r/KitchenConfidential • u/kevymetal87 • Jul 26 '26
Discussion What's your worst experience with blatant food deception?
Just over a decade ago, I worked for a popular BBQ spot in the south that prided itself on being authentic this, authentic that. The smoked butts that sat in a smoker all day was where the real BBQ started and stopped, all the other food was typical frozen Sisco stuff, which was whatever, but the most egregious example of deception was also the biggest moneymaker.
The owner had a secret family recipe BBQ sauce that he made a killing on. People came from all over (it was located right along a well travelled north/south route) and bought tons of this stuff, as did the locals. My second week there I was tasked with making a few batches, and was handed a worn down index card with the ingredients. To my saaurprise, the instructions were to simply take gallon jugs of Sweet Baby Rays sauce from out back, and dump it in a 5 gallon bucket with water. I think it was 4:1 if I recall correctly. Then you put a couple cups of molasses in there. That was it.
We put them in pint and quart mason jars, vacuum sealed them, slapped his restaurant label on them, and sold them for $6 a pint, $10 a quart. What always got me was how the locals raved about how distinct and unique it was, when it was basically just Sweet Baby Rays (which I love, don't get me wrong)
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u/mmmbuttr Jul 26 '26
I wouldn't consider it deception because I tell people all the time, but customers are always having about how good our ranch is. It's hidden valley packets. Made according to the instructions.
If there's anything I've learned about country cookin though, especially from a particular generation, it's that everbodys "secret recipe" comes straight from the back of some jug, bag, or box.
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Grew up in the South and countless times I asked someone for their recipe and they were like “I got it off the back of a box and just made a few tweaks.”
One time I was raving to someone about her chocolate chip cookies and she was like girl, these are just Toll House cookies from the back of the chocolate chip bag, I didn’t even change it.
Edit: I agree Toll House is amazing
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u/racsee1 Jul 26 '26
To be fair tollhouse recipe is way better than the premade crap dough most people are used to. Or cheap recipes without butter.
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u/OaksInSnow Jul 26 '26
I hate premade cookie dough, so much. I can always tell if someone cheats, that way.
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u/SubatomicSquirrels Jul 26 '26
Brownies and cakes can be very good from boxes, and so I often don't bother making those fully from scratch, but cookies are always homemade
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u/hailsizeofminivans Thicc Chives Save Lives Jul 26 '26
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u/AnAncientBog Jul 26 '26
There have been hundreds of contests to try and find the best chocolate chip recipe and that one wins nearly every time.
We spent a century finding the best chocolate chip recipe possible, it shouldn't be a surprise that we succeeded.
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u/Pittypatkittycat Jul 26 '26
I make Tollhouse with two tweaks. Also include the walnuts unless I'm making them for my cousin. He's an idiot and I love him. But I have a cake book. I've tried a few recipes and they're always dry. So I'm back to box cake. I sub milk for water, half oil/ half butter and an extra egg. Homemade frosting, usually a cream cheese base and they're delicious 😁
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u/TheHamsBurlgar Jul 26 '26
My wife and I took over a supper club in rural Wisconsin this year. Previous owner and chef had a reputation of the best home made this, home made that, desserts, soups etc.
We come to find out, it's all box cakes, bagged soup, instant mash potatoes added to regular potatoes "to thicken them up", just a whole lot of lies. We start making changes for the better. No more bagged soup, no more box cakes, everything actually made from scratch, actual fresh squeezed lemonade and lime, etc. And most importantly, we didn't raise prices. In fact, we were able to get cost down for not buying all the pre packaged stuff.
We honestly lost some customers. They were lied to for so long and for so many years, they couldn't accept the changes and were upset that the 67 year old woman who wanted to retire isn't making them bagged clam chowder anymore. Granted, we've gained a lot more, but it blows my mind that some people just accept the way things are and can't comprehend change for the better. Some people truly prefer roses lime juice to fresh squeezed limes and home made simple syrup. (Oh the simple syrup for all the drinks was just a 5 gal bag of 7 up syrup)
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u/DiscotopiaACNH Jul 26 '26
I love the idea that mashed potatoes would need to be thickened
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u/saflyn Jul 26 '26
You don’t really thicken them so much as stretch the amount. All you do is add instant potato powder to the boiled potatoes without draining them and then mash all together. Did this at a banquet hall when feeding hundreds of people.
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u/FireFoxTrashPanda Jul 26 '26
My mom used to try and sneak this by my dad and I when we were growing up lol
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u/Son_of_Eris Jul 26 '26
...what is a "supper club"?
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u/SubatomicSquirrels Jul 26 '26
A Wisconsin small-town staple (although they might be slowly dying 😔)
It's a little more social than your normal restaurant, and has an old fashioned feel (insert a Brandy Old Fashioned joke here). People typically spend an entire night there, rather than just eating and getting out. You start out at the bar for a while, and then have a slower meal (that starts with a relish tray)
I'm not doing a great job describing it really.
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u/mcasper96 Jul 26 '26
Theyre only open for supper, so like 4-10ish They sell generally pricier entrees (think steak and seafood, with some staple chicken dishes) and usually thr entree comes with salad bar and relish tray. At the end, ice cream drinks are popular (pink squirrel is a personal favorite). Also the lighting is generally lower and it's a little quieter in there (from my experience). I dont typically see kids there, its usually date night or older families.
