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Photo: Charles Haynes, Flickr.
I'd never been in a restaurant kitchen until I cleared tables at The Lord Fox, a fabulously patrician eatery that still serves beef Wellington and crab-stuffed avocados. I recall having two concurrent revelations that day: Servers don't get a lunch break, and most diners leave food on their plates. To the disgust of my schoolmates who'd also landed the restaurant work gig, I nibbled on leftover steak sandwiches, ate the bacon out of BLTs and finished off any remaining French fries before rinsing the dishes.
Now that I'm a server, I still eat off cleared plates – and so do all of my coworkers. I'm not sure diners realize the dishrooms of many restaurants look like buffets by the end of service: We loathe to waste food, especially the fancy stuff.
There's a pretty precise code that governs whether your food ends up in the trash or your server's belly. We won't touch anything from a table where someone was sneezing, coughing or just generally odd: Who knows what sort of germs someone with crumbs in his moustache or an offensive slogan on his t-shirt is carrying? And, in another nod to hygiene, menu items in which a diner stabbed his fork repeatedly – such as creamy pastas or mounds of mashed potatoes – are probably headed straight to the scrape bin. (That said, some of my more voracious colleagues make a blanket exception for hot crab dip.)
But leftover mussels still in their protective casing? Absolutely. The untouched end of a filet? Sure. The better part of a crab cake? Heck, yes.
As servers, we can't often afford to feast on the steak and lobster our customers enjoy. But the leftovers are all ours.
| Yes -- that's gross! | |
|---|---|
| No -- I'm not eating it, so why not? |
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1-22-2010 @11:14AM jcurtis said... Wow,
I was a bus boy and then a server at ultra highend as well as middling restaurants. Eating off plates is disgusting. That is some kind of nasty.
I am not a germophobe, but it is not to be done. If you don't want to waste food start a compost heap or something...
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1-23-2010 @12:32AM staci said... some restaurants now give to those who wouldn't know when they're going to eat again. shelters = food pantries. or if it just gets written off.
1-24-2010 @6:55AM Sandy said... I was server for many years and I can tell you I am appalled by this story. Sorry, NEVER did this. It's absolutely disgusting.
1-24-2010 @8:52AM t said... eating off plates is disgusting i dont know what kind of restaurants you they work in but that would never happen in most upscale restaurants
1-24-2010 @3:22PM JoyRptr said... I can't help but think of all the conversations going on over dinner plates in restaurants. Ever seen anyone talking with food in their mouth? Notice the particles and spit flying out? Where do you think that stuff lands? Maybe on the uneaten food on their plate. Ewww. I agree with Curtis. Just, ewww....
1-24-2010 @11:16AM King David said... You know, the SAD FACT that really pisses me off is when I go to Sam's club, or a KFC, or any other place that serves/sells food and I see the amount of packaged, or prepared, food that these people THROW AWAY EACH DAY!! There is ALWAYS enough to feed a small nation, and yet when I try to obtain the food for the local food bank or a shelter I get the bull***t line that "we have to throw everything away or we will get sued"!!!!!!!! Bull!!! They are just using that so they DON'T HAVE TO BE HUMANE and allow anyone to obtain what they are pitching. First: if any weasel lawyer were to even THINK of taking that kind of a case they should be dis-barred because they are probably giving the weasel world of being a lawyer an even worse name/identity, and they are probably jealous that they can't get any of the food for themselves. Second, I can see a potential problem with everyone showing up to "beg" for food but I'm sure there could be some sort of arrangement that could work. True, there COULD be some issues with prepared foods and shelve time involving heat and/or being kept cold however the packaged food is another story. And when I watch Sam's club personnel taking SEVERAL SHOPPING CARTS of PACKAGED food to the dumpster I just cringe, and get pissed that they are too stupid (yes, stupid, don't tell me that they would be promoting people to JUST show up to buy the old food instead of the regular priced food -- ANY money is better than no money) to care about those who could ONLY pay a smaller price for the food if it were in a "reduced price" area of the store. The same goes with the restaurants and when they have over produced a daily special and food like that, at least allow the employees some latitude -- I KNOW you're not paying them a wage that is of any higher value than minimum.
1-24-2010 @1:42PM Maxster said... I have worked in the restaurant business for over 35 years and have NEVER experienced servers eating left over food off guests plates.
Once a plate "hits the table" and comes back for any reason (didn't like what they ordered) it went into the garbage. It was not eaten by any servers.
I don't know where this person worked, however, this is another one of the many myths surrounding the restaurant business, such as the "3 second rule"
1-24-2010 @2:12PM Jen said... KingDavid - there is a REAL concern with restaurants and stores (etc) providing food to the homeless. A major arena food vendor did get sued and lost when a homeless person ate an unsold hotdog donated after a sporting event and got sick. Same goes with stores selling or donating food at or past the "best by" date. And employers have to be restrictive to allowing servers to eat leftovers or extras of the special because when they do they notice that suddenly there was always more unneeded leftovers at the end of shifts or more "accidental mess ups" on orders that have to go back to the kitchen. Sad yes, but true and understandable.
