how often does chef sweat drip into the food?

[MagnusTheBrewer]

yeah if you were a chef, just ask yourself whether, if you were tasting food all day, would you change spoons a couple hundred times when no one would know if you were doing it or not?

The answer is yes and I do.
I would also argue that even with some restaurants doing a poor job, in general, restaurant prepared food is safer than most home prepared food on average.

 

[NetWareHead]

I know of a pizza parlor where the pizza man sticks his entire arm into the sauce pot ( a 3 foot tall pot) and uses his fingers to mash up the tomatoes and mix all of the spices uniformly. They dont have a $400 immersion blender to do this job. So yep, the guy's armpit hairs are resting on the edge of the pot and his entire arm is in the sauce. And yes I still eat there and the pizza is fucking delicious

 

[NetWareHead]

Regarding the sweat, I worked at a restaurant and it sounds like most here have no idea of a restaurant kitchen environment. My kitchen had 6 commercial stoves, each with 6 x 30K btu burners plus 6 ovens underneath. A commercial double deep dryer, a stand up grill to do steaks with a sear oven at 900 degrees plus 2 salamanders near the stoves. Other side of the kitchen had a big double decker pizza oven. Then you need to count the various refrigerators and freezers located int the kitchen running constantly with their compressors dumping their waste heat into the kitchen. There is no air conditioning in the kitchen(it would be pointless and expensive) and on a summer day with all of the equipment running I have measured the temperature once at 110 degrees.

Now 12 tables just get seated and all the wait staff delivers their slips to the kitchen all at once plus the girl running the phones just took 4 to-go orders. The kitchen is a mob scene of cooks rushing to send orders out and you are working your ass off.

You WILL sweat in that situation like any normal human being. I used to love any excuse to enter the walk in fridge or freezers just to escape the heat of the kitchen. Hell, I used to turn the faucet on and wet my entire head and push my hair back just to keep cool. At least if water dripped down my face and into my eyes, it would dilute the sweat and not sting my eyes anymore. That kitchen was so damn hot that my hair would dry in less than half an hour.

If sweat in your food is too much to bear then prepare your own damn meals at home in an air conditioned kitchen. Chefs behind the scene are people too and no chef I know wears those stupid plastic food handling gloves either. The only guys I see wearing those are the clowns preparing your foot long sub at subway, buffet servers or the guys slicing your meats at the delis. Real commercial kitchens will put on a dog and pony show when the health inspector comes but the gloves come off, the sweat drips and your food gets tasted with the same tasting food in the chef's front pocket when 20 order slips are sitting on the rail and its time to feed customers.

 

[Markbnj]

The whole question is silly at a fundamental level. What? You're only bothered by the things you can see? Or the things other people can see and tell you about?

If you guys are squeamish about the idea of a chef dripping in your food, read this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-Hou.../dp/0425188426

It's chock full of peace of mind for you, trust me.

 

[BladeVenom]

I know of a pizza parlor where the pizza man sticks his entire arm into the sauce pot ( a 3 foot tall pot) and uses his fingers to mash up the tomatoes and mix all of the spices uniformly. They dont have a $400 immersion blender to do this job. So yep, the guy's armpit hairs are resting on the edge of the pot and his entire arm is in the sauce. And yes I still eat there and the pizza is fucking delicious

That reminds me, most vintage ports are still made by old fashioned foot treading. Some other wines to, but more common with port than any other wines. People bare feet were soaking in your wine.

 

[NetWareHead]

That reminds me, most vintage ports are still made by old fashioned foot treading. Some other wines to, but more common with port than any other wines. People bare feet were soaking in your wine.

My family tells funny/gross story of the old people being given the job of stepping on the grapes. Supposedly the elderly's feet had seen more miles and accumulated more "flavors" to pass on to the grape juice which resulted in better wine. And if they had a foot fungus, that yeast would kick start the fermentation process sooner

 

[alkemyst]

My family tells funny/gross story of the old people being given the job of stepping on the grapes. Supposedly the elderly's feet had seen more miles and accumulated more "flavors" to pass on to the grape juice which resulted in better wine. And if they had a foot fungus, that yeast would kick start the fermentation process sooner

FUD

 

[OverVolt]

FUD

Yea okay city boy

 

[alkemyst]

Yea okay city boy

good luck with that belief. I saw the so if I am off tilt I will retract it.

Oh wait you come from San Francisco.

Your anus is always lubed.

Don't go away mad, just go away.

 

[MongGrel]

good luck with that belief. I saw the so if I am off tilt I will retract it.

Oh wait you come from San Francisco.

Your anus is always lubed.

Don't go away mad, just go away.

and that.

I don't do drugs, I do drink mich ultra though.

You must have the absolutely most boring life.

I am betting you have fucked less than 5 women in your life.

I am betting that is going to really piss you off now.