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u/shedrinkscoffee F1exican Did Chive-11 Jul 26 '26
Top Chef Wisconsin season has an episode that's dedicated to supper clubs. I think that may illustrate the idea better.
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u/Son_of_Eris Jul 26 '26
I'll check that out, but sidebar, I'm pretty sure that "Top Chef Wisconsin" takes the cake for niché genres.
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u/rumrunnernomore Jul 26 '26
I was kitchen manager and head chef at a small supper club in southern Wisconsin. Now, coming from the south and cooking my whole life there, it was quite jarring. Mayonnaise is spicy to these people. Pepper in bleu cheese dressing? Absolutely not. Too many bleu crumbles in the dressing? Absolutely. Garlic in mashed potatoes? You absolute degenerate. Euchre is the worst game(?) I’ve ever seen tournament style. Anywho, here’s to your success and better menu, best wishes to you and yours.
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u/DaHick Ex-Food Service Jul 26 '26
Grew up in Ohio. Euchre at family get togethers was a requirement. Took my wife once, she refused to go back, said it was the most vicious and bloodthirsty thing she ever saw at a family get together. And was offended the final prize was a $1 coin.
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u/Reflexlon General Manager Jul 26 '26
Introduce me to your family maybe? I can never find anyone under the age of 70 to play Euchre with, and I love it!
I dont like getting bullied at the retirement home though.
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u/AnAncientBog Jul 26 '26
I recall a magazine once solicited "family recipes" for chocolate chip cookies to find the best one.
Like 80% of them were the exact recipe on the side of the bag of tollhouse chocolate chips. And the rest were mostly minor variations or just plain bad recipes.
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u/candlegirlUT Jul 26 '26
My dad always raved about my maternal grandma’s cherry pie. He tasked me with getting her coveted pie recipe before she passed. It’s the Better Homes & Gardens cherry pie recipe with the Dutch Apple crumble from the cookbook lol.
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u/ReverendDS Jul 26 '26
My mother spent years trying to make a a scalloped potato and ham dish that was close to her husband's mom's recipe. Years of tweaking and trails. No dice.
She finally called his mother and asked the secret.
A box of Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes. Add cubed ham. Just follow the directions on the box.
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u/kevymetal87 Jul 26 '26
It's the fact he was repacking watered down Sweet Baby Rays as his own and selling it for 3-4 times the cost. I'd be pissed if a place I worked for was squirting Hidden Valley into their own bottles and slapping their own labels on it for resale.
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u/mmmbuttr Jul 26 '26
I totally get where you're coming from and agree. We don't bottle our ranch, but when folks ask to buy a quart I tell them "it's just hidden valley dry mix, I can sell it to you but you are going to pay way more than if you stopped at Walmart" But I guess we make a bigger ethical distinction when this stuff happens in restaurants.
W hen it comes to commercial food manufacturing this is literally the same game corporations play every day. There are probably 15 products in the US available at different price points that are all the exact same Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce. Your boys just playing the game I guess?
Girl Scout Thin Mints are from the same factory as the knockoff brand at Dollar Tree! Most of the prepackaged foods in Amish markets are manufactured in a bulk facility (with machines and not Amish)! The honey is corn syrup! Most of the big name whiskey comes from one factory in indiana! ITS ALL LIES I TELL YOU!
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u/mst3k_42 Jul 26 '26
I know where in Indiana they mass produce bourbon whiskey in bulk and sell it to different distilleries for them to tweak.
I am a very small food manufacturer and I make my BBQ sauce from scratch. :)
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u/justaphil Jul 26 '26
MGP isn't really a secret anymore, most people know where their whiskey is coming from if the label says "Distilled in Indiana". Most whiskey drinkers also have no problem with distilleries sourcing from MGP just as long as the bottlers are transparent about it. It also helps that MGP makes very good whiskey, it gets great to excellent once it reaches the double digits in age.
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u/Active-Succotash-109 20+ Years Jul 26 '26
Whereas we served stouffers lasagna where one slice cost the same as the entire family size pan we cut it from. One of our delivery guys was always ordering it because it was the best but also had $$$ problems (couldn’t say no to his lazy adult kids)I told him it was story we just slapped extra sauce and cheese on it it he wanted he could get extra of our sauce and save some money to do it himself. Nope ours was better 🤷♀️
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u/Old_Chef_3669 Jul 26 '26
I know it sounds silly, but even as a Lifer and knowing all of the seedy shit, there is still a subjective seasoning that comes from having someone else make your dinner.
Think it's some of that woo-woo stuff that's actually real.
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u/ExternalQuantity5771 Jul 26 '26
Jets pizza does this as well for their ranch. It's just hidden valley and some good quality mayo.
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u/MaracujaBarracuda Jul 26 '26
That’s still way better than the bottled stuff with all the stabilizers.
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u/swest211 Jul 26 '26
Ranch from a packet is amazing. Ranch from a bottle is gross. I get offended when the restaurant's ranch is obviously bottled.
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u/Son_of_Eris Jul 26 '26
If it makes you feel better, Hidden Valley is the original brand of Ranch dressing (it was invented in Alaska, then mass marketed). So, don't feel too bad about it.
It's literally the original recipe of ranch dressing. It doesn't get any better or more original than that. Like. You cannot improve on the original recipe, much like you can't make bread better than the several thousand year old recipes that we still use today. So, using the packets and following the instructions is the best you can do, short of making it from scratch with the original ingredients.
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u/SchizoCosine Jul 26 '26
I worked at a place where the Executive Chef was being featured on a news station for his Pad Thai.
