Dining halls serve hundreds or thousands of people each day, so keeping things running smoothly is paramount. If you've ever wanted to waste a lazy afternoon, spend some time watching videos of how professional chefs make lunch for the masses. It's fascinating to see the processes behind budgeting for the ingredients, then cooking a massive meal for hundreds of people . Instead of cooking for just one person, lunch chefs have to cook for hundreds, sometimes only with one or two people to help t…

One retiree realized he had the time and resources to make a difference in his neighborhood. As his grandkid wrote in a post to r/maliciouscompliance, “it's pretty amazing what you can get done with 8 business hours of free time.” Being retired is great in that way---you can do anything you please, including getting well acquainted with your neighbors. Next up,

Customers only knew that their food was delayed , but this kitchen worker shared what happened behind the scenes. Professional chefs have a job like no other. There's a strict hierarchy, and a lot of shouting happening, but there's a sense of comradery as well. At many restaurants, each chef tends to one type of food or one area. When all goes smoothly, it ensures that customers get the food they ordered fast. And the longer the team of chefs works together, the better their workflow becomes. T…

These customers didn't let their poor social skills keep them from dining at restaurants . Instead, they showed up ready to eat food and interact with wait staff as minimally as possible. We all have days where we want to be left alone. Sometimes you just don't feel like interacting with people, and instead, you just want to curl up on your couch, order food delivery, and watch a movie. It's odd that apparently lots of people decide to go to restaurants when they're feeling antisocial. Why woul…

The feeling of ordering a meal and then disliking it is so awkward. It happens to the best of us. Maybe you decide to try a new soup, only to realize it tastes like seawater and sadness. Or maybe you confidently order a dish you've had numerous times, only to realize this establishment makes the meal with ingredients you don't care for. Or maybe your friends force you to try sushi, and you don't like a single one of those ingredients. But you have to save face in front of your dinner guests. Do…

A manager acting clueless? What a surprise. When restaurants have busy days , they prepare for them in advance. Fast-food restaurants are well aware that certain holidays and the days around those holidays are going to be jam-packed. For example, it's not just Christmas Day that's busy. People are out doing their last-minute shopping for a few days beforehand, and they might decide on a quick meal on their way home. In order to be prepared for that influx of people, restaurants need to have ext…

These chefs and waiters have the patience of saints. They've encountered some truly bizarre customer requests, and they're sharing the strangest of them with the r/AskReddit community. When you go out to eat and pay for a nice meal, you want it to be perfect the first time. You shouldn't have to ask the server to send back the dish to the kitchen, but it happens. I once got a green egg at a diner during breakfast, which I sent back to the kitchen with haste (politely!). But I'd never dream of s…

There's always at least one person in every workplace who can't help but make everyone laugh. This is the kind of person that people say “lights up every room they walk into.” They just immediately begin cracking jokes and lightening the mood. This kind of person is especially appreciated in high-stress environments---like the back of house at a busy restaurant. Back-of-house, sometimes abbreviated as BOH, refers to all of the workers behind the scenes, like chefs, meal preppers, and dish washe…

A restaurant manager decided he wanted to cut costs on quesadillas, starting by using crepes instead of tortillas. That's probably because he had basically no real-world experience running a restaurant. Instead, he'd just taken a cooking course, then decided to cut costs at the restaurant in the quickest and easiest way he knew how: by making the food taste worst. Whether you're at a five star restaurant or a hole in the wall food shack, the quality of the food matters above all else. If your h…

Have you ever wanted to bake a carrot cake , but you don't have any carrots on hand? One person replied to a carrot cake recipe writing that she'd given kale a try instead. Do you want to guess the results? I'll tell you: it did not taste good. Recipe substitutions are understandable. Sometimes you're halfway through the dish, and you realize that eggs or olive oil aren't in your house. You went to the store, and the ingredients just slipped your mind. And now, you're covered in flour and the o…

When you go out to eat at the same place over and over again, it's often because you love everything about the restaurant. Maybe it's a pizza parlor with red booths and perfectly crispy pizza. Or perhaps you enjoy a quiet fancy restaurant where the appetizers are delectable and the conversations last for hours. However, some people enjoy going to the same restaurant on repeat for another reason—they've “taught” the staff members exactly how they like their food to be prepared . Whether these cu…

Who said complying with the rules can't be a little fun? One employee told their story of their coworker's malicious compliance when their bosses started demanding they label every little thing. Food service workers have a lot to juggle. This person, u/Dra5iel, shared that they and their coworker both worked at a restaurant chain. Along with prepping food, cooking it, plating it for customers, and cleaning up, back of house staffers have enough on their plates already (pun intended!). When the…

This boss had no idea what he was doing, and the hordes of hungry customers don't care about poor management, they just want food. There are lots of industries where people are low-paid and treated poorly. Food service is perhaps the hardest of these. Unlike retail, your customers are guaranteed to be hungry. That means they're going to be less patient and eager to tell you about any mistakes you're making. They really don't care about the employees or anything else, because all they want is th…

These lawyers found a clever workaround to a bagel issue. U/Ars-Torok shared an excellent malicious compliance story about the time they worked as a chef. Chefs start their work days while most of us are still in bed. This dude started his workday at 4AM , and only had to work until about 10AM. You never really get used to working nights, but that shift sounds so ideal. Even if you have to wake up at 3AM, you'd finish work and still have the entire day to do whatever you want! Plus, I'm sure yo…

I never knew that checking the bathrooms before you eat at a restaurant was a “thing” until today. That's because these chefs, waiters, diners, and one health inspector, all gave their opinions on the sketchiest things to look out for while eating at restaurants.

If you mistake salt for sugar in your recipe, it's no big deal. But if a chef does it while making a five gallon soup recipe, there's going to be some problems! Help yourself to a serving of these funny stories from chefs who were humbled by their own kitchen mishaps. We're all human, we all make mistakes every now and again. There are just some jobs where this is more acceptable than others. For example, if you're a FailBlog writer, it's okay if you make a mistake or three. Now, if you're an o…