Post a Meme, any Meme! (no politics)

[winemaker81]

You are so right, Brian. Years ago, when I lived in Rochester, New York, we had a neighbor who was an up and coming contemporary artist. Her work was unique and gaining significant local interest. Her husband made an arrangement with a noted and very popular local restaurant, to display some of his wife's works at the restaurant. He needed some help setting up and displaying the artwork, so I went with him. I had been in this restaurant many times on both social and business meals and always found it to be great. While we were there and finishing up (it was a Sunday morning, the restaurant was closed and we were the only ones in the building), I said to my friend, "I have never seen a kitchen in a first class restaurant, so I am going to take a look." I went in and I was aghast! The kitchen equipment and the floor were greasy and filthy. The exhaust fan over the cooking surface dripped with black grease. The most shocking thing I saw, though, was an approximately 15" x 30" x 4" deep, stainless steel tray filled with uneaten bread from the tables. There was even butter on some of the bread. I showed this to my friends and he thought they just had not thrown it away but I pointed out that the trash cans were empty. It is my belief this bread was going to be turned into bread crumbs or stuffing. I never went back to this restaurant and it closed about 9 months later.

That was the low end of the spectrum.

In the early 80's I was the sole waiter in an Italian restaurant in Upstate NY (AFAIK, I was the only male server before or after that). The kitchen was sparkling clean at the end of each night. Neither Rocco (owner) nor Rocky (his son) tolerated anything else.

Funny story -- one night a bear knocked over the grease barrel, a 50 gallon barrel into which waste grease was dumped. The entire restaurant emptied to see the bear eat.

One of the cooks (owner's son-in-law) was going to drive the bear away. Rocky stopped him -- "the more he eats, the less we have to clean up!!!" Gotta love the practical mind!

 

[jswordy]

You are so right, Brian. Years ago, when I lived in Rochester, New York, we had a neighbor who was an up and coming contemporary artist. Her work was unique and gaining significant local interest. Her husband made an arrangement with a noted and very popular local restaurant, to display some of his wife's works at the restaurant. He needed some help setting up and displaying the artwork, so I went with him. I had been in this restaurant many times on both social and business meals and always found it to be great. While we were there and finishing up (it was a Sunday morning, the restaurant was closed and we were the only ones in the building), I said to my friend, "I have never seen a kitchen in a first class restaurant, so I am going to take a look." I went in and I was aghast! The kitchen equipment and the floor were greasy and filthy. The exhaust fan over the cooking surface dripped with black grease. The most shocking thing I saw, though, was an approximately 15" x 30" x 4" deep, stainless steel tray filled with uneaten bread from the tables. There was even butter on some of the bread. I showed this to my friends and he thought they just had not thrown it away but I pointed out that the trash cans were empty. It is my belief this bread was going to be turned into bread crumbs or stuffing. I never went back to this restaurant and it closed about 9 months later.

Hahahaha!!!! Went to dinner Saturday with friends. Waitress says, "We have homemade gumbo on special, with salmon and sausage and snapper in it."

My friend is like, "That sounds good, maybe..."

Having read "Kitchen Confidential," I was like, "I'll just check what's on the menu."

He ended up having a ribeye.