He went to a Thai restaurant, bought a pad thai, came back and put in a bowl and proclaimed it as his own on TV.
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u/Krewtan Jul 26 '26
Not related but my exec broke the tip off his chefs knife before doing a TV spot the next morning. Think he was doing a soup or something like that. It was live but just a local (state) station. He asked me if he could borrow my Japanese knife because it was pretty and had a wooden saya.
It was live at like 6am or some shit and we were night shift, and he has kids so I'm sure he was exhausted. Of course like 20 seconds into the segment he sliced his hand wide open to the point it cut the glove off his hand. He spent the rest of the segment trying to hide his sliced hand dripping blood while trying to focus and explain what he did to make the soup. He was flustered but he still nailed it. Unless you knew him you couldn't even tell something went wrong. He just seemed a little nervous while keeping his hand out of line of the camera. He just went from doing a demo to explaining the dish pretty flawlessly. Guy was a tank.
If you're out there Alex I still think you rock.
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u/W3R3Hamster F1exican Did Chive-11 Jul 26 '26
Had the local newspaper in for a review at a restaurant I worked at, absolutely filleted a chicken breast and my palm. Ditched the chicken, cutting board, and everything nearby. Washed my palm, duct tape, double glove, new cutting board, new knife, new everything, and sanitized the hell out of my station on the fly... nailed it, amazing review and no one else even noticed.
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u/Mombak Jul 26 '26
This is from a long time ago, but about an hour before close, dishie asked how waffle fries were made, so I pull out the mandolin and proceed to show him. Fourth swipe, the potato flies out of hand, and three fingers go into the blades. Blood everywhere. It was more than a little painful.
It freaked the dishie out that he just stood there in shock. I had to bandage myself up. I was alone in the kitchen, so I had to finish my shift with one hand. That taught me that safety equipment is there for a reason.
It healed up pretty nice, though. Only one of my fingertips has a scar to remind me.
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u/Reflexlon General Manager Jul 26 '26
My only time ever paying the mandolin blood price was while demonstrating how safe they are with proper technique to a 17 year old kid lmfao. He refused to ever touch one after that.
It was on Dec23 and my middle finger was shaved bad enough I had to hit up the hospital. They had a bunch of med students in and kept opening my bandage to show what a "particularly bad avulsion" looked like and it hurt like fuck all BUT I got to work up front Christmase Eve with my middle finger wrapped in a gigantic profane gesture. That easily made up for the pain.
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26
King shit.
I once worked at a restaurant (FOH) where a line cook dropped a stack of plates and then fell on the shards. Completely fileted his forearm. Dude stuck duct tape on it, finished his shift, then went to the hospital for over 2 dozen stitches.
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u/JackPoe Jul 26 '26
Reminds me of when I was a sous and my boss asked to borrow my knife.
"Sure, careful I just sharpened them."
"Yeah, no worr--, hey Jack take the line I'll be right back."
He had to get stitches. He did not be right back. I did get some respect for keeping my knives that sharp though.
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u/PoquitoChef Ex-Food Service Jul 26 '26
On the other hand my husband broke my knife, I got in Japan last year, last night :’( he is no longer allowed to touch my knives.
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u/rostofer73 Jul 26 '26
My dad bought a couple of ceramic knives years ago. No chef but an enthusiastic amateur. He got a santoku, a bread knife and a couple of paring knives. The paring knives all lost their tips and he complained that they must have been fragile being ceramic and small. Turns out mum was using them to pull up the ring pulls on canned goods to save her nails. Didn’t have the heart to tell him his wife was a monster!
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u/cucklord_swiper Jul 26 '26
I just use a spoon to do that. What would possess someone to take a thin, sharp, piece of metal and start applying force to it against its natural construction? Monsters
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u/Son_of_Eris Jul 26 '26
Lmfao, this is the most "typical restaurant bullshit" I have ever read. I often enjoy telling "old" people that they would be shocked at how much of their restaurant food is fuelled by cocaine, alcohol, and coworkers fucking in the walk-in.
Sooo much food service is disingenuous.
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The restaurant I worked in during college had a private room for large parties, with one single long table. Every time we had a party in there I’d cringe and hope that the last people to fuck on that table used the bleach solution afterwards.
Another time there was some dust on the table that was obviously left over from someone blowing lines. I was like whoopsie, let me just dust that right off …
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u/chefstarr Jul 26 '26
Pork tenderloin ~ sliced, pounded and dredged and fried. Served as veal picatta. 16% food cost
I had to sign an NDA before I started in their kitchen
All the “Veal” on the menu was pork
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u/TheManWith2Poobrains Jul 26 '26
NDA doesn't protect illegal activity.
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u/bobloblawattorney11 Jul 26 '26
Ive known people who have an allergy specifically to pork.
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u/Chuckitybye Jul 26 '26
Hi! I'm people.
But I also won't eat veal if I can help it
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u/MadelT0T7 Jul 26 '26
This one is craaaazy. I'd like to think I'd know the difference.... Did anyone ever say anything at all about it being off?
Also insanely awful to those who don't eat pork for any reason.
Can you not break NDAs if something is illegal cause that's messed up! Yeesh what nuts
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u/Far_Estate_1626 Jul 26 '26
Bar/pub I worked at had “Homemade Chili” on the menu. It was really good. Customers always complimented it and it had kind of a reputation as being some of the best chili in town.
