I was the cashier at a high end Sushi restaurant. The staff was fed during a one hour closure between lunch and dinner. Collars and cheeks. Everyday, collars and cheeks.
Dang, I agree with MrDibble again.
Yes, in top restaurants, the servers taste most of the dishes.
In a casual or fast restaurant, the rule of thumb is that employees eat free, so if they have been there for a while, they likely have tried everything just out of boredom if nothing else.
My Buddy worked at a Pizza place and his tales of weird combos had us laughing.
I was a waiter in a Kosher Chinese restaurant for one summer, and we did not get to eat from the regular menu unless we paid for it out of pocket. The waitstaff did get fed, but it was always chicken or beef stir-fried with Chinese vegetables which we took buffet-style, not a variety of dishes and not something to be individually requested.
At one job I had, one of our regular restaurants for lunch was operated by a non-profit working to get formerly homeless people into society, and many of the wait staff were recovering alcoholics. So they hadn’t tried the wines but were well trained in how to describe them.
Something like this? (A great film, remade for American audiences as an execrable rom-com)
Usually a batch of whatever cooked in enormous quantities and often using leftovers or stuff two days away from going bad. So I’ve read - am not an expert nor in the industry.
In most cases, “gone bad” is not a Boolean variable. Food will continually degrade in quality. At some point, it’s degraded enough that you wouldn’t want to eat it at all, and then you say it’s “gone bad” and throw it out. But shortly before that, it’ll go through a stage where you could eat it, but would really rather not, and before that, a stage where it’s OK, but past its prime, and so on. If you’re trying to push stuff that’s close to the point where it needs to be thrown out on your customers, you’re feeding them pretty bad food.
Family meal was my favorite part of kitchen work, and in my now defunct place, it was never anything on the menu, it was all sorts of stuff, favorite meals from back home [my intro to no shit for real Mexican food that wasn’t Taco Hell] one favored memory was an amazing turkey divan made from a wrongly delivered whole turkey [it was supposed to be goose breast filets. Oops. Menu change =)] I used to make the family ritschert recipe, starting it when I clocked in at oh my freaking god in the morning so it would be ready by prelunch.
I also occasionally can’t decide between two options, and ask the waitress which she recommends. I’ve gotten useful advice – “the chicken sandwich is more popular, but the pork is more filling”; “the spinach in the one omelet makes it better than the other one”. Once I got an enthusiastic “Mahi!” when I was torn between mahi-mahi and some other dish, and I can’t say I was steered wrong. I even learned, when I couldn’t decide between two hard ciders, that my waitress wasn’t yet 21, and thus “wouldn’t know”, but would let me have a taste of one before I committed to ordering it (it was fine, so I went with it).
Wow, I guess I’ve been lucky to get servers who know their restaurant’s food. Part of that is that I eat at cheap but good burger/BBQ/poké places most of the time, where I don’t have to ask anything.
So then when I do got to a nice restaurant, I can afford a place with excellent cooks and chefs. And in my experience those chefs make sure their waitstaff have sampled everything. Especially the specials.
And that doesn’t have to be a fancy sit-down dinner for the staff. Just the cooks making a pile of “Fig & Prosciutto Goat McNuggets” (or whatever) for everyone to sample. I really appreciate it when a server has tried a dish and can give an informed opinion on it.