things you don't know about your dinning experience

I Stumbed across an article in Readers Digest entitled "13 Things Your Waiter Won't Tell You" I thought I would tell you about my personal inside story on one of the "13".

3. When customers' dissatisfaction devolves into personal attacks, adulterating food or drink is a convenient way for servers to exact covert vengeance. Waiters can and do spit in people's food.

( From Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter (Ecco/HarperCollins, $24.95 Reader' Digest 2008)

I have been a waitress, on and off, for over 10 years (working through college and such). I must say I have never witnessed someone spitting into a customer's food. Please hear me, I am not saying I have never seen where someone was so rude that they didn't deserve it, I've just never worked with anyone low enough to retaliate that way.

Having clarified that, I have witnessed something that would be along the lines of depositing your DNA into food.

In all the restaurants I have worked, there is never any air conditioning in the kitchen...the fact is, it gets so hot (with all the fryers and grills ) that it would run non-stop and you still probably wouldn't feel it. Needless to say it gets so hot in there, you sweat. If you stay back there and cook all night, you sweat A LOT!

One particularly hot night, I was working with a cook that was so hot, he had beads of sweat all over his bald head and on his face. He was putting up the steaks and as he was handing me mine for the order...beads of sweat were dripping onto the steak.

I've always worked in smaller restaurants, maybe the spitting occurs in the big chains, however...if it is hot, maybe you should order a salad and avoid the salty, sweaty steaks!!

You know, you really should be nice to your server, though, just in case.