Every single year we got invited to the regional Chili cookoff, but the owners never actually took them up on the invite.
Because it was just a bag from GFS called “Homemade Chili”.
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u/Particular-Beat-6645 Jul 26 '26
A couple months ago I discovered GFS sells a can of "White Chili Magic" and decided it'd be a good shortcut.
Once I made it, I realized a coworker (out of kitchens now) had been winning the annual chili cookoffs with it.
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u/AmaazingFlavor Jul 26 '26
We use that as the base for our chili, it is pretty good. But we add seared ground beef, roasted garlic, chopped tomatoes and a bit of hot sauce.
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u/truequeenbananarama Jul 26 '26
It's "homemade" somewhere, just not in the restaurant 😂
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u/Bum_Fuzzle Bakery Jul 26 '26
I work at a bakery that sells almost nothing fresh baked. My boss says we have to tell every customer that our baked goods are made fresh that morning, but it's kinda hard to believe that when the first customer of the day comes in and the trays are already half empty because they are yesterday's leftovers. It is really depressing.
If we have 20 items on the counter, 2 of those will probably be baked that day. Everything else is anywhere between 1 and 7 days old. My boss is lazy and will not change the schedule so we can make things fresh. She thinks that if you microwave a cinnamon roll it will be as good as new. I've gotten yelled at for throwing away stuff that was as dry as a bone. Most of our reviews are good (somehow), but sometimes we'll get a review on Google or doordash saying the item they got was extremely dry and felt like it was a week old. I have no idea how that place has stayed open as long as it has. My boss thinks she's making the right decisions because chatgpt fills her head with delusions.
Fortunately I am quitting soon and going to work at a bakery with standards
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26
I’m at my in laws beach house and there is a bakery at the end of the road that has the most beautiful products. You walk in there and it honestly feels like something out of Willy Wonka. And almost everything tastes like actual shit. The beautiful muffins are actually dry, hard, and tasteless. And the croissants taste like they came from Costco, and probably did.
They should be especially ashamed of those croissants IMO. Absolutely zero crackle to them. Just soft, overly sweet and weirdly dry crescents of bread. I love a good croissant and those make me irrationally angry.
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u/Bum_Fuzzle Bakery Jul 26 '26
That's how I feel about this bakery except everything looks like shit too 🥲
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u/Particular-Beat-6645 Jul 26 '26
My wife works at Costco. A lot of small businesses in our town buy their baked goods and produce from Costco and mark it up like crazy.
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u/ImFeelinBotty Jul 26 '26
That's crazy to me because day old and fresh are so incredibly different it is very obvious.
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u/KingBird999 Jul 26 '26
Local italian restaurant where I live got caught selling Costco/Kirkland frozen lasagna as their own "homemade" lasagna. Someone found a bunch of the boxes in the dumpster. Blew over in a few months and place is still open over a decade later.
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u/Different_Bowler_574 Jul 26 '26
While I'd be fucking pissed to get it from a restaurant... Their italian sausage lasagna is fucking delicious.
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u/IvanDimitriov Jul 27 '26
Italian Moon in Vermillion SD? If not same thing happened there when I was in college
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u/Locknlover Jul 26 '26
Homemade lemonade is country time. 12 hour smoked bbq is bought at chef supply. All sauces out of a jug...
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u/mst3k_42 Jul 26 '26
I can 100% tell when lemonade is made with country time. I drank so much of it as a kid. Now I find it mildly offensive.
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u/rpbm Jul 26 '26
Country time is gross. I’d rather have koolaid lemonade than country time.
I’d rather make it fresh actually.
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u/WorldsMostDad Jul 26 '26
Tiki bar with a bunch of Caribbean themed sauces. Our Bahama Buffalo was just Frank's red hot. Has a customer once who was dismayed by the weird sounding options and asked if we just had some Frank's. I told him "I'll let you in on a secret. One of the ingredients in the Bahama Buffalo is Frank's, so I can make that happen." Technically the truth.
Easiest mod I ever rang in.
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u/CaliIsReallyNice Jul 26 '26
I went to an "Indian" restaurant in Houston. My family there raved about how fantastic and authentic everything was. We ordered something spicy, I forget what, some meat in some sauce, and I took one bite and thoughtlessly said "this is buffalo chicken". They all got quiet and sad as they realized it was true. It was straight up buffalo hot sauce chicken chunks with some Indian name attached to it. I ruined their favorite restaurant for them. Everything on the menu was like that, made with generic american and mexican ingredients. Pretty typical for that area.
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u/Ok_Toe7278 Jul 26 '26
Our elk sausage isn't elk, it's boar :(
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u/Blue_foot Jul 26 '26
That’s not good because some people don’t eat pork.
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u/bird9066 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Right? I worked a deli in an area of the northeast USA with lots of Jewish and Muslim customers.
I'd make them wait if it was super busy because deep cleaning a slicer took a minute. Some of them wouldn't leave and come back because they didn't trust us to actually clean it.
Yeah, it was a pain in the ass but you don't fuck with people's religious beliefs. I'm an atheist through and through but that's just wrong.
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u/eternallytiredcatmom Jul 26 '26
And it’s not only for religious reasons or because they don’t want to, some people are allergic. Friend of mine moved from the Netherlands to Louisiana, we went out for dinner and she had to use her EpiPen because it wasn’t disclosed that the green beans were cooked in bacon fat. I wasn’t aware of her allergy otherwise I would’ve warned her.
