Do you just have to accept you're eating the chef's saliva?

[Dendarii_Dame]

People get grossed out by different things. I remember teaching a class of third-graders about photosynthesis. One boy raised his hand. “You mean that if I eat a plant, I’m eating sunshine?” And then the entire class joined in on a very sincere ewww. I was tempted to inform them what meat was, but didn’t. I had a lengthy lesson plan to get through.

[Doug_K]

@Dewey_Finn

One difference; the meat is fully cooked by the time it’s served. But the chef is tasting the finished dish, so the saliva is raw (diluted but raw).

But again, on all the shows I’ve seen the judges were not permitted to taste the food if the chef double dipped. They taste the food, it’s true, but they use a clean tasting spoon and they are only allowed to use the spoon once. They always have a set of tasting spoons.

I’ve seen Gordon Ramsey cuss chefs up one side and down the other and tell them they could get shut down by the health department for double dipping on Kitchen Nightmares, and it was already pointed out that someone on Worst Cooks in America had to start over multiple times over that.

[Thudlow_Boink]

While the danger from unhygienic cooks probably isn’t a large one, for those who dismiss it altogether I have two words: Typhoid Mary.

[Dogzilla]

@kayaker

Handling food goes part and parcel with its preparation, IMHO. When I cook I’m constantly tasting. When I grill steaks, I constantly touch the meat to determine when I hit medium rare. I’ve been in sushi bars where local regs force the chef to be gloved, and it makes me a little sad.

Gross. Can you just pick up a meat thermometer at the store? They’re cheap: $6-10. Then you don’t have to poke people’s steaks and you can get a more accurate reading than you can from the tip of your finger. Besides the internal temp is supposed to be in the 165 range, not the outside.

[Dogzilla]

@kayaker

I recently took a homemade muffin out of our freezer and put it on the kitchen counter to thaw. I walked into the living room to put on some music, then returned to the kitchen and the muffin was gone!!

I quickly realized that one of our dogs had to have taken it. I ran downstairs and there was Ella with the muffin in her mouth and the most guilty look on her face I’d ever seen. I took my muffin back and eventually ate it.

If a chef tasting the food bothers you, I guess the muffin thing would really squick you out.

Now, see, this doesn’t bother me at all.

[DinoR]

@Thudlow_Boink

While the danger from unhygienic cooks probably isn’t a large one, for those who dismiss it altogether I have two words: Typhoid Mary.

The bright side is the route out of the body doesn’t seem to make spit the issue. From wikipedia

Typhoid fever — also known simply as typhoid[1] — is a common worldwide bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, serovar Typhi.[2]

The cases related to her probably increase the whole food handling concern above though. In her case it seems like there was a regular concern of contaminating food with something that** rhymes with spit.**

[bob_2]

If this kind of thing worries you, then never ever send something back to the kitchen and eat it when it comes back warmed up or whatever.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Dogzilla

@kayaker

Handling food goes part and parcel with its preparation, IMHO. When I cook I’m constantly tasting. When I grill steaks, I constantly touch the meat to determine when I hit medium rare. I’ve been in sushi bars where local regs force the chef to be gloved, and it makes me a little sad.

Gross. Can you just pick up a meat thermometer at the store? They’re cheap: $6-10. Then you don’t have to poke people’s steaks and you can get a more accurate reading than you can from the tip of your finger. Besides the internal temp is supposed to be in the 165 range, not the outside.

My understanding from these cooking shows is that when you’re poking a steak, you’re checking for doneness by feel (i.e., firmness), not temperature.

[gigi]

Most of the time on Chopped they seem to use the tasting spoon once and then set it aside. But yes, there was that time the guy double-dipped, they warned him, and he double-dipped again the next round. When they told him, he honestly looked like he had no idea he did it. To me, that meant he does it all the time in his restaurant and doesn’t think anything of it. And he can’t be the only one.

[kayaker]

@Dogzilla

Gross. Can you just pick up a meat thermometer at the store? They’re cheap: $6-10. Then you don’t have to poke people’s steaks and you can get a more accurate reading than you can from the tip of your finger. Besides the internal temp is supposed to be in the 165 range, not the outside.

I’m feeling for how pliant the meat is, not temp.

ETA: yep, what Dewey said.

[Soylent_Juicy]

@QuickSilver

I’d have mentioned all the sweat before going to the blood thing.

Do you guys remember that contestant on Hell’s Kitchen that sweated into the pasta sauce? “Eh, I’m a sweaty guy. shrug Fuggedaboudit.”

[Thudlow_Boink]

@kayaker

I constantly touch the meat

Heh heh.

@kayaker

I’m feeling for how pliant the meat is

Heh heh heh.

[Smeghead]

It’s worse than that! Virtually all the food you eat has DNA in it, and it’s not disclosed in the label!!

80% Of Americans Support Mandatory Labels On Foods Containing DNA. DNA!

[WolfpackJeep]

@grude

Please note I said I am not grossed out, just surprised.

I will say one thing that has surprised me is getting blood in the food and just acting like it didn’t happen(one time someone cut their finger and just kept going until shut down by the judges).

Oh yeah, the “blood vinaigrette” episode. shudder

[Soul_Brother_Number_Two]

My peak cooking experience was when my place hosted a guy named Michel Roth, who was chef de cuisine at the Ritz in Paris at the time. Spent three days with him as his shadow/dogsbody. Dude would actually run his fingers through the saute pan and taste for salt, never seen the like. Point being that the higher-end the food is, the more fingers and such have been on it.

Really great guy. Had almost no English. Would disappear for an hour and a half in the middle of the day with a bottle of wine. Told me I was a good worker and invited me to work for him at the Ritz. Unfortunately I was just about done with cooking at that time, if he had asked me a few years earlier…

In actuality the reason I didn’t go is because I am a very fear-based individual and the very thought paralyzed me. One of my many regrets.

[TBG]

This thread is gross.

[Grrr]

The other day I sat down with a big bowl of pasta and red sauce with a tall glass of milk. With out me noticing, Ninja Cat hops up on the table and gets a couple of laps of my milk before I noticed and was I was able to shoo him away.

I debated all of two seconds if I should pour it out before I came to the conclusion I’ve probably had waaay worse at dining establishments.

[Isamu]

?? When I’m cooking a soup that needs to be adjusted for taste, I taste using a teaspoon and take it all, then rise the spoon. There’s nothing to put back.