 

[zanejohnson]

my pops is in the casino restaurant business (buffets to high end 100 dollar plate hotel restaurants) he was a regional managar for a few mcdonalds franchises before that, i've worked many hours in kitchens growing up...... he made me work the pits of hell.....

here's the run down... if horrible management isn't some huge problem or something it's basically:

fast food... it's a bunch of teenagers.. they're wearing gloves but they're touching there phone, cash, drugs, etc, at work, all the time.. so there's that... but most people aren't gonna spit in someone's food... if you did that, and a co worker saw you.. it would be bad... they may be minimum wage people but shit, they have kids, they have lives, they have morals.. people aren't in the back of taco bell spitting in food.. i've actually never seen it happen before.

cheap restaurants... (olive garden, cheap buffets like golden corral, etc)

this is the worst... avoid like the plague...i promise you nothing in that buffet was actually cooked during the shift you eat during.... the "cooks" at night... are just putting out pre-cooked and kept warm food... and then at close........they save anything that they can put out the next day.....and these guys are making like 9 bucks an hour....so they dont give a shit, "welp these little salad bar ham cubes smell like straight up assholes" cool" save it i aint filling out a waste log pfft, hurry up and mop the floor so we can get the fuck out of here and smoke a joint!"

high end casino buffets:
they hire actual chefs, they build million dollar kitchens, they dont cut corners on things like, labor, food costs, because a casino buffet is nothing but an amenity to the player, and if you get comped a buffet, you already lost your ass in there casino so the business model of a casino buffet is actually never to actually attempt to turn a profit by selling it's "restaurant experience" it's all about catering to every culture, which means choices and atmosphere and being able to fit as many people in the door between the second they open the and second the line to get in closes... they always have the best food, and it's always the cleanest, environment, for mass produced food anyways... but understand, your gonna be dining with 150+ other people...

high end hotel restaurants:
just that... you get what you pay for, the chefs are making 40k a year, the sous chefs, 60-90k, the executive chef, even more... they are just super rare, seat a very small number of people but they are the beez knees. you'll have a professional server, someone will take your jacket, and seat you and compliment your lady and who will be super professional about everything, and will expect a super professional tip lol.... or else. (watch out those are usually the type who make hundreds of dollars a night in tips, so they..how do i put this. know other people who deal in hundreds of dollars of cash a night as well, and sometimes they may have someone come maybe....key your car, or follow you home..who knows..tip well people)

 

[DigDog]

honest?

i've worked as a chef (in less than reputable restaurants, where you're overworked and consequently sweat quite a lot more than usual) for 7 years and only once i had a drip of sweat "contaminate" some food.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

heres a chef using a woodworking drill to make your food. hope you dont mind lubricating oil in your apple pie:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-POWER-DRILL-peel-dozens-apples-seconds.html

sometimes i see people preparing food with non food preparing equipment (eg, spackling knives to clean chopping blocks) and wonder it thats safe.

 

[NetWareHead]

heres a chef using a woodworking drill to make your food. hope you dont mind lubricating oil in your apple pie:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-POWER-DRILL-peel-dozens-apples-seconds.html

sometimes i see people preparing food with non food preparing equipment (eg, spackling knives to clean chopping blocks) and wonder it thats safe.

Where is the lubruicating oil? He is using a battery powered drill to spin apples and peel them quickly.

We used to filet entire fish, salmon, snapper, cod, flounder and with an ordinary set of needle nose pliers, each filet would then be inspected for any bones/spines. With the needle nose pliers we would feel for any bones and pluck them out. Surely we need a "food safe" tool instead of something we got at home depot.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Where is the lubruicating oil? He is using a battery powered drill to spin apples and peel them quickly.

We used to filet entire fish, salmon, snapper, cod, flounder and with an ordinary set of needle nose pliers, each filet would then be inspected for any bones/spines. With the needle nose pliers we would feel for any bones and pluck them out. Surely we need a "food safe" tool instead of something we got at home depot.

i dunno, dont most tools like that have wd40 all over them and lead in the metals etc...isnt the type of equipment and dishware in a commercial kitchen regulated/nsf approved

 

[NetWareHead]

i dunno, dont most tools like that have wd40 all over them and lead in the metals etc...isnt the type of equipment and dishware in a commercial kitchen regulated/nsf approved

The drill bit is the only part that touches the apples and can be easily sanitized with soap and water. The fish bone plucking pliers are stainless steel and after use, they get dunked in hot soapy water and hung up to dry. A few drops of food grade mineral oil to lube the joint in the middle and all done.

Even in your spackling knife example, soap and water cleans it right up and then you can use the clean knife to scrape the chopping block if need be. Re the drill, if we use a tool like that it is not a drill out of a mechanic's garage for instance all covered in motor oil or WD-40. Would the NSF approve of a drill like that in a commercial kitchen? Probably not, but I'm not sure. But when you have hundreds of apples to peel you improvise and do your best to follow food safety guidelines. My point is that you can use a drill like that and not threaten the safety of your customers.