Food Service Industry Horror Stories

Jeremy_X · #1 09-05-2002, 05:21 AM

I love hearing these stories. I finally have a bunch of my own because I work at a pizza place (pm me if you want the name, chances are there is one of these places in or near your town). I was wondering if anyone else here would like to trade some stories. Keep names out if possible, as I don't want to see anyone get in trouble for this.
Enjoy:

This restaurant I work at has two policies that don't really go well together. They are to use only the freshest toppings and to save money. How do these conflict you ask? Well have you ever seen a pizza being made in a fast(ish) food type setting? The toppings, cheese specifically goes almost everywhere on the make line except on the pizza especially during a rush, at least with the way this restaurant has us do things. Well the flying cheese is collected in trays under the make line. Not to bad, but it sits there for hours in the heat of the restaurant which has two 460 degree ovens in the middle of it, causing to go almost melted. Then it starts to turn black. No one in the store knows why. That isn't the worst part. The worst part is that about 7:30 p.m. or so, the make line gets flipped and filled. The cheese however gets recycled. Someone gets to scrape all that cheese back into the cheese bin, then it goes out on pizzas. Tasty huh?

This isn't the worst story I could tell, pretty mild actually. Just trying to get the ball rolling. Have fun!

Woodchuck · #2 09-05-2002, 06:12 AM

I was working on a Saturday once, and decided to go to McDonald's for lunch. Since I was working for Orkin Pest Control, I went into the bathroom first to wash my hands, and there was another guy standing at the sink washing his hands. In the middle stall was some guy in there "bringing in the sheeves"!

He was moaning and groaning, afterwards you heard "splashdown"! He flushes the toilet, opens the stall and leaves the bathroom without washing his hand. Problem? He's wearing a McDonald's uniform!

The other guy yells out, "What the f*ck?!" So I tell him to hold on and see where he goes. We followed him outside and he rings the buzzer to be let back on the food line, he immediately starts handling the buns without gloves. That's when we told the manager. The people in line started cancelling their orders, and the manager offered us meals on the house, but we declined.

Pharmecopia · #3 09-05-2002, 06:28 AM

Jeremy_X · #4 09-05-2002, 07:28 AM

Woodchuck, that was nasty. Good one.

Here is another one from my place of employ.

Ever get a pizza that didn't look quite right but you couldn't place your finger on it? Ever bit into a slice and tasted something that was off but couldn't tell what? Chances are your pizza has had an intimate relationship quite recently with a bit of floor or ceiling tile. The floor thing happens the most. Our ovens, and I assume every other store in this chain, are conveyor belt ovens. They don't have anything to catch the pizzas if the person at the cut table forgets that there are pizzas in or gets too busy. So every so often you get to hear the wondrous sound of a pizza splating on to tile. What should happen after that is it goes in the trash, what really happens in most cases is the cut person scrapes, scoops, peels the pie of the floor, then goes over to the make line with it, replaces a majority of the toppings re-cheeses the worst bits cuts it boxes it, then tells the drivers to delay the delivery to the heat lamps can melt the cheese. If you ever get a pizza and the cheese looks a little red, you have yourself a floor pizza.
The ceiling tile pizza occurs with less frequency but when it happens it is amusing to watch. We have a huge spatula/floor scrape to take the pizzas off the belt. The thing is, this thing makes an amazing catapult. Things get really slow in the store, people will start to goof off. Things get a little out of hand and then splat! there's a pizza on the ceiling. Most fall off without much visible debris on it, meaning that half the tile didn't come down with the pizza, and it wasn't turned white by the dust on these tiles. Some have been too bad to send out.

Any more out there?

Boplicity · #5 09-05-2002, 08:53 AM

Yuck! Guess I have just bought my last franchise pizza. If I get a hankering for a pizza, I'd better make my own.

MarkMcCombs · #6 09-05-2002, 09:05 AM

When I was 15 I worked at a locally owned burger joint. We'd get crazy busy on Friday and Sunday nights with people travelling thru. One Sunday night I was working on the grill, grilling burger buns and adding the fixings, right next to the "main" cook dude who took care of the burgers. We had this glass plate that we used to hold bacon flat on the grill, and as he was putting this away he hit my arm with it, the glass plate hit the grill and broke into a million pieces, all over the burgers that were cooking there. Our boss, the owner, told us to pick the glass out of the burgers!!! Thing is, it was a small restaurant and customers who were inside could see the grill area. So there we were, picking small shards of glass out of burgers that were soon to be eaten. Man.

**Blackbird** · #7 09-05-2002, 09:06 AM

Another McDonald's story:

Late after a gig (the gig ChaosGwar came to, as a matter of fact), after driving around for a while to find a decent place to get some food, I settled for a McDonald's burger.

I ordered their two cheeseburger meal and drove back home. When I arrived and took a bite out of the cheeseburger, I found out there was no meat! I looked at the other cheeseburger and sure enough, it was another cheese sandwich, so I drive back to the McDonalds (It was 1 am at this point) and I tell them what I'm sure they already knew. The manager gave me my money back and two more cheeseburgers, which I threw away.

No more McDonald's for me.

Oh, one time, my roommate got a Pizza from a local joint and he bit on something weirdly chewy which turned out to be a band aid - a used band aid.

Woodchuck · #8 09-05-2002, 09:35 AM

Good God!

A used Band-Aid?!

Eric Cameron · #9 09-05-2002, 10:30 AM

The only one I can tell you about comes second-hand from a guy who used to work at a KFC. When the guys at KFC cut up the chickens to be cooked, they use a high-power water gun, with the water heated to about 195 degrees. This way the chicken, which is frozen, kind of blows apart, making it easier to get the joints apart. Anyway, one time the guys were goofing off, and one of them grabbed the water gun, and squirted a guy. Porblem was, he was only about 3 feet away and it got him in the gut. Blood everywhere. Know what the clean up procedure was?

