25 Things Chefs Never Tell You

This was a blog article posted on Yahoo's homepage today. Most of it seems pretty plausible to me; what do you think?

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_blogg ... l-you.html


JB

[Jenise]

Only one thing I read there surprised me: that 3 out of 4 have seen cockroaches in a resto kitchen. OH DEAR....

Only one thing I read there surprised me: that 3 out of 4 have seen cockroaches in a resto kitchen. OH DEAR....

Jenise, It sounds like you never worked around large quantities of produce. It is practically inevitable. Your kitchen can be squeeky clean, but you get a case beans from Watcamalo, or a case of greens from Catchamo; it would be a miracle if a roach or two didn't crawl out.

[Jenise]

You are correct, Carl, I haven't. If I ever own a restaurant, I'll need a separate warehouse.

I would be interested in hearing Chef Joseph's take on this article. I suspect that at least some of it is true though.

Only one thing I read there surprised me: that 3 out of 4 have seen cockroaches in a resto kitchen. OH DEAR....

I was more surprised to learn that many chefs do not like oysters and eggplant, but do eat at Wendy's! Who knew?

[Jenise]

I would be interested in hearing Chef Joseph's take on this article. I suspect that at least some of it is true though.

Well, since it's survey results it's all true, Bob. Doesn't mean every Chef would agree with whoever the respondents were, of course.... I'll bet our Chef wouldn't have selected Wendy's, for one.

I'll jump in this thread when I have some time.

I'm not actually surprised by any of that, nor particularly shocked, to be honest...

Only one thing I read there surprised me: that 3 out of 4 have seen cockroaches in a resto kitchen. OH DEAR....

That surprised me too. I would have thought four out of four.

Restaurants mark up wine by a lot more than you might expect.
Most chefs said that a bottle on their wine list costs 2½ times what the same one would cost in a wine store


I expect 300+%

Not much surprising there. I'm with Hoke, I'm surprised there's 25% of chefs who've never seen a roach in a kitchen- doesn't mean every kitchen does, but a significant portion do- it can be unavoidable especially in cities where most restaurants are on ground floors of larger buildings.
As to Wendy's, not surprising. I would bet that in say California In'n'Out would crush Wendys, but the number 1 votegetter will obviously be a national chain that everyone has access to, and I'd give Wendys edge over McD, BurgerK, KFC, etc (Is Popeye's national? I'd vote for that over Wendys).

[Jenise]

I was more surprised to learn that many chefs do not like oysters and eggplant, but do eat at Wendy's! Who knew?

This article might explain Wendy's (in addition to Dale's astute comment about east coast proximity).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pot.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

About that roach thing - I think one out of four chefs is lying, or very young.

I saw roaches at one time or another in every restaurant I worked in. The chain places actually had the least of the problems, with an occasional German brown showing up inside the premises. Worst ever roach-related event happened in the fanciest restaurant I worked in. It was an old-school supper club kind of place that was one of the swankiest in Phoenix at the time. I opened a door to a closet that contained both a bucket of old greasy rags and a floor drain. It was literally crawling with big sewer roaches. I slammed that door shut and never opened it again.