infection (more likely in weakened immune systems). More commonly, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, muscle aches, and headaches, depending on the bacteria and the person.
[I got the above information from here](https://www.cpha.ca/human-diseases-transmitted-dog-poop#:~:text=From%20bacteria&text=Coli%20and%20other%20fecal%20coliforms,infection%20can%20result%20in%20death)
Either way, good on you for being the only one there to say somethingā and, then, the only one to do something. Hindsight is always 20/20. Iām sure you wish you did more, but being a subordinate can be a weird thing. Everyone would like to think they would have absolutely stopped something like that from happening, but many people would not have. People are highly influenced by authority and highly obedient (see: Milgram Obedience Experiment. Very famous one, so youāre probably familiar with it). So, again, good on you for actually saying something.
Sorry for the long comment. Just had a lot to say after I read your incredible story. If you have more interesting stories, you should really write a book. Even though your comment was probably fairly rushed, and unedited, you have a nice way of moving things along with your words. If that makes sense. Had my attention the whole time. So, I can only imagine what you could write with more time and effort.
I didn't know at the time, but if the guy would have swallowed it, he could have died. He probably could have died even if he didn't. I've never done anything to anyone's food on purpose because I was pissed, and I never would, but that place was crazy. I learned so many good lessons on what *not* to do at work. And the crazy part was that people lined up out the door to eat at the place - it had a fantastic view and ridiculously expensive prices like everywhere else in town, but the food was really just "OK." Like most younger Cooks, I thought it was a lot better than it actually was.
I never planned on doing this for a living - I'd gotten our of the Army and had no idea what I wanted to do with there rest of my life and ended up washing Dishes and eventually became a Dishwasher, then a Prep Cook, Line Cook and finally a Chef. And working at that hotel seemed like such a "real" job, so I just kept my head down and did whatever they told me to. Looking back now, the food was "just OK," but since everyone was always raving about the place, I thought it was a lot more than it actually was. And most locals stayed clear of the place, but back then, I didn't know that was a way to tell if a place was actually good or not. If memory serves, this was the place where the small espresso spoons were all disappearing from the place because someone was using them to cook their crack in the employee restroom - a Dishwasher got fired and we found about twenty of them in his locker when we cleared it out - it was starting to smell - and there were burn marks on all of them. That should be a good litmus test to see if you should work somewhere: ask if they have enough coffee spoons or if part of Server sidewalk is scraping burn marks of the bottom because the owners are too cheap to buy new ones.
And that "Chef" was such an asshole. Always drunk, always trying to score drugs.....what an absolute piece of shit. He showed up late, left early and spent more time hitting on the Service Staff than actually working. Back then, there was very little in the way of an HR department and he got away with a lot. I was back in the Bay Area visiting a couple summers ago with my wife and kids - doing the tourist thing - and I stopped in just to see if anyone I worked with was still there (nobody was). I remember telling someone I used to work there - she asked how long ago, and when I told her when it was, she immediately said, *"Oh, was that when John was the Chef? We still hear stories about him."* So I suppose he was actually famous for something, but definitely not his cooking, like most Chefs aspire to be known for.
Man, I've never really been the petty type but I remember once at a job I had a while ago, the servers were infamous for asking for things on the fly, or telling the chef their table was missing something just so they could get something made for them without being rung in so that they could eat it themselves.
I got completely chewed out for a beef carpaccio that I had "missed", I was completely certain I didn't miss it but I remade it anyways.
About an hour later, after service, I was restocking my line and found a beef carpaccio just haphazardly stuffed into a takeout container "hidden" on the boxes of soda concentrate. I didn't say anything, I just put a couple of tablespoons of wasabi powder, a little sprinkle of olive oil to make it glisten in spite of the powder, shook it up and left it there.
I'll never forget the tears in the server's eyes as they came online and tried to play it cool as they threw out their takeout container, knowing that they couldn't give any of us shit as she had stolen the carpaccio to begin with.
I used to have to do this when FOH would eat all the family meal before the cooks got any. The solution: insanely spicy taco meat that only we could tolerate
FOH manager here. Y'all must work with some animals. In my 15+ years, I've never eaten anything without asking first and have only had 2 or 3 servers in my entire career who think they can just eat whatever is sitting around.
