09-26-2009, 11:34 PM
Hi guys. I just wanted to post about my experience cooking at applebnees' and there horrid lack of concern for sanitation and health hazards. Let me start off by saying that i have worked in many restaurants over the years I Took a part time job there and started work two days ago as a cook. I have never seen a place that completely disregards health and safety standards like they do.They have a "trainer" for each area who trains all of the employees for each area. One of the first things he told me was to forget about a brake, that only management gets a 30 minute brake.( keep in mid were talking 8 or 9 hour days) If you were a smoker you might get a five minute brake at some point. When i was being trained my trainer (we'll call him mike) dropped some food on the floor and picked it back up and threw it back in the fryer for a few seconds then put it on the costumers platter.I said is that what were supposed to do if something is dropped? He told me yes that this is what the managers want us to do with any food items that are drooped. I told him it was disgusting and he said there policy is that the grease from the fryer (or heat from the grill, or microwave) will kill the germs. The only time when not to do it is if theres a inspector on site. Anyone with half a brain knows this is untrue and why people get sick.I was also told that if a utensil, bowl, lid or plate gets dropped to go ahead and use it that the main concern is the costumers wait time. I also was trained to mix all the wings and seafood products in the same dressing bowls which can make a person with a seafood alergy sick if not kill them I continued working through the day and saw countless items (including food) being dropped and used. At the end of the night when it came time to teardown the fryers and grill the parts were thrown on the floor over a drain and just hosed off with warm water. No dishwasher, no sanitizer or soap, no scrubbing or sink. It was all done right there in the mop drain (which was over flowed with slop) on the floor which means what ever is on the floor is being cycled back in to the fryers. They didn't even use any kind of soap or product on the grills just water again. Half of the cooks were just reaching into food containers grabbing hand fulls of lettuce or what ever it was at the time, with no gloves. (or hand washing) They also didn't keep there food prep counters clean, they would just use the same bucket of water and sanitizer for the full shift with god only knows what floating in it. All of the make lines(were food is prepared right before being plated) and prep counters were filthy. I even watched one guy cut his fingers while cutting rib portions and just rinse the knife off with water and went back to cutting ribs.I left that night amazed and horrified at all the things i had seen there. I went back for my next shift to see if maybe it was just he people who were working that shift. It wasn't the place was just as bad. I asked the guy training me how long i had to memorize the menu and he said three days. At that point i was planning to talk to a manager who was off duty when i saw him since he seemed to be reasonable. After seeing chris drop the lid to the salad mixing bowl and throw it back on and continue mixing someones order I told him i didn't know if i would continue to work there with that and the other issues. He asked my to hold on a sec then came back and said the manager said If i didn't want to be there 100% to just leave.. I went to my car and got there company shirts and took them in and started to tell her three days isn't really enough time to memorize the menu. I said I'm not sure if i can have it all 100% and she said well you can just go homeright now if you don't want to be here. I wanted to tell her what i thought of the food safety issues but she just wanted me to leave.At that point i was thoroughly disgusted and wanted to stuff a hand full of dropped food in the womans face and tell here what i thought of her and there health policy. but I just said screw it and left. I knew i could have threw a fit but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. And i sure as hell wasn't going to be responsible for someone getting sick or even dying.I guess my point is that if you value your health don't eat at applebees's
