Stuff I didn't know about restaurants until recently

[samarrange]

I am very old, but I only learned this year that hotel buffet scrambled eggs are usually made from powdered egg. That explains why they are a uniform colour. Scrambled eggs made from scratch have yellow and white bits.

On the plus side, I also learned recently that the chicken (or at least the "Original Recipe" pieces) at KFC is made from scratch in the shop every day from fresh chicken pieces, flour, and herbs'n'spices. I had imagined it was all done in a factory somewhere and then cooked from frozen.

What are some other bits of restaurant knowledge that surprised you?

Only the obvious ones like Wetherspoons microwaving everything, nothing fresh

I read 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain 25 years ago and I've not eaten off a specials menu since. Over the years I've met a couple of people who have said the same.

I want saw a waiter fill a glass of beer from the dregs that got caught in the drip tray.

And where did you learn the BS that ALL hotel buffets use this method? We never did and never would, or in our restaurants. People spreading shit like you should be banned from social media

he must have been giving that to a very very drunk person as the difference is really obvious.

Slightly tangential but I read a thread on here once about how lots of restaurant food nowadays is made from bought-in pre-cooked sous vide bags, even at quite expensive places; and have never been quite so fond of eating out since. I now try to eat out more at brunch or lunch places where you can actually see them cooking the food rather than restaurants in the evening as a result.

Are you the same person who commented on that when I was describing another one of my jobs when I was a tour guide on a tourist coach excursions and used to turn on Corsican folk music in the afternoons when I'd got sick of talking and they'd all had a few wines at lunchtime and were falling asleep anyway?

That was a great one. We used to pass HGV drivers and the French Foreign Légion VABS going the other way on the roads and when we all met up in the pub later the other drivers used to say, "It looked like you'd just gassed them all"
"They're all fine. I wake them up once we get past Leclerc roundabout and they're having the Bon Appétit option at the Hôtel St Pissed Off Christophe by seven o'clock."

Or are you somebody else?

Who doesn't want a Yorkshire the size of a lion head. Nothing worse than a small yorky.

Make you own egg tubes --

I haven’t worked anywhere with powdered egg, but I have where liquid egg has been used for scrambled egg, meringue etc. I worked at one place were the poached eggs were pre-done, which isn’t a huge deal as otherwise they’re still ready made in the kitchen and just sit in cold water until an order comes in.

It was fairly common for meat/fish that was sous vide to be ready cooked and finished off in the kitchen, purely to reduce waste, cooked on the premises it has to be used that day or the next, purchased will have a use by date so you can get 1-3 additional days out of it depending on the meat/fish. A place I worked did a wagyu steak before it was fashionable and they arrived sous vide, they were so so expensive having a longer shelf life made a big difference.

I think rules around descriptions on menus are stricter now, I worked in a very posh expensive restaurant that served truffles on its eggs benedict, it was actually truffle oil in the sauce and some dried mushroom flakes on top to look like small bits of truffle.

I ate scrambled egg in a place by Poole harbour once and I swear they had eked it out with extra egg white because it was ghastly, almost without flavour.

We asked this same question re mushrooms/brown liquid; apparently they are poached! No wonder they taste like wet hospital towels
DS worked in McDonald’s years ago- they’re very strict on hand washing, cleanliness and had a workbook. And a very precise way of washing floors
I found it very reassuring

Explain please? Can't get my head around an 8 inch egg?!?

What is want to know is in fine dining restaurants how do they keep the food warm while they construct those complicated dishes. It must take ages to put all those splodges and little bits and pieces on the plate so carefully. And how do you get all the food ready at the same time.

I work in a hotel in northern Ireland and I think the chef would have a meltdown if I told him to use powder scrambled eggs. 🤣 He's very proud of his food and will be insulted. It's hard to keep warm and if we do a buffet (mostly wedding/large groups) we will read the room and make what we thing will be eaten in about the next 15 minutes or so. Scrambled or fried eggs don't keep warm good. I remember trying powdered scrambled eggs in Zante while on holiday, and never again. 🤮

The eggs are cooked in a tube thats narrow enough that the yolks sit in a row.

Hot plates and good communication. I used to plate puddings, so sometimes hot sometimes cold, you get really quick at putting all the fancy finishing bits on.

A local pub cooks vats of dried pasta until it's almost al dente, runs under the cold tap, & it can be ready in 2 minutes. It's sold as "fresh pasta" . Don't know if this is common practice.

Heist that's disgusting. People who don't wash hands touching it potentially on their table then other people eat it in soup 🤮🤮🤮

Video up the page.

I can tell Powdered/liquid egg immediately for scrambled eggs- it usually has zero taste- best scrambled eggs I’ve had are here at a cafe in Bath- they also make their own amazingly tasty gluten free bread with loads of seeds in it -

i must remember to order fried eggs in future then. i bet these are the only ones freshly cooked.

I'd pay any amount of money for a properly cooked roast but nowhere does real roast potatoes

Shes a very close neighbour of mine and we've carried/helped her into a cab a few times but never smelt her farts - she loves a white wine - we know her as Gaynor ntw

Has anyone actually had salmonella since like, 1976? It’s always mentioned but I’ve never ever heard of or seen it in real life.