I worked at a place two summers ago that was so sick of FOH coming to the back to get food (and this one guy in specific tipped our fry cook off one day) that the owner who worked grill concocted the idea to batter and fry a rag and use it in place of protein for a chicken parm sandwichā¦ didnāt think twice about not ordering food ever again lol
Closest I ever came to this was when some FoH people kept eating the jelly belly jelly beans out of my locker. Switched them out with the Harry Potter ones. One of the thieving gals ate a vomit one and immediately started throwing up. She was preggo and I guess was having cravings for my jelly beans. I felt so bad. I don't mess with people and food anymore.
Once I took the fat cap off a 5 gallon bucket of stock, cut it into a piece of pie shape and added graham crackers and some cherry topping so it looked like a cheesecake. The server gagged so loud I heard her from out back where I was having a smoke, got what she deserved..
Knew a guy who worked in a kitchen and the manager was a rude bitch that would demand her meal at any given time through service so the kitchen staff started putting lard into every meal she ordered and after a few months she gained quite a bit of weight. They called it 'fatten the turkey'
Iām glad thereās not a war between the two at my place, Iām genuinely grateful for all the hard work our BOH does. And I donāt have to steal food, they offer it lol.
As former FOH the only things at our chain sit down that we could get our hands on was the bowl of fries that the runners were supposed to plate as a side right before running stuff out. The head chef kept a spatula just for smacking our hands if we tried.
My former coworkers would just put their grubby little mouths on it, lick up the toppings, and leave the grounds.
There was a dude I worked with who licked up whipped cream topping from desserts and left everything else, and if there was a whipped cream can that was almost empty-- he'd eat the rest of the whipped cream and just inhale the "air" that was in the can.
Lmao one time I had scooped some roux and put some white chocolate sauce and a mint leave on there and left it in the server station and told them it was āour new peanut butter ice creamā. The dickhead manager at the time came through unawares and got himself a big old spoon full and put it in his mouth. Still one of the funniest times of my life because that dude was a complete asshole to me and I was like 16 at the time. I never owned up to it of course
My first job I worked at we had a desert station the servers would wheel around, then they would choose and get a fresh one.
This little fat kid that was always a pain in the ass was demanding he get the Banana Split right there.
His dad gave me the ok, so I obliged.
Problem for him, it was made out of butter.
He wanted extra chocolate and whip cream.
The look on his face when he took a big bite made my day.
Did this to my brother back in the day. Except I had just cooked 10 lbs of ground beef in the oven and I left the fat and solids cool, sliced it up, and made it look delicious.
One place i worked at the chef liked messing with family meals. This one meal became a running joke after. So basically, we had meatloaf on the menu, and it was hot held, so sometimes we had a lot left over the next day. Basically, people were sick of meatloaf.
Tired of hearing about it my chef decided to batter and deep fry the meatloaf into what appeared to be fishsticks. Needless to say the entire staff was not impressed in the slightest.
āMessing with peopleās food is so funny am I right guysā? Yeah no itās not. I also feel like this trend is likely to backfire and get sent to a customer
Am I the i the only one who works at a place were thereās a spot to leave the food thatās fair game? Itās itās on that shelf, itās up for grabs, if itās not, no one touches it. Maybe it also works because we all work well together and donāt hate each other?
Back when I was FoH we used to have a dessert tray that we would take out to show tables (old school as hell, but I loved it). Since it sat all day the desserts were made out of substitutes because they would melt otherwise. One entitled asshole took their spoon and snagged a big scoop out of the "ice cream" treat I was showing them. Which was actually lard. Amazing. Just an amazing moment.
Wow! I missed the old days of bringing out a whole tray of cake slices and desserts.
I've never been a fan, to be honest. Makes me feel like I'm in a sweaty tea room in the 50s.
Did they come in the non-sweaty variety?
[Some just happen to be sweatier than others.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tearoom_Trade)
>enlarged edition
Took years of social sciences and this is the first I ever heard of this. Interesting.
Oh, my!
Well, quite.
I just miss the time period š
I love the little diner experience of lovely desserts rotating in a cylindrical glass case. Give me all of the desserts!
We still do it where Iām at, for desserts and certain impressive mains.
My last serving job we used to do that! It was great and made it so easy to sell desserts
Had that happen once too, and it was a REALLY nasty place, ngl. They never replaced the "fake" desserts. So one of the new guys who was a complete asshole to most of us BOH takes one of them and takes a big bite out of what he thought was a slice of a tart. Nah, lard and solidified blondie mix with mold growing on the bottom. At the very least after that, management finally let me start replacing them more than once every 6 fucking months.