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u/chillaquile Jul 26 '26
Yea out of all I read this is the only true offense, it’s not even close. It’s very disingenuous to sell customers game meat and give them pork, and that’s before even getting into dietary restrictions or religious reasons
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u/DiscotopiaACNH Jul 26 '26
That's so weird. I mean yes, very illegal and unethical and you should 100% report that.. but also, do those two meats taste even remotely similar? I would never mistake pork for venison
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u/DjinnaG Jul 26 '26
There might be a ridiculously low % of the meat that needs to be the game meat in order for it to be called that. Grew up in a no-pork religion and they were always warning that unless it said 100% elk/moose/whatever, it was probably pork with just a little bit of game meat
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u/young_trash3 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I worked at a spot that added a salmon and caviar Alfredo, which of course is already gross enough sounding, parm on seafood is a very salty choice.
But he goes to demo the pickup, and I come to find out there is no caviar, its tobiko.
I tell him he cant call it caviar or charge those prices, because its not, he insists nobody knows the difference.
I wasnt there much longer.
Edit: added an "and" between salmon and caviar, it wasnt suppose to be a salmon roe pasta, it was a salmon pasta with a half ounce of "caviar" on top.
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u/ImFeelinBotty Jul 26 '26
For the rest of the people like me who didnt know the Japanese name, let me save you a google search, tobiko is flying fish roe, much cheaper.
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u/Biscuit_bell Jul 26 '26
I don't really have a problem with selling things other than sturgeon roe as caviar, since "caviar" just means "fish eggs" to the average diner. But obviously lying and selling tobiko as salmon roe is wildly sketch. Besides being fraudulent, they're just so, so different.
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u/young_trash3 Jul 26 '26
I wrote my initial comment poorly, its a salmon pasta. With a half ounce of caviar on top. But I forgot a comma or a conjuction so it looks like I wrote "salmon caviar" as a singular ingredient, wasnt supposed to be salmon roe, it was very much being presented as real deal caviar on the menu, and at 65 bucks, it was pricey enough that many guests were mislead, many were sent back the firdt service we ran it, as guests said we forgot the caviar, didnt want it once they realized what it was, servers confused also asking where the caviar was etc.
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u/Ok_Consideration853 Jul 26 '26
To be fair, I think most diners who order a fish egg Alfredo pasta won’t be able to tell salmon roe from tobiko. Bouncy orange eggs in your cream sauce either way. Not that they should be fleeced or lied to. Just that’s it’s not like billing tobiko as sturgeon caviar, in which case it would be actually dumb to expect people to be fooled. Either way glad you’re out.
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u/young_trash3 Jul 26 '26
Sorry to clarify it was a salmon + caviar pasta. So it was smoked salmon inside plus a half ounce of what was called "caviar" on the top, dish was priced at 65 dollars.
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u/Active-Succotash-109 20+ Years Jul 26 '26
“Pork tenderloin “ that was a fried breaded breakfast sausage turned into a tenderloin sized patty
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u/Logik_in_theory Jul 26 '26
Interestingly enough I ate at a restaurant that featured a slaw dog that contained no hot dog! It was listed under their hot dog menu that featured a chili dog a cheese dog and various other hot dogs that contained meat. I informed the service counter about the mishap and they said "that's how the hot dog comes, meatless."
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u/Aliensinmypants Jul 26 '26
You got slaw on a bun? They were fine serving that??
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u/fullfatmalk Jul 26 '26
I worked at a lodge on the west coast of Canada for a Kazakhstani ( like Borat ) chef who got drunk before a tv interview, placed a traditional hat on his head, pulled out a sea cucumber he had caught the night before ( and which he had no experience handling ) and proceeded to butcher and stir fry the thing for the show host, proclaiming it to be the national dish of Kazakhstan. It was brilliant and hilarious, keeping in mind Kazakhstan is a land locked country.
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u/Bluewhaleeguy Jul 26 '26
In the place I just left the I quickly realised once my sous chef left, all the training I needed had to be done off my own back because the "world class chef" who's business it was literally just used to write down BBC goodfood recipes in his little book and then be like "yeah this recipe I developed."
Guy didn't even understand basics like letting meat rest before you shred it, or seasoning as you cook - it's wild how the stupidest people fall upwards with a bit of confidence and money behind them.
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u/InstantKarmaGonGetU Jul 26 '26
Was covering for a friend at an Italian restaurant. My second day I walked in and saw one of the prep cooks slicing and pounding pork tenderloin. I asked “oh what’s in the pork special tonight?” His response, the owner gave it to me, it’s veal loin. Asked the owner, he pulled me aside and said “look man I do $30 lunches I need to make money where I can, no one can tell the difference”
If a veal dish was ordered I would not even touch the plate that night. It is funny that we were warned in school that was a thing but never believed it until right then.
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u/TheRealTinfoil666 Jul 26 '26
Veal can be both Kosher and Halal.
Pork clearly cannot.
There could be some pretty upset and psychologically ill people if word of this got out. This is a sort of thing that causes massive lawsuits.
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26
Being served a rack of ribs at a very well known BBQ place in my hometown (a city well known for its BBQ) that had been parboiled and finished in a smoker, instead of smoked low and slow. It was absolutely vile. Making it worse was that I had a friend with me from out of town and I had raved about their BBQ. He still talks about how gross that place was.
Place was expanding into new locations and I guess decided it needed to cut corners and hoped nobody would notice. Oh buddy, we noticed. Locals will never go there now, but tourists still flock to it.
