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?

I worked in a KFC in the late 80s and I was surprised how much food was prepped on site. The flour and spice mix (pre prepared and top secret!) were made up and the chicken was dipped in it a certain way (involved banging your wrists together!). I’m also a dab hand at slicing icebergs - the slices had to be the thickness of a £1 coin. The hygiene was fabulous too, even before the hygiene ratings. It was one of the toughest jobs I had.

I worked in first class for an airline for years. We started off with whole eggs for scrambled egg but then it became liquid eggs, which weren’t quite as nice but were easy to use, and you never had to worry about bits of shell. We had to make scrambled egg in the oven - it takes ages but they are wonderful!

That sounds like the ones we had in school Xmas dinner in the 80s. But still you'd think if they are deep frying them why not do them in small batches so they're at least hot and crisp when they hit the plate! If anything that method should make them more likely to be crunchy and soft in the middle if they time it right.

I work at Spoons. Our scrambled eggs are fresh and made to order! Poached are pre-made though

It's got a different filling, but yes , essentially as PP said

Bloomin' heck, thought the Grand was better than that. I stayed there (conference back in the 90's, I couldn't afford it) can't remember what I ate but I only caught a cold, so survived.

It's a lovely hotel if you can afford it.

The soup would be boiled, killing any germs

Me too - I thought I'd made it up! - I call it 'Cheeky Tzatziki'. 😁

My friends mum was hospitalized with it in 1999, she was really ill and took a long time to recover.

Also I met a lady recently who had been diagnosed with salmonella from eating lettuce. She said the doctor had diagnosed it quite quickly on admittance as apparently not as uncommon as you might imagine

It's a case of you get what you pay for. If you want freshly prepared food, using high quality ingredients, with a menu designed and cooked by qualified experienced chefs then be prepared to pay for it. It's like the difference between a hand knit pure wool jumper and a mass produced acrylic copy.

That's all. Every establishment is different and you should be able to tell pretty quickly from the food and the ambiance whether its a good one.

Can I just point out, yet again not everywhere has shit standards. We roast them, in an oven.

I am slightly disgusted by the pub version though. That's very school dinners 1975.

I worked for Marriott and Holiday Inn in The Early 2000s, both used powdered eggs for the breakfast buffet. 🤮

That "mashed potatoes" are typically from a box and the amount of salt used.

I went to spoons once and ordered eggs Benedict and was told they were out of poached eggs but I could have fried...

Used to work in a hotel as a teen. If we had a wedding, the sandwiches would often be made the day before, a damp tea cloth placed over them, and then they were put in the fridge.

And whenever I have a cooked breakfast out, I’m going to check whether they use powdered eggs or not from how on.

My SIL grew up working in her family's Indonesian restaurant & they made their (delicious) satay sauce from crunchy peanut butter, coconut milk & paprika. That's all. Tastes like it has about 15 ingredients, you'd never guess it's so basic.

Completely meaningless, the chef could be amazing and the cleaner dreadful or off sick, or vice versa.

I assume you're joking because I don't know which Michelin star places you've eaten in but at Moor Hall in Lancashire (recently got its third Michelin star) the place is spotless, the kitchen is all open and I've seen them clean it at the end of service. Every single member of staff (and there are many) pitch in cleaning every last cm of every surface. They get up high and scrub the walls, it is a sight to behold. Another level.

I use that sandwich trick when making them the night before for children’s parties! Really works to stop the crusts curling and they taste just as fresh.

That’s disgusting, re the vegetables!

@Crinkle77 - in the kitchen there is a hot cupboard where the plates are heated to between 60 and 70°. This is often just below 'the pass' (where they plate up). The pass is also fitted with halogen lamps so heats from above. That combination should ensure your food arrives at the table hot, but if there are too many elements it's not foolproof!

Spoons do not use powdered eggs the scrambled eggs are made with fresh eggs. They also do have fresh food, not everything is microwaved.

@MinPinSins I've owned restaurants and been into many, many Michelin kitchens (a perk of being nice to the front of house staff). EHO can visit at any time, without prior warning and it's usually mid-service so kitchens have to stay as clean as is humanly possible at all times. You could eat off the floors of all of the kitchens I've been into (also usually mid-service although at one we waited until the end and I offered to help clean down!) If you see a cafe with a 1 or 2 as their EHO rating then that would be a very good place to avoid!

My Saturday job was in a BHS restaurant. The eggs weren't powered.

Buy they WERE made in an industrial kitchen, freeze dried and packed in plastic in a rectangle shape and sent to us. We didn't even have to store them in the fridge. We then prepared them by rehydrating them in a big steamer.

They were swimming in yellow egg water. Gross.

I worked at a Toby Carvery when I was a student, back in ye olden days. A few things I remember :

1, Joints of meat which were unfinished at the end of the evening’s service were put back in the oven for use at lunchtime the next day. These weren’t normal ovens, they were called ‘cook & hold’ which maintained the cooked meat for hours at a constant 75C in a very humid environment. Very clever.

2, All the veggies & Yorkshire puds were fresh & cooked daily by the chefs. That’s a lot of spuds to rumble, carrots to peel, cabbages to shred etc etc. They weren’t really chefs at all, just hard-working, efficient prep monkeys.

2, Soup was made from the previous day’s leftover veggies & gravy, blitzed together with added Maggi soup seasoning mix.

3, All the desserts were bought in, none were home made. They were plated up by the waiting staff, not the chefs.

4, Most of the non-carvery mains (other than steaks, obv) were also bought in. Eg coq au vin was a boil in the bag product.

5, Hygiene standards were good. I was happy to eat the food. A hot roast beef roll with a yorkie & a couple of roasties was my favourite treat at the end of my shift.

The hens, not the eggs, are vaccinated!