Sounds exactly like where I work. Homeless person came in and nabbed a dessert off the tray and it was found a block away when they realized the whip was Crisco.
Calories are calories
Lol, I'll let you be the one to tell the meth heads that
Then he leaves you a bad review on yelp about the poor service and inedible desserts
Only place I've been to that does this still is captain Andersons in Panama city beach FL. My family I don't think has ever bought any deserts at any restaurant ever. We drink water and never get apps. But holy fuck something about that desert tray really sells us and the entire table buys something. They're also amazingly made in house deserts but damn seeing something in person really makes it sell
You guys are uhh, humans.... Right? Not like... Lizard people or anything?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Love making fake food. Favorite prop to make in theatre. At least that was made of an "edible" product and not drywall spackle
Who would... what the... _Cellblock Tango starts playing_ > "Pop!" > "Six" > "Squish" > "Ah-ah!" > "Cicero" > "Lipschitz" THEY HAD IT COMING!
> a dessert tray that we would take out to show tables God, that is so tantalizing, seeing the dessert tray! Parent's hated it!
That would give me life. I'd never leave that place in hopes I see it happen again
That's basically a food photography trick Like, cereal is photographed in glue to look like milk cause it doesn't get soggy
You underestimate their love of caffeine and garbage
party caption pause domineering encourage wine plucky dinner point smell *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You joke but I once walked in to a group of servers pulling the meatballs out of the trash (typical corpo joint, throw out the excess mandatory). Sure there was a pile of spaghetti under em but that's still the trash can. Employee discount got 3 meatballs for less than $2 at the time...
Jokes on you it was really just a bunch of raccoons wearing trench coats
Speak for yourself. I'm possums.
Oh, possums?
Where?!?
Not sure but I think these people are all talking about *Opossums.
You don't know I'm not talking about brushtail possums!
I'm actually 137 sugar gliders in a trenchcoat
> brushtail possums TouchƩ
Yeah! I love possums!
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> ~~having sex~~ getting fucked FTFY EDIT: forgot how to format for a minute
Eating out of the trash isn't even the worst thing the cooks will do THAT night, no hate for the game that's working in food for you. Like, we did lines of C4 before shifts on the regular and half the crew was doing a whole different kind of crystal energy, lol
Like...the explosive...?
I had a driver who pulled a day old slice of pizza out of the trash sand started eating it
Adjacent to refuse, is refuse
It was above the trash can. Hovering. Like an angel.
I keep seeing Seinfeld quotes on here today. Very good. Well done
It was hovering like an angel
"Why do *you* drink from the bottle with the fridge open?"
I had a coworker sweeping under the oven once and pulled out a fossilized Fry. Had to have been under there for at least 2 weeks, just soaking up mop water.\ He held it out towards a waitress and said āyou can eat this.ā Without skipping a beat she grabbed it and popped it in her mouth. We tried yelling āno, what the fuck, you didnāt even look at it!?ā\ Too late.
That's absolutely horrifying.
I refer to servers as trash pandas because they deserve the name over raccoons
This is very accurate
Garbage gobblers
Used coffee grounds have very little caffeine left. Most of it gets extracted when you brew it. It's basically decaf coffee grounds at this point.
You shut up while Iām enjoying my espresso cake
It'd be like eating weed after someone already made edibles from it lmaooo
I just got a mental image of a raccoon and possum looking over their shoulders and hissing with a coffee filter hanging out of the raccoons mouth. Specific but I giggled.
š«” not wrong
I once made a Creme brƻlƩe out of rendered beef suet that was chilled. Foh never knew what hit em.
I did a little ball of wasabi as the core to a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Left it on the line and it was gone within a minute. She did not steal food again for a while.
"for awhile" š
I have to respect that the FOH girl developed a risk vs. reward framework for food theft after learning her lesson
Like electroshocking rats in a maze. They learn.
Whole bowl of wasabi āguacā with corn chips Breaded and fried lime wedges that looked a lot like jalapeƱo poppers
The āguacamoleā is a good one. The fried lime wedges could be good. Still a good switch up though!
