Worked at a dominos pizza in high school 20 years ago or so. Had a customer call up and threaten me with physical violence if I did not put janlepenos on his pizza. I coated the dough with juice, put the sauce on and poured on more juice and put jalepenos on under the cheese. on top of the cheese beneath the other ingredients, and then on top of the top layer of cheese and poured more juice. Nearly nocked the manager over with the smell when it came out of the oven conveyer. She called me over and I explained that the dude threatened me. She boxed it up and sent it out.
Jesus! Remind me…if I ever get famous or run a country, I will need to hire a food taster! The visual I’m conjuring up is too creepy.
Agreed. I’ve seen some unhygenic behavior (someone working while sick, not wearing hat or hairnet, not washing hands) but despite some of the piss-poor, don’t-give-a-shit attitudes I saw working in kitchens I’ve never seen anyone deliberately tamper with food. I remember one acromonious relationship between a line cook and a server in which the cook would regularly (and deliberately) screw up the order in some subtle way that the server couldn’t detect, but there were no body fluids or cleaning solvents involved.
That type of thing, if detected, could get a restaurant shut down permenantly. Despite the urban rumours you hear about someone jizzing in the clam chowder, I suspect such incidents are extremely rare. Word gets around.
Stranger
Started as a crew person at Wendy’s, worked up to manager. Never saw any incidents of anybody deliberately contaminating any food — that is, serving non-food product — and never did it myself to anyone I didn’t know.
Let me clarify that.
On one occasion, a friend came in and said he wanted a burger with absolutely everything on it. So we fetched some things from the salad bar (including red onions and shredded carrots and a cucumber slice) for his burger.
On another, that same friend came in and asked us to make a 32-oz Frosty (which wasn’t a saleable menu item, but we charged him for 2 16-oz and put them in one cup). We sneaked a whole hard-boiled egg into his Frosty.
The best gag was to fill up a Frosty half way in a medium cup, stick a cup lid into it, then fill up the rest of the Frosty. Someone trying to eat one with a spoon will encounter an impenetrable inedible surface they can’t quite see (especially on drive-through). Did this one to Cervaise, actually. 
Don’t, whatever you do, read the book Trainspotting by Irving Welsh. Particularly not the chapter that didn’t make it into the movie - with the obnoxious customer, and the bloody mary, and the pissed off waitress who was having her period…
It wasn’t a deliberate act of malice, but when I was 16 we occasionally sold corn on the cob that had been sitting in the cooker for a while with drowned roaches. We just didn’t care.
I’ve occasionally sold decaf coffee as caffinated- we were out of the the real stuff and figured no one would be hurt by not getting the caffine. Before anyone jumps on me, I have never and would never sell caffinated as decaf; I realize people with heart conditions and allergies could really suffer from that.
But actual malice? I’ve never done anything like what’s been described above.
I worked as an AF cook for 4 years and I only saw the opposite. We would rag on anyone who did anything gross to the food. It might have been the fact that if someone saw us doing anything like that we would probably be up for some paperwork.
I have worked in restaurants for the last 18 years, currently as a General Manger. Not only have I never adulterated a customer’s food, I can assure you any employee who ever did so would be out the door so fast their head would spin. And with a swift kick in the ass. I really think this is far more common in movies/TV shows than in reality.
Seriously, I would much rather have a non-sick person spit in my food than have dangerously heated soup. I think that this was pretty damn bad.
Not first hand knowlege, but I work with a woman who waitressed her way through college. I asked her this question, and she said that she had never witnessed it first hand. She had heard stories about people putting contact lens solution in food; according to what she had heard, it can provoke a rapid trip to the restroom, but she didn’t know anyone who had actually done it to a customer.
She had, however, seen many cases of food dropped on the floor, wiped off, and then served to a customer.
