I am a regular diner and I used to dine out for my every single meal. From fine dining to fast junk food, I all enjoy both the place and the food. But after reading this article, you will probably need to reconsider if you really want to dine out anymore or spending that amount of money for that quality of food?
Crews don’t wipe down our menu and…
Okay, first thing first. Menu. One of the most dirtiest thing from the restaurant store front. Lots of waiters won’t wipe down the menu between customers and so does the salt and pepper shakers, ketchup and the mustard bottle too. It definitely has no surprise that restaurant is a germ paradise. Good Morning America sent a team of scientist to 12 restaurants to swap the items on the tabletop and do a test found out that menus carried the most germs, with an average count of 185,000 bacteria. Horrible! The second most dirtiest item came to the pepper shakers which I used it for at least half of my food. So next time we got to wash our hands before eating.
We all get sick
Sick is another way to split the germs. We all get sick sometimes but taking a day off is not always reality. According to a recent study from Food Chain Workers Alliance, 53% of the workers who work in dining related industry still go to work when sick. “They are not giving up the $100 they’d make in a shift because they’re sick.” Keep an eye out for chefs sitting on the sidewalk smoking, sneezing, and coughing in their hands, says Chris Gesualdi, chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education.
The markup of the plate is where the kitchen crews get pay
A nice presentation of a plate makes the price difference. The cost of making a Spaghetti alla Carbonara less than few few bucks but the restaurant charge more than triple to their customers. The bottom line is, restaurants need to make profit. “At a fine-dining restaurant, the average cost of food is 38 to 42 percent of the menu price,” says Kevin Moll, CEO and president of National Food Service Advisors, in Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney.
Not so accurate on the calories count
I will never trust those calories counts stated on the restaurant menu because many of them are inaccurate. According to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, about one in five “low-calorie” menu options contain 100 more calories than menus state. The reason is because the portion size vary widely from a restaurant compared to a fast-food chain where all the ingredients come to cooks already portioned.