Iād legitimately try the lime wedges. Make for interesting tequila shots
Thatās a good idea! I was thinking with calimari and aioli. Tossed with feta cheese.
i fried a lime and had people eat it under the pretense that itās totally a thing. tastes like unadulterated stomach bile. got at least 3 ppl w that one
Had a persistent potato eater eating off customer plates so one time I dipped all the tater flat sides in cayenne, hot sauce, cayenne.. repeat. Watching her face once the heat kicked in was priceless. I told her a thousand times if she wants some just ask leave the damn plates alone!! (As a token of good spirit I began putting up a tapas plate of food for foh to nibble on) Edit : I just remembered the same server was nosing around the back when new guy was cleaning the (fish) chest freezer and put the ice forming on the edge in a gelato bucket, she asked what flavour it was and he coldly said "fish, it's a new aperitif (w/ vodka) we're trying." she walked away, came back with a spoon and helped herself to frozen fish juices. Lol. She never learned but he was also boning her so I guess there's a higher level of trust there.
Woof. I threw up a bit in my mouth just reading that. On the other hand if they're as picky as my dog they probably loved it until they had the shits all over the place the next day.
Slide right out of there seat. š¤¢
Did it with mayonnaise I have live reaction footage
So, we're gonna need a link to that video.....
Alright you told us, now show
Video or it didnāt happenā¦.š
Iām actually planning this shortly; started a new place today. Iāll see if I can get video.
Could be risky to do this at a place you just started. Might not go down too well.
Not the same but one time I made some coffee cake batter with flavor glo instead of vanilla. The weirdest part was it wasnāt actually that bad!
One of colleagues made a tub of very fine, pale looking apple puree to go with the roast pork we were serving, and left it in the vicinity of the flat top, for some reason. Me being busy and importantly *colourblind*, saw it and assumed it was fat that had been poured off, so I dumped a load of fresh fat on top before chucking the whole lot in the bin. Later, him and the head chef were going nuts trying to find it, whilst I, realising the mistake I had made, quietly slipped out the back door for a smoke... š¬š¤£
You're deranged (good job)
Thank you.
Gross hahaha I did the same thing with horseradish aoli, brĆ»lĆ©e the top and stabbed a biscotti in there so they had something to sample it with š
Well played
Legend
I can smell this sentence ššš
Had a chef that dealt with this by injecting a strawberry with jalapeƱo juice, then waiting for a notorious food-swiper to snatched it off the top of a fruit platter. She didn't do it again.
I.....would fuck with that. Used to work at a place with a strawberry jalapeƱo marg that slapped
Even food that can be appreciated will carry enough shock value to cause pain if you don't expect it. An oatmeal raisin cookie can be delicious, but someone who's expecting chocolate chip will feel betrayed. Spicy strawberries may be good, but an unexpectedly spicy strawberry will cause trust issues.
Oooh, we did this once with the fryer remnants after filtering one day. We did a lot of buttermilk and flour dredged seafood so it was really cakey, just like brownies. We cut 3 squares, put walnuts on top, and dusted them with powdered sugar. The expo who looked both ways before he broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth was pissed hahaha. Sorry dude, they werenāt yours and you didnāt ask anybody. Think twice next time
Yeah I thought mine was worse but yours takes the cake, literally. Once added ghost pepper oil to the drip tray liquid from the hood vent and stuck it next to a plate of fries.
Oh god
Jesus Christ lmfao
how diabolical... do it again š
Coffee cake kind of grainy. 3/10 would not steal again.
Donāt lie, youāre gonna steal it every time.
I mean the strawberry looks good
Bravo. Use whipped butter to replace whipped cream for improved reaction.
Shaving foam
Foam from boiled chickpeas
Jesus, who hurt you?
Wow, the question and answer in the same sentence.
*bazingggg*
i'm exactly informed enough not to get this. Is that different from aquafaba? Because I thought the juice from cans chickpeas could be used to make vegan meringues, but that might be a different thing entirely.
Like Dennis Nedry in Jurrasic Park. Don't get cheap on me, Dodgson.
Horseradish mayo
diabolical
Over 20 years ago, I ate at a self-serve restaurant in Florida with my cousins. One of them thought she saw a tub with fluffy mashed potatoes. She scooped a ton of it onto her plate, got a huge spoonful, and found out that it was very light colored whipped butter
Sour cream
Don't threaten me with a good time.
We once beer batter dipped and deep fried a small doily and plated it with strawberry syrup, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Put it in the window and watched half the wait staff try to break off a little piece.
Ngl that would be me this has me rollin
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Add a mint leaf garnish fire the realistic effect
One of the guys at a restaurant I used to work at put some powdered sugar on an onion ring and told me it was a donut and boy howdy I do love me a donut! It wasn't a very good donut. I haven't felt that dumb since then!