I know of an incident at a restaraunt I once worked at in which a police officer got served a sandwich which had been adulterated with a small amount of urine. I wasn’t there when it happened. I heard about only much later from the guy who did it. The person who did it had a personal reason to hate this particular cop. He told me that before he made the order, he went into the bathroom to take a leak and made sure got a little bit on his hands. He then used his unwashed hands to make the order. That’s the only incident I know of where somebody dleiberately tainted food with a bodily fluid, but I have seen cases where people have been a little too heavy with the pepper, chose an inferior bit of meat, burnt something to a crisp, etc. All things which could be plausibly passed off as accidental if called on. It’s also not uncommon for cooks to prank the orders of other employees (that is, an order that another employee is going to eat himself) by doing things like loading up an omelet with hot sauce but I don’t know if that really counts. That was mostly just cooks messing with other cooks.
I can also vouch for the fact that serving food which has fallen on the floor is extremely common, but that’s usually more a matter of expediency than malice.
I was 21 then, am now 42.
I worked as a waitress at Charlie’s Chili, this little now-closed burger joint in Costa Mesa, Calif. I worked the graveyard shift, and got all the drunks from Goat Hill Tavern, Hogie Barmichael’s, Pierce Street Annex, The Helm and others. I worked the restaurant alone, serving 12 tables simultaneously.
Most of my customers were awesome (they all called me “Mom”) but occasionally I’d get some little snot from Newport Beach who thought she could treat me like complete dog doo.
I “accidentally” spilled a salad on her, complete with oil and vinegar dressing. That’s the absolute worst thing I’ve ever done to a customer.
However, a friend of mine used to work at Luv’s BBQ and I watched her spit in someone’s soup once. Yes, the customer had been horrible to her (over a period of years, apparently) and never tipped, and she had finally just had enough. But still–spitting in their food? Yikes. She was an otherwise perfectly nice and rational human being.
She teaches college now, so I guess that’s kharma enough, eh?
Wow. Add some spicy Italian sausage, anchovies, and a touch of red pepper, and I think you’ve just described my ideal pizza.
When I was a freshman in high school the local wise guy alpha male jock was charged with the task of mixing up 5 gallons of tarter sauce at the local Burger Chef.
The story was he took a five gallon bucket of Mayo, added the remaining ingredients, and then mixed the recipe in the bucket with his feet.
Word got around school and for the next month the store manager couldn’t figure out why fish sandwich sales dropped off.
I recall the waitresses mentioning this when I worked in a restaurant. If you’re out of regular, it’s the end of the night, and you don’t want to brew and throw out a whole fresh pot of coffee, just top them off with decaf.
I did hear a second hand account of a hideously doctored pizza “sold” to a cop from the chef at the restaurant. Could have been true, could have been BS, I’ll never know for sure.
For the curious, the doctoring involved a crack addict with a head cold, a handkerchief, and pepperoni.
My ex (true gentleman that he was :rolleyes: ) had a hard-on with some guy at the local tavern. So…he bought him a pitcher of beer to make amends. He also peed in the beer. And told the guy while he was halfway through his first mug.
I worked at our small town’s greasy spoon one summer and witnessed our fry cook chop dead flies up into teeny pieces, mash them into a burger patty, fry it up and serve it with a smile to her ex-boyfriend at the drive up window.
When I worked as a waiter I never once did anything to anybody’s food. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal as it is. I did, however, not devote extra time or attention to rude customers. Screw their tips, life is too short and shifts are too long.
I’ve worked at two restaraunts - I’ve never done anything to anyone’s food.
At the first place, I saw every manner of disgusting food treatment, both deliberate and accidental. I once rescued a chicken breast from a plate and threw it in the back alley before it could be served - it had been thrown in the very disugusting garbage, covered in crap, fished out by the owner’s son and put back on the plate to go out. Uh, no.
At the second place, I never saw anything. Everyone was clean, and no one ever even suggested doing nasty stuff to people’s food.
So, now when I go out to eat, I’m really REALLY nice. Also, I usually go for sushi, so you can watch the chef making it. 