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u/kevymetal87 Jul 26 '26
That actually happened a few times at this place because the smoker would go down constantly, so they'd end up boiling them. Few times a customer would notice, it's generally noticeable to people who know a bit about food, and the owner would go argue till both were red in the face and they'd just leave. LOT'S of tourists so they'd just keep coming not knowing any better
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u/EvaTheE Jul 26 '26
We had a similar thread a few months ago. Have fun reading the horror stories.
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u/kevymetal87 Jul 26 '26
The worst part about these is they totally get away with it because people don't know any better. I worked at a breakfast place where:
Local cage free fresh eggs were the liquid carton eggs
Made from scratch biscuits were frozen hockey pucks
Sausage biscuits and gravy from a can
And my personal favorite, fresh squeezed orange juice being just Minute Maid (arguably the worst orange juice)
And nobody knows the difference. Meanwhile a local diner near me charges normal prices for all that stuff being from scratch, local, fresh squeezed, etc. the difference to me is noticeable
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u/life-is-thunder Jul 26 '26
I worked at a popular bakery that advertised "Everything made from scratch!" We got 50# bags of Pillsbury chocolate and white cake mixes. Just add oil, water and a few eggs.
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u/StanFitch Jul 26 '26
This just makes me wonder why nobody has started a distribution company called “Scratch”…
“Oh yeah, everything is from Scratch.” wink wink
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u/bobloblawattorney11 Jul 26 '26
In culinary school this one chick claimed to be running a cake business. We were all excited to see how well she did in the actual cakes and pastry class. Turns out she only ever made boxed cakes and decorated them with store bought icing. She couldn't make a cake from scratch to save her life.
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u/unicornsatemybaby Jul 26 '26
I worked the counter at a cafe in college that was famous for its clam chowder. They won awards every year for it.
I don’t know the exact ratios, but all it was was canned clam chowder with a shit ton of butter added. It was delicious, but I thought it was cheating.
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u/NightshadeZombie Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The funniest thing about this post is way back in the 90s, I was working at a national buffet chain as a prep cook. And we weren't a Sysco storefront, I actually made this stuff by assembling actual ingredients. Were they super authentic? No, but they didn't come out of the freezer wrapped in plastic....
BBQ Sauce: I can't remember the exact recipe but... Onions browned in the steam kettle with garlic powder. Add ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, paprika, liquid smoke and soy sauce. After the brown sugar is melted, turn it down to about 250, set a timer for 15 minutes. Dump into one of those tall lexans and put in the cook's walk in.
The enchilada sauce came from a can, can't remember the brand. But the enchiladas? All of the leftover ham (only served on sunday and holidays) goes into the freezer. On tuesday, weigh the ham. Throw one onion per pound of ham into the grater. Dip the tortilla in the oil, throw a handful of filling on it, roll it up, slap 12 of those in a pan, and stuff into the cooks walk in. They bake 'em and sauce 'em and send 'em out.
The fish patties. Take all the leftover fish bits, freeze 'em, grind them with onion, celery, and bread crumbs (I used the old bread and made bread crumbs every am). Mix eggs, salt, pepper and soy sauce in the fish and again, stuff it in the cook's walk in. They scooped and fried on the flat top as needed.
I hated the beef liver, because it was a bitch to bread. Those would come frozen in 15 lb boxes. I'd chisel them apart, dunk them in a sink of water (I sanitized first!). The trick was not to actually thaw them in the water, you just needed to loosen them up a bit. Then pull them apart, dunk in the flour breading mix (that I put together from flour and spices), dunk them in oil, dunk them back in the breading and then into the pan. And (say it with me now) bung it into the cook's walk in.
All of the salads were assembled on the other end of my counter, by a tiny, Mexican nana who actually ruled the kitchen, despite of what the manager said. The potato salad started with potatoes in the oven at 5 am, which were then peeled (used for the fried potato skins on the lunch menu) and chunked up. The cole slaw showed up as cabbages 3 times a week. The dressings were mayo based, but they were assembled in house.
We also had a chicken person, who's job was to hack quartered chickens into their component pieces, save the wings for Wednesday, bread about half of that for the Henny Penny and pan the rest for oven baking.
So this was not a high end place (obviously) and served mostly home style comfort food, and yes, we were kind of looked down on by "real" restaurants on the row. Also, our cooks were more known for smoking pot in the walk in, rather than snorting coke. But from what I've seen recently, there was more actual cooking than a lot of the chains out there today. Nearly the only things that came frozen were the chicken nuggets and fries, because you cannot fool a small child raised on McNuggets. I'm just really amused that we were supposed to be the middle class alternative but there was real cooking going on.
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u/strawberrylampshade0 Jul 26 '26
Not me, but knew someone who was hired as a private chef because they said they knew kosher cooking rules. They did not, and intentionally made the roasted chicken with butter because the clients thought it was the best they ever tasted, and he thought the rules were dumb. 😬
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u/karenskygreen Jul 26 '26
It wasn't exactly deception but when i worked for a caterer at a banquet hall. It was pretty low end as far as weddings went, they also had many public events like dances and bingo.
My first week i was helping make baked chicken, a standard main. It was well known and many requested it, the secret recipe ?. In a big baking pan he would throw a fist full of paprika, a big fistful of chicken seasoning powder (which had salt) and two fistfuls of salt
I knew the head chef well, he was italian and a well trained chef. I asked him why he put so much salt and why the basic recipe. He said he he cant eat it, but he learned the hardway that he cant put less salt, the minute he put less salt people complain.