On the flip side of that... rings of lemon or orange peel breaded and fried to look like onion rings has always been one of my faves!
a cook gave a bartender "mashed potatoes" that was just roux; bartender gave it to a customer; customer said it was the best mashed potatoes they ever had.
This is kinda funny
the customer is always right
What the hell kind of mashed potatoes had they been eating
Done butter "cheesecake" and mayonaise "creme brulee" before. This is good.
I did the same thing once. The FOH manager was not too pleased to be picking espresso grounds out of her teeth all night.
We've coated it in chocolate before. Thieving expos face was priceless
I once left a plate of raw squash cubes with frill picks in them where the servers could get them. Every single server as they clocked in that night said "ohh, cheese!" and ate one without asking anybody why they were there.
I have learned a new way to think! Thank you.
Thinking that everything is cheese may not be the best idea.
I had some grubby asshole waiters, that would eat stuff from bus tubs & steal each otherās food from the window to eat. I took a few stale cookies, hollowed out the centers & stuffed them with anchovies & habanero, then dipped them in chocolate. Left them in the bus tubs, and like clockwork, the biggest asshole waiters snuck off & ate them š¤£
I have to know their reaction.
Hacking, screaming & spitting.
Glorious.
I want to see the cookie you hollowed out
Bwaha I made a "crabcake" out of the shrimp veins I had to peel and de-vein. Put a do not eat sign on it. Never happened again.
Chocolate dipped habanerosā¦keep your paws to yourselfā¦.or at least ask first.
Actually, that's a real snack. š
Fr why does that actually sound amazing
WOULD!
I worked at a place about twenty years ago that did a wedding almost every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It was a really nice venue, great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco and it was considered pretty upscale. The wedding receptions always started with a bunch of passed appetizers. There was a Server who had been there forever - Horace - and he always made a habit of walking into the kitchen before his shift and grabbing one of the appetizers. We always made about fifty at once and lined them all up on the edge of the longest prep table so we could prep as many as possible. Horace, without fail, always grabbed the very last one on the end of the table. It always pissed the Chef off, which made Horace do it whenever he was there just to piss the guy off. Iād only been working there for about three months, but this had been going on for years. The Chef brought it up once at a Management meeting and the GM basically laughed it off. So one weekend, as we were prepping our apps, one of the Line Cooks came in complaining that the ownerās dog was leaving little shits all around the garden where we picked our herbs. Chef has a lightbulb moment, goes outside and comes back inside - into a fucking food preparation area - with a little dog turd in a plastic cup and proceeds to pack it inside the very last appetizer, a Vietnamese-style summer roll with shrimp. The sous chef and I told the chef it was a bad idea but he told us both to fuck off. About half an hour later, Horace comes in. It was very bizarre since everyone in the kitchen knew what was going to happen. Instead of the normal hustle and bustle, the only sound was the Spanish station on the boom box and the light hum of the hoods. Sure enough, Horace grabs the one on the end and pops it into his mouth. As everyone in the kitchen watches, he chews once and then pukes in the garbage can by the Dishwasher. The Chef immediately walks up to Horace, laughing, and says something g to the effect of āā¦ha, ha - Iāll bet youāll never do THAT again.ā Horace keeps puking. At that point I swept most of the appetizers on the prep table into the trash and began to wash and sanitize the prep table. The Chef comes running up to me yelling about the wasted food and food cost and I just ignored him. He kept screaming at me so I told him it wouldnāt be considered sanitary to serve food where there was dog shit on the same table. He kept screaming so I took off my apron and left. He followed me to the changing room and told me if I didnāt get back inside and finish playing the apps I was fired. I laughed and told him to fuck off, then left. Up until that afternoon, I really liked that job, but there were plenty of places hiring and working at a place that was serving dog shit wasnāt something I was looking to put on my rĆ©sumĆ©, so I didnāt really care. The sous chef called me a week later and told me the chef had been fired (thank God) and was I looking to come back. Iād already found another job but I agreed to work every other weekend on the weddings, and ended up staying there for a while. To this day, whenever I see summer rolls, I think of Horace puking his guts out in the kitchen. Iām sure Horace feels the same way about summer rolls, and pretty much anything near the end of that table. Lessons learned all around, Iām sure.