Side note - as a former servant, I never, and no one I worked with for years at several different mid-level restaurants, ate off of customers old plates. We would eat mistake orders that got sent back untouched though, if we could sneak them around the managers.
If you guys are going to be concerned about anything - don't be concerned about your server eating anything gross - that doesn't affect you. Be concerned about those lemons in your water - they are not washed before being cut and if a whole lemon falls on the floor, it just gets picked up and put back on the cutting board. The butter packages and creamers, jellies, etc, - they get picked off of bussed plates and (sometimes rinsed, most often not) put back out on the next plate.
1-22-2010 @11:24AM Sarah said... Uh....No way. I worked in the food industry for years (and still do).
There is no way I would eat food half eaten by strangers!
But hey, if it floats your boat to eat other people's leftovers, sure, knock yourself out. But please, most people in the food industry learn how to get a meal of sorts for free without eating drool encrusted food. But then again, you were also all proud awhile back about stealing food off patrons plates before you brought it out.
Shaking head.
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1-22-2010 @11:28AM Sarah said... Btw...on your concept of germs? You are basing your germ concept on how a person looks outside - if they look "sick" or have a mustache.
How about raging infections from an abscess? Uncontrolled gingivitis? Oral herpes? Cold sores on the tongue?
Yeah, no thanks. A person can carry a lot of health issues orally and no one,not even them knows it. Before you eat their half eaten food I'd ask "would I french kiss this person?"
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4-05-2010 @11:56AM Elizabeth said... You cannot catch gingivitis, or oral herpes or cold sores (which for you information is another word for oral herpes) by eating someone else's food. Educate yourself before you comment; you are just making yourself look dumb.
1-22-2010 @12:23PM A_Str8 said... I have to agree with the above commentors. Eating food that's been left over by strangers is pretty nasty. Just because food looks untouched doesn't mean it is. In the restaurants I worked in, there were a few people who ate leftovers and there was everyone else who looked at them with disgust.
I don't really care what happens to my leftovers when they're cleared from the table, but if I know a person is eating a stranger's leftovers, I will have doubts about that person's cleanliness and hygeine. I definitely would never eat food you cooked.
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1-22-2010 @12:31PM A said... Sarah: Those issues aren't really a risk with the sort of food she's eating. Unless someone has particularly strange dining habits, their mouth (or any utensils which have been in their mouth) hasn't come in contact with the food. Honestly, I'd be more concerned about whether or not the patron washed their hands before picking up a sandwich. (But then, we've all heard horror stories about how gross some restaurant kitchens are. *shrug*)
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1-22-2010 @2:16PM Lee said... I grew up in restaurants and cleared more tables than I can count. I never did that ever, nor can I ever recall seeing another server do that. Like mentioned above, if I were hungry, there was always a way to get something to eat.
I'm with the camp who could really care less what happens to anything left on my plate. Of course, if it floats your boat to chow down on it, more power to you. I won't judge anyone for stuff I'm not into.
Perhaps, Hannah has an inner Freegan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism) screaming to get out.
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1-22-2010 @3:09PM jcurtis said... Freegans scare me. I find it ironic that their lifestyles are enabled by the very lifestyles they condem. I digress.
But please don't eat food off strangers plates. It won't kill you, but it is not civilized. The hot crab dip comment was the worst for me. Double dippers are everywhere! DO NOT EAT LEFTOVER DIP! I usually avoid dips in general (delicious as they are) unless I have my own individual serving. Communal dip is a vehicle for nastiness.
1-23-2010 @11:09AM Numb said... Wow.... In all four restaurants I've worked in, I have only ONCE seen a single server eat off of a guest's plate.... and frankly he was a disgusting river troll and the entire staff was APPAULED that he did it.
Absolutely disgusting Hanna.
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1-24-2010 @8:45AM Heather said... Umm, have any of you ever had sex? I won't get gross with details, but we humans do some icky stuff in search of the Big O... much nastier than eating the last roll from a diner's basket, or the end of steak that was never cut!
1-24-2010 @3:36PM JoyRptr said... Heather, this is true, but I would never do the things I do with my husband with any and every Joe Blow that walks in off the street. And if my husband didn't meet my standards of cleanliness, he wouldn't get "the goods" either. Just saying, you don't know what kind of nastiness is walking into a restaurant and pulling up to a table. Just nasty.
1-24-2010 @3:48PM RO said... they shouldn't have to eat off plates - they should be given a meal. this isn't a third world country
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4-05-2010 @11:57AM E said... Given a meal? What I want is a meal break. I've worked up to 16 hours with no break. I eat bites in between waiting on customers. I've been told that federal law mandates a meal break for so many hours worked. In food service it doesn't happen.