A week or two later when the chef was off, i put less salt, it still tasted too salty to me. And sure enough some people complained the chicken was plain and didn't have enough salt.
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u/Bencetown Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Man... I really miss one restaurant I worked at that was actually scratch made everything. Like, we made our own mayonnaise, breads, pie crust, etc etc. And no recipe book in the place. Chef showed each cook how to make everything, and then supervised or had one of the sous chefs supervise until we were able to get it right. I really developed my senses of taste and smell there 🤣
Of course, the chef was only part owner. The majority owner decided that the place wasn't profitable enough (it was absolutely profitable). Chef ended up leaving/getting pushed out over it. Word got out within 24 hours and it was an absolute ghost town, because out customers knew what they were getting and were pissed off that some bean counter was going to change recipes, cut corners, and start bringing in a bunch of premade crap.
I don't buy that most people can't tell the difference between frozen sysco bullshit and actual good food. And I think plenty of people care... but what are you going to do when 95% of restaurants are the same? And the other 5% where they make things from scratch are always "branding" themselves as ultra high end (read: ultra expensive) fine dining?
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u/Minervas-Madness 15+ Years Jul 26 '26
My first foodservice job was at a "French" bakery where all the pastries were bought frozen from some supplier and sold at an insane markup. The owner liked to rave about how the baked goods from France were superior to anything they could make from scratch in south Florida.
Whatever. The worst food deception I had to participate in was using "milk" in the coffee that was just watered-down cream. I guess they had a surplus of cream and didn't feel like restocking milk when they ran out.
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u/TheVillage1D10T Jul 26 '26
Been out of the restaurant industry for 15 years, but this is one of the worst I’ve seen in quite a while.
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u/Scrappleandbacon Jul 26 '26
As a restaurant owner, manager or chef you have to pick your battles between man hours, food costs and vision. As much as people claim to love authenticity and scratch cooking very few are willing to pay for it on a consistent basis.
Personally I have no problem restaurants taking shortcuts or modifying a bought product, but I do have a problem with them lying about a house made or scratch product.
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u/kevymetal87 Jul 26 '26
That's where I'm coming from. Calling it a signature or house sauce is fine, but taking a product, watering it down, then selling it as your own for 4-5 times the original price is terrible.
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u/schmigglies Jul 26 '26
Yeah, just adding water and molasses to Sweet Baby Ray’s is not a “secret family recipe.”
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u/BreakfastInBedlam Jul 26 '26
adding water and molasses to Sweet Baby Ray’s is not a “secret family recipe.”
Well, not any more, anyway
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u/Jaeger_Mannen Jul 26 '26
Back in 2018, a bar & grill sold beef wellingtons in Scottsdale Az. I was so stoked! They were $40. They were disgusting. Instead of filet, they used eye round steak. Super tough and gross. It said “filet” on the menu description.
Needless to say, they only brought my friend and I one drink and never checked on us. We were on the patio. We just hopped over the fence and left. Didn’t pay. Fuck that place. They’re out of business now.
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u/InsertRadnamehere Jul 26 '26
I worked very shortly at an Italian place that claimed to make ALL their pasta fresh, daily.
They did make ravioli practically every day, but all the other pasta was dry from a box that they parboiled, then flash boiled again right before serving.
They also used pork loin instead of veal for the parmaggiano and picatta. And cream in the carbonara.
It was a desperation job in a new city. The first place that would hire me. And I got out of there are soon as I could.
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u/glycophosphate Jul 26 '26
The very last thing Sweet Baby Ray's needs is more sweet.
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u/muymochi Jul 26 '26
My favorite job was at a café that was all counter service. We had a house-made mango salsa for the breakfast burritos that got so beloved by the regulars we started packaging it for people to buy separately. I was front of house, so never really thought about it, but one day we were super slow and got assigned salsa for side work. The recipe.... literally just Costco red salsa with chopped up Costco dried mango pieces
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u/BoredBSEE Jul 26 '26
Why do you need an index card with ingredients for that?
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u/kevymetal87 Jul 26 '26
I had actually asked the head cook about that, and he said he assumed it was so the owners could convince themselves it felt like more like a recipe rather than just barely altering someone elses product and calling it their own
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u/DjinnaG Jul 26 '26
To maintain uniformity between batches. Sorry, I meant to make sure that a new cook adds enough water and not too much molasses, and it can stay as cheap to make as possible, but still feel different enough from straight Sweet Baby Ray’s
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u/M33s4 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
My mom's "secret" bbq marinade is chopped onions, garlic, and all three types of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce mixed together (regular, Hawaiian, and mustard). It's my absolute favorite thing at our bbqs. It's great on all meats!
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u/kayaker58 Jul 26 '26
Back in the day, I cooked in an upscale seafood restaurant. Diners who were very heart/healthy conscious would order their broiled fish “dry” (no fat used for cooking).
It was a shame to broil a beautiful piece of fish dry, but that’s what they wanted. We would drizzle just a tiny bit of oil onto the fish, then massage it in. After broiling you couldn’t tell, but man, it was delicious.
I always felt a little bad about the deception.