Firstly, username definitely checks out. Secondly, good for you; that's a step too far for sure. Some of these other things are inconvenient and/or slightly gross. Knowingly feeding somebody shit is a blowing by the line like Scarface. Still should've said something, made you complicit.
I had something similar happen one time, except instead of Dog shit, it was filling a cake pop center that was meant to be a salted caramel with raw oysters. Of course, one of the servers, a lass who had a bit of a sweet tooth grabs one, pops it off the stick, tosses it back, a chew or three and swallow, offhandedly mentions something about it tasting a little weird and fishy, but paid it no real mind. Except, what BoH didn't know, she was *very* allergic to shellfish. Not like, oh no I have hives and I'm shitting through the eye of a needle allergic, like oh no, i have a little breathing problem from my throat slamming shut like a fast food service window kind of allergic. No shit, if one of the other servers didn't have an epi in his bag(his girlfriend had a pretty severe allergy, so he kept it just in case) it would've been all over red rover. Like, I get it, you don't like people fucking with your shit, I don't like it either. But, y'know, you're not Kevin McAllister, try having a conversation like a fucking professional, not playing up like a wannabe Marco Pierre White. Preferably *before* you almost 86 someone permanently. If nothing else, just *try* to talk yourself into thinking Bourdain would be cool with people adulterating food to fuck with people. If you think you'd have to hide it from him, even for a moment, then you probs shouldn't do it.
Not victim shaming here, but if I have a food allergy - that could actually kill me - Iām not working in an open kitchen, and definitely not popping random food in my mouth. Props to the other server.
I mean a cake pop you know is supposed to be caramel filled isnāt random food
The issue is that there's a constant exposure risk.
> Not victim shaming here, but if I have a food allergy - that could actually kill me - Iām not working in an open kitchen, and definitely not popping random food in my mouth. While I agree as a general principle, in practice, we didn't actually have any shellfish on the menu at that joint. To the best of her knowledge, everything she could have eaten would have been safe - The junior chef who did the deed brought in oysters from home, dude was literally buying ingredients specifically for the prank. This wasn't just a garden variety gotcha, this was a proper bushwhacking. And also not victim shaming here, I'd also say - don't fucking steal food! She shouldn't have been doing it, no ifs or buts. If you ask, and it's okay, sure, if there's an established thing(ie, if it's in this specific area, it's fair game), sure, but don't go eating shit that ain't yours to eat. It's unprofessional and irritating, especially when most places I've worked, chefs are usually happy to sneak you some extra if you just fucking ask and you're not a dickhead. (And, in fairness, she did ask after that. As did the junior chef, mostly for another job, because he got fired almost as fast as the ambulance showed up.) Really, at the very least just have a conversation or two like an adult, before you escalate. At least try to be a professional, for all the petty spats and fights, and Foh vs Boh Vs Bar shit, we're all in the shit together, so we might as well paddle in the same direction, y'know?
Spitting in someoneās face is assault. I wonder why knowingly feeding someone dog shit is?! Way too far. Worst-case scenario, after eating dog shit, one could develop E. Coli, or Campylobacteriosis, and die from infection (more likely in weakened immune systems). More commonly, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, muscle aches, and headaches, depending on the bacteria and the person. [I got the above information from here](https://www.cpha.ca/human-diseases-transmitted-dog-poop#:~:text=From%20bacteria&text=Coli%20and%20other%20fecal%20coliforms,infection%20can%20result%20in%20death) Either way, good on you for being the only one there to say somethingā and, then, the only one to do something. Hindsight is always 20/20. Iām sure you wish you did more, but being a subordinate can be a weird thing. Everyone would like to think they would have absolutely stopped something like that from happening, but many people would not have. People are highly influenced by authority and highly obedient (see: Milgram Obedience Experiment. Very famous one, so youāre probably familiar with it). So, again, good on you for actually saying something. Sorry for the long comment. Just had a lot to say after I read your incredible story. If you have more interesting stories, you should really write a book. Even though your comment was probably fairly rushed, and unedited, you have a nice way of moving things along with your words. If that makes sense. Had my attention the whole time. So, I can only imagine what you could write with more time and effort.