Mop the floor.

Rock on
Eric

Gunnar Þór · #10 09-05-2002, 11:02 AM

My mom once bought KFC for dinner. I must have been like 12 then. I was eating my bit and didn't feel hungry anymore so I stopped, and lay it on the plate. My mom sees something in the piece of chicken that's like a white-ish colour. A parasite. We went to the store and they gave us another meal for free, but I haven't been able to eat chicken since without stopping every now and then and checking out the bite I'm eating.

Now, I work in a pizza place so I should have some greasy stories here... actually I don't. I've been working there for a year and there's not been a single case where something like was described here happened. We have conveyor ovens too, but when something happens to the pizzas we scrap them and make a new one at a discount for the customer.

**embellisher** · #11 09-05-2002, 11:19 AM

My brother used to work in a burger joint here in Irving. They had one of those 5 gallon jars on the counter with the giant dill pickles in it.

Every time they opened a new jar, the kids that worked at night would drain off about 1/2 gallon of the vinegar, and then all take their turn replacing it with urine.

Woodchuck · #12 09-05-2002, 12:05 PM

There's a Burger King that's located near Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami that had to be closed for a couple of weeks because some guy there was "sexually relieving" himself in the mayo.

**Josh Ryan** · #13 09-05-2002, 12:11 PM

We have restaurant out here that will take soup that comes back from a table and dump it back into the pot. They also recycle the rolls and salad with house dressing. I worked there for a day, before quitting and reporting them to the health inspector. The only people who eat there are idiots and UMass freshmen's parents.

My wife once ordered a tuna sub that came with blood on the roll exactly where it was cut in half. We called to get our money back and the manager said he'd need the sub in return. Not a problem.

I once quit a tepanyaki cook job because the dishwasher only had cold water. We served seafood, chicken, and filet mignon. Probably mad some people really ill. It's too bad, that was a very fun job, lucrative to for a college kid.

**Josh Ryan** · #14 09-05-2002, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woodchuck
There's a Burger King that's located near Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami that had to be closed for a couple of weeks because some guy there was "sexually relieving" himself in the mayo.

He should get the chair for that.

Tsal · #15 09-05-2002, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woodchuck
There's a Burger King that's located near Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami that had to be closed for a couple of weeks because some guy there was "sexually relieving" himself in the mayo.

In Finland there are loads of these small cheap pizzerias, put up by refugees and aliens from places like Turkey, Middle-East etc. and I've heard tons of stories from these. Anything from 'relieve material' in the sauce, to pubic hair in pizzas. This one time (at the bandcamp), I heard some guy had seen one of the pizzaguys doing some chick after the place had closed - on the very same table that they make pizzas on

Thank god that there aren't huge pizza places equipped with conveyer belts here - all pizzas are made one pizza at the time(usually the customer can see into kitchen) and baked in normal pizza oven.

Komakino · #16 09-05-2002, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy_X
I love hearing these stories. I finally have a bunch of my own because I work at a pizza place (pm me if you want the name, chances are there is one of these places in or near your town). I was wondering if anyone else here would like to trade some stories. Keep names out if possible, as I don't want to see anyone get in trouble for this.
Enjoy:

This restaurant I work at has two policies that don't really go well together. They are to use only the freshest toppings and to save money. How do these conflict you ask? Well have you ever seen a pizza being made in a fast(ish) food type setting? The toppings, cheese specifically goes almost everywhere on the make line except on the pizza especially during a rush, at least with the way this restaurant has us do things. Well the flying cheese is collected in trays under the make line. Not to bad, but it sits there for hours in the heat of the restaurant which has two 460 degree ovens in the middle of it, causing to go almost melted. Then it starts to turn black. No one in the store knows why. That isn't the worst part. The worst part is that about 7:30 p.m. or so, the make line gets flipped and filled. The cheese however gets recycled. Someone gets to scrape all that cheese back into the cheese bin, then it goes out on pizzas. Tasty huh?

This isn't the worst story I could tell, pretty mild actually. Just trying to get the ball rolling. Have fun!

All the pizza places near us are privately owned and let you watch your pizza being made...it's much safer!

Johnalex · #17 09-05-2002, 01:40 PM

I worked in a pretty nice restraunt for 4 years. I have seen the head chef not wash his hands, put bugers in food, stick pubes in stuff, slide steaks across the floor, and spit on food. This was the Head Chef. Also just to say...he gave himself a Prince Albert......ewwww!

Ulyanov · #18 09-05-2002, 03:16 PM

This isn't a food service horror story, more of a food distribution story, but I used to work at a grocery as a cart guy/janitor/general stuff type guy. Anyway, one time I was outside collecting the carts when this lady asked if I would mind holding her dog's leash while she ran inside to return a bag of chips with a hole in it. It was slow that night, and since she was polite and a dissatisfied customer, I agreed. When she came back out, it turned out that the hole was eaten by a mouse, and it had left her a present too. She was suprisingly not mad, given the situation.

There were lots of mice there, and the produce guy was always smoking in the back room with the produce. I don't know how we ever passed inspection.

Woodchuck · #19 09-05-2002, 04:03 PM

You passed inspection by way of the good ol' American greasing of the palm. ($$$)

SuperDuck · #20 09-05-2002, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johnalex
I worked in a pretty nice restraunt for 4 years. I have seen the head chef not wash his hands, put bugers in food, stick pubes in stuff, slide steaks across the floor, and spit on food. This was the Head Chef. Also just to say...he gave himself a Prince Albert......ewwww!

What's a Prince Albert?