TV chefs

Having once work in the kitchens as a very young person I can assure you no one would eat in a restaurant if they saw what really went on behind the scenes and it was both restaurants and a starred hotel that I m taking experience from

It's the untamed locks and proliferation of facial hair that gets me.
Can't watch or stomach the Hairy Bikers.

Worked in catering for many years. Chefs are usually way too busy to think about eating the food, it's the last thing on their minds. The hair issue I agree with and has been allowed to creep in.

Same here ixion. Yuk.

My mother was a cook and the tales she told made your hair curl. Whole trays of food dropped dusted down and used.
The hair gets me as well, where have the ponytails gone? I have only ever seen Jamie Oliver and Mary Berry wash their hands after touching raw chicken and having personal experience of what that can do, I sit and cringe.

When I worked in a restaurant the salads were made on a work surface under a window. Pigeons would walk in and pick bits of salad off the plates and walk out again. It was all served up to customers.

The lack of very basic food hygiene is so off putting. I don’t understand why they feel the need to dish up food with their fingers when they are in a well equipped kitchen with an array of utensils next to them.

I can’t stomach watching James Martin separating egg whites by cracking them into his hand and letting it run throw his fingers. But his worst kitchen habit is how he goes from handling raw chicken to serving up food with no more than a token 2 second trickle of water over his fingers and dried in the tea towel .

I dont think people would eat out so often if they had been in a restaurant kitchen,I have seen returned food being given to other diners, kitchen staff rarely washing their hands and plates wiped with cloths that have been used for other things.

This has been in expensive restaurants with 5* hygiene ratings.

The Gorden Ramsey Hell’s Kitchen is a true reflection of many restaurant kitchens.

Masterchef et al are good examples of all the fiddling around/handling of food that goes on to present those fancy dishes.
I never handle food after cooking, just use spoons or tongs.

I always think it must be cold by the time they have fiddled about with it. I much prefer to just put food on the plate and then serve it hot. The plates never seem to be heated either.

Do people heat plates nowadays? None of our children do. We are a bit fanatical about it

I always heat the plates either in the oven or the warming drawer. I hate cold food.

Despite all this millions eat out every day and somehow survive!

My children heat plates, even when we’re not with them. We’ve always done it. It’s why any side salad served with a hot meal comes in a little dish. I hate food that’s already cold underneath.

I heat my plates kitty. 😁

I heat the plates unless it's something like a cottage pie straight from the oven, which needs a bit of cooling down.

Aveline

Despite all this millions eat out every day and somehow survive!

It’s a miracle, isn’t it 😂

Remember when your mum licked her hankie and scrubbed something off your face? I once saw a very famous chef lick his tea towel (tucked into the waistband) and then run it around the rim of a plate that was about to be sent out. It was obviously done unconsciously as he was raving at the time but no one dared say anything and the dish went out to the customer.

When I was 13 and working in a cafe at the weekend, when any bread and butter was keft by customers it was collected up for making if anyone didn’t eat or half ate their bread and butter they used the leftovers for bread pudding.
my mil worked in a well known cake Co (still going strong) . She was on jam rolls. Instead of using equipment provided men with hairy arms spread jam along their forearms and as the sponge went by just stuck their arms out.

Should have proof read first para

Remember watching a bake off programme with guest celebrities, one was one of the performers from Diversity.

He had a mass of Afro hair, no head covering, I kept imagining all these hairs dropping in his cake mixture!

kittylester

Do people heat plates nowadays? None of our children do. We are a bit fanatical about it

This really irritates me to. You go out for a lovely expensive meal, carefully prepared, and it comes tepid on a chilly plate.

We heat our plates - not sure if AC do. We have those black ring things that go between the plates and go in the microwave.

Kitty I too heat my plates. When I see TV chefs decorating a minuscule portion of food with drops of this and that then adding leafy stuff I think to myself thry should be running art classes not kitchens.
As for hygiene, never thought everything would be pristine and hygienic and the hair being allowed to flow here and there confirms that for me.