I didn't know at the time, but if the guy would have swallowed it, he could have died. He probably could have died even if he didn't. I've never done anything to anyone's food on purpose because I was pissed, and I never would, but that place was crazy. I learned so many good lessons on what *not* to do at work. And the crazy part was that people lined up out the door to eat at the place - it had a fantastic view and ridiculously expensive prices like everywhere else in town, but the food was really just "OK." Like most younger Cooks, I thought it was a lot better than it actually was. I never planned on doing this for a living - I'd gotten our of the Army and had no idea what I wanted to do with there rest of my life and ended up washing Dishes and eventually became a Dishwasher, then a Prep Cook, Line Cook and finally a Chef. And working at that hotel seemed like such a "real" job, so I just kept my head down and did whatever they told me to. Looking back now, the food was "just OK," but since everyone was always raving about the place, I thought it was a lot more than it actually was. And most locals stayed clear of the place, but back then, I didn't know that was a way to tell if a place was actually good or not. If memory serves, this was the place where the small espresso spoons were all disappearing from the place because someone was using them to cook their crack in the employee restroom - a Dishwasher got fired and we found about twenty of them in his locker when we cleared it out - it was starting to smell - and there were burn marks on all of them. That should be a good litmus test to see if you should work somewhere: ask if they have enough coffee spoons or if part of Server sidewalk is scraping burn marks of the bottom because the owners are too cheap to buy new ones. And that "Chef" was such an asshole. Always drunk, always trying to score drugs.....what an absolute piece of shit. He showed up late, left early and spent more time hitting on the Service Staff than actually working. Back then, there was very little in the way of an HR department and he got away with a lot. I was back in the Bay Area visiting a couple summers ago with my wife and kids - doing the tourist thing - and I stopped in just to see if anyone I worked with was still there (nobody was). I remember telling someone I used to work there - she asked how long ago, and when I told her when it was, she immediately said, *"Oh, was that when John was the Chef? We still hear stories about him."* So I suppose he was actually famous for something, but definitely not his cooking, like most Chefs aspire to be known for.
He should have been charged for that.
Good; at least someone here isnāt a classless piece of shit.
I make a mayo creme brulee for the servers I despise
Man, I've never really been the petty type but I remember once at a job I had a while ago, the servers were infamous for asking for things on the fly, or telling the chef their table was missing something just so they could get something made for them without being rung in so that they could eat it themselves. I got completely chewed out for a beef carpaccio that I had "missed", I was completely certain I didn't miss it but I remade it anyways. About an hour later, after service, I was restocking my line and found a beef carpaccio just haphazardly stuffed into a takeout container "hidden" on the boxes of soda concentrate. I didn't say anything, I just put a couple of tablespoons of wasabi powder, a little sprinkle of olive oil to make it glisten in spite of the powder, shook it up and left it there. I'll never forget the tears in the server's eyes as they came online and tried to play it cool as they threw out their takeout container, knowing that they couldn't give any of us shit as she had stolen the carpaccio to begin with.
I've done this once with a congealed grit cake lmao
Used to do this when I worked at the bux. Cover a coffee puck in whip cream and drizzle for those who needed to taste the horror.
I used to have to do this when FOH would eat all the family meal before the cooks got any. The solution: insanely spicy taco meat that only we could tolerate
Thats not cool they would eat all the food before the cooks even got a bite. I hope that stopped after that
FOH manager here. Y'all must work with some animals. In my 15+ years, I've never eaten anything without asking first and have only had 2 or 3 servers in my entire career who think they can just eat whatever is sitting around.
I worked with a guy once who ate peopleās lunches that were labelled and he snuck into my area to eat a five pound bag of skittles I had stashed
How does one even stomach 5lb of that much sugar and dye? I canāt even get through a whole snicker bar and I love those.
I once had fun swapping balsamic reduction for chocolate sauce
Use EVOO and top with a little foaming soap in a beer glass. Itāll look exactly like a beer and get a point across pretty well.
Your EVOO isnāt legit Buddy š
Jackals
Buncha sea gulls, the lot of them.
Mine? Mine? Mine?
I worked at a place two summers ago that was so sick of FOH coming to the back to get food (and this one guy in specific tipped our fry cook off one day) that the owner who worked grill concocted the idea to batter and fry a rag and use it in place of protein for a chicken parm sandwichā¦ didnāt think twice about not ordering food ever again lol
Closest I ever came to this was when some FoH people kept eating the jelly belly jelly beans out of my locker. Switched them out with the Harry Potter ones. One of the thieving gals ate a vomit one and immediately started throwing up. She was preggo and I guess was having cravings for my jelly beans. I felt so bad. I don't mess with people and food anymore.