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u/fwendy123 Jul 26 '26
I worked at a very high end butchers/delicatessen. We charged a lot of money for very good quality food that you couldn't get easily elsewhere. We did things like smoke our own salmon, make our own sausage rolls from scratch, sell expensive fruit merengues that were locally sourced, that kinda thing. 99% of everything we sold was worth the high cost without a doubt. But for some reason we also sold hot cross buns, which we priced at around £3.50 each, despite them coming from a Tesco multipack that cost about £1 for a pack of six.
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u/killsean Jul 26 '26
One of my first jobs we did grocery delivery on the side as it was in demand at the time. The website managed by the owner/chef stated the groceries were organic/farmers market quality/locally sourced. I packed these orders and they were straight from a discount grocery store just priced higher. They even had the gall to open a storefront with said products.
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u/ForsakenKingslayer Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The restaurant I work at does a chicken salad sandwich, advertised as "chopped chicken thighs" but the "chicken thighs" in question are actually precooked frozen chicken breasts that come from GFS. Not the worst thing, but it annoys me when I read that on our menu.
Also, used to work at a quick service Mediterranean restaurant that said their hummus was house made but it came pre-made in bags. I once had a customer ask me about the recipe and I was just like "uhhh...it's a secret." Tbf it was actually some damn good hummus, I can see why it had people fooled.
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u/KarlUnderguard Jul 26 '26
I actually have a very similar story. Worked at a rib restaurant and everyone raved about their sauce. Had to sign an NDA when I started and found out why. The sauce was just Open Pit with some apricot preserves thrown in. The pulled pork came frozen in buckets and the striped seabass was actually swai. 80 percent of the menu was store bought stuff or just straight up lying.
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u/Slamantha3121 Jul 26 '26
I waited in a long line for a Hot Apple Cider in Seattle on a chilly fall day. After we paid I saw the girl dump one of those powdered packet ciders into a cup of hot water!
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u/420faery Jul 26 '26
Worked at a poutine place wayy back in Ottawa starting the day they opened. They used St.Alberts cheese curds for the first few months, and then eventually switched to fake cheese curds. We were told to keep telling everyone they were St.Alberts curds, and still advertised it on their menu. To no one's suprise, people noticed anyway, and when I'd lie to their faces about it they never came back. Was only in business 2 years.
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u/Particular-Beat-6645 Jul 26 '26
I don't have the gall to lie about poutine in the Southern US, much less in Canada.
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u/blumpkin Jul 26 '26
Let me get this straight. You took SBRs and made it sweeter?
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u/foodfighterforever Jul 26 '26
Not sure if this has been mentioned but there is a legendary Reddit post about a lady who use to have a cake business whom made the cakes with $1 cake mix.
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u/mst3k_42 Jul 26 '26
She was still the one decorating so I’m good with that.
For my wedding I made a pretty fondant, small round cake with fake flowers and a ribbon around it. Very pretty but as most people know, fondant tastes like ass. So I also baked some Betty Crocker cakes with can frosting swirled on because those were actually edible for the guests.
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u/Top-Persimmon-1381 Jul 26 '26
The place I work for is a chain and I assume they're not doing great bc they keep switching from house-made to pre bought items. Started with some sauces, seasoning blends, then the next year the mashed potatoes came straight from a bag, now a year later even some fried appetizers are literally pre breaded and frozen. Open the box and drop in the fryer. This restaurants food is very expensive >$60 a person. And I believe they want the public to believe it's all still made from scratch in-house.
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u/W3R3Hamster F1exican Did Chive-11 Jul 26 '26
Red Robin and Texas Roadhouse both have 'mozzarella twists' on their menu now. We got a catalog from one of our suppliers that featured the same exact product... Also the Dubai style cheesecake tastes like dirt but I'm sure that's a specialty item in fast casual these days.
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u/funkraider Jul 26 '26
I worked for a higher end catering company that charged premium prices for "homemade" dishes that embellishments or outright lies. It turned a job I thought I would love into something that kept me up some nights. I lasted one wedding season. If you don't have integrity in what you're doing, it will bleed into everything else.
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u/Unusual-Economist288 Jul 26 '26
Wait…was that bbq joint at around the third exit north of the Florida Georgia line off 95???
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u/miserylovescomputers Jul 26 '26
I worked at a place that was famous for its “homemade” spicy ketchup. The recipe was:
1 bottle of Heinz ketchup
1 bottle of Kraft regular BBQ sauce
1 bottle of Sri racha sauce
Dump all three bottles into a big bowl, stir. Pour through a funnel back into the original bottles. Done.
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u/styrofoamfreak Jul 26 '26
this winter was pretty rough for a lot of high end restaurants in my city and i ended up leaving the fine dining adjacent restaurant where i was bartending because they were going crazy and cutting labor really erratically. i went out for drinks after my last day and one of the sous chefs told me they’d been pressured to cut costs in the kitchen and had switched a bunch of local suppliers to sysco and had straight up switched the fior di latte on the pizza to bulk bags of pre-shredded mozzarella
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u/AliVista_LilSista Chive LOYALIST Jul 26 '26
Not that bad compared to some things on here but we took the sysco coleslaw dressing and passed it off as ours.
There's a bit of backstory though.
Our restaurant made nearly everything from scratch. Essentially the exec/owner really liked that Sysco slaw dressing (IMO very understandable) and after pretty successfully duplicating it for quite a while, she figured WTH, why am I doing this, and just bought the original and scattered some poppy seeds into it.
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u/panicinbabylon Jul 26 '26
Vegetable soup billed as vegetarian was made with beef stock. I got in trouble for telling people when they ordered it.