What Restaurants Really Don't Want You to Know!

This is what restaurants really don't want you to know.

Is your Pizza Cutter really clean?

The last thing you want to think about when you walk into a restaurant is what's going on back in the kitchen. Trust me, you're better off not knowing!

I learned at a very early age when I took Homemaking, actually, cooking in middle school, that there are countless health rules that you must adhere to. The first and foremost one is dropping food on the floor. It's real simple. Throw it away or don't drop it. I know over recent years everybody has changed this rule to the five second rule. There is no such thing — it takes less than that for a particle of dirt that you cannot see to attach to the food, even if it looks clean to the naked eye, it's not! Get over it.

Moving on, I went on with my life, having learned these valuable lessons about cooking, health and such, to get married, have my own family, and keep a household, as well as taking care of kids. It wasn't until I took a job at a local independent school district that I learned just how important and surreal these health codes really are and how, you would not believe, the very people you trust to serve your food do not abide by them!

Now, not every eatery you go to is this way, but you just need to pay attention. I quit my job at the ISD to go to a very high class restaurant because they offered me a really good job. A sort of a "dream job," as it were. Well, very quickly I saw things that no patron should ever be made aware of happening! Up to, and including, food hitting the floor and being quickly put back into use. Hey, it happens more than you think! Also, check your silverware. I know from tried and true experience that particles can hide in between the tines of your fork. Even if it had been carefully placed and ran through their rigorous turbo dishwasher, which they are suppose to rinse and get all of the sticky stuff off before it goes in. Well, more often than not, they don't. The fact is, if you don't get all of those particles off of the tines, then they will collect more on what is already there and create more bacteria, which will eventually cause a bad outbreak of sickness.

My very first day at my new job was an interesting horror movie of watching, right before my very eyes, every code violation I could ever imagine being broken in one day. Right down to my lunch being prepared for me by the fry cook, with me watching. I'm just saying, check your silverware. If there is anything, no matter how small, on it that shouldn't be there, do not hesitate to say something. For that matter, if anything tastes funny or smells off, send it back. Don't worry about sending it back or complaining. It's your stomach and your kid's stomachs that it's going into. Do you want to spend the night in the ER?

Another thing that comes to mind is the Serve Safe Certificate that is supposed to be in plain sight of the patrons near the kitchen entrance.

Now, I can't speak for other states, but in the state of Texas, there needs to be at least one person in the kitchen of a public eatery that is a Serve Safe Certificate holder. It is the law! One has to study and take a very rigorous exam about food preparation, proper temperatures, how food should be warmed, stored, and what is suppose to be around it and not. If there is no certificate you better hope that there is a recent passed inspection certificate in plain sight. I have worked in this environment and I am here to tell you there is just too many shortcuts taken by restaurant staff that should be addressed for everyone's health.

One more thing! The fact that you hear sometimes about some restaurants not changing their oil in their fryers, it's true, some of them don't. Be glad if you have never worked in a restaurant kitchen where they handle food. After that used oil goes through a couple of different kinds of food, then, whatever the next food they put, in contracts the taste of what they cooked in it before. They are usually really bad about french fries. If you have ever gotten a batch of french fries that tasted kind of funny, like old grease, then that's probably why!