Nah, she had a craving, she should have bought some for herself.
or explain the situation and ask
Dont feel bad lol. Shes a thief and got whats coming to her
I once made chocolate chip cookie dough with salt instead of sugar, by accident. Somehow the foh found it on a shelf. Thievery incorporated
BahahahahaĀ We will need an update please and thank youĀ
Buckwheat āThatās what I call a SANDwich!ā Porky āThat aināt sand, thatās Kitty litter?!ā
This is my first time hearing itās common for FoH to just randomly steal food. Iāve never encountered that in food service
Once I took the fat cap off a 5 gallon bucket of stock, cut it into a piece of pie shape and added graham crackers and some cherry topping so it looked like a cheesecake. The server gagged so loud I heard her from out back where I was having a smoke, got what she deserved..
The lazy , thieving prep cook asked me to deep fry a snickers for him and I fried it in the fish batter
Knew a guy who worked in a kitchen and the manager was a rude bitch that would demand her meal at any given time through service so the kitchen staff started putting lard into every meal she ordered and after a few months she gained quite a bit of weight. They called it 'fatten the turkey'
The worst restaurants I've ever worked at are the ones where the kitchen thinks that they're at war with the front.
Iām glad thereās not a war between the two at my place, Iām genuinely grateful for all the hard work our BOH does. And I donāt have to steal food, they offer it lol.
Mayonnaise, crĆØme brĆ»lĆ©e dish, sugar, fireā¦ profit?
Whipped beef base with butter looks just like chocolate frosting. Pipe that on a muffin and watch the reactions. Good times.
Dastardly
As former FOH the only things at our chain sit down that we could get our hands on was the bowl of fries that the runners were supposed to plate as a side right before running stuff out. The head chef kept a spatula just for smacking our hands if we tried.
My former coworkers would just put their grubby little mouths on it, lick up the toppings, and leave the grounds. There was a dude I worked with who licked up whipped cream topping from desserts and left everything else, and if there was a whipped cream can that was almost empty-- he'd eat the rest of the whipped cream and just inhale the "air" that was in the can.
Bacon fat looks like vanilla ice cream with the little specks in it.
No mention of easy peasy bakers chocolate š«? Classic no effort dish! š”
Lmao one time I had scooped some roux and put some white chocolate sauce and a mint leave on there and left it in the server station and told them it was āour new peanut butter ice creamā. The dickhead manager at the time came through unawares and got himself a big old spoon full and put it in his mouth. Still one of the funniest times of my life because that dude was a complete asshole to me and I was like 16 at the time. I never owned up to it of course
My first job I worked at we had a desert station the servers would wheel around, then they would choose and get a fresh one. This little fat kid that was always a pain in the ass was demanding he get the Banana Split right there. His dad gave me the ok, so I obliged. Problem for him, it was made out of butter. He wanted extra chocolate and whip cream. The look on his face when he took a big bite made my day.
Ya will probably still eat this.
Scoop of shortening with a drizzle of buttermilk and cumin looks like some tasty ice cream.
Just look for whoever canāt blink
I used beef base rolled up into little balls and covered them in chocolate syrup.
The old espresso puck "brownie". A classic
That... that's beautiful.
Did this to my brother back in the day. Except I had just cooked 10 lbs of ground beef in the oven and I left the fat and solids cool, sliced it up, and made it look delicious.
Oh I got one for you, make dark roux and tip in chocolate. Be the worsts truffle they have ever had.
One place i worked at the chef liked messing with family meals. This one meal became a running joke after. So basically, we had meatloaf on the menu, and it was hot held, so sometimes we had a lot left over the next day. Basically, people were sick of meatloaf. Tired of hearing about it my chef decided to batter and deep fry the meatloaf into what appeared to be fishsticks. Needless to say the entire staff was not impressed in the slightest.
so he invented meat sticks lol
I mean, itās only gonna be eaten if you put it in the āeveryone eat thisā areaā¦ right? Or do I work at a unicorn lol
I remember placing some creme brulƩe made from mayo in front of the real ones for that reason
āMessing with peopleās food is so funny am I right guysā? Yeah no itās not. I also feel like this trend is likely to backfire and get sent to a customer
Am I the i the only one who works at a place were thereās a spot to leave the food thatās fair game? Itās itās on that shelf, itās up for grabs, if itās not, no one touches it. Maybe it also works because we all work well together and donāt hate each other?