Shots Across The Bow

A kitchen from Hell in Knoxville

I had lunch last week with a friend of mine who works in the kitchen of a very exclusive Knoxville restaurant, one with a very elevated reputation.

Now I've been around the restaurant business for about a decade, as my then wife worked at a variety of sit down restaurants like O'Charleys and Fridays, and I managed a fast food place for almost two years, so I know just what kind of horror stories to expect, but nothing I've seen or heard prepared me for the stories this guy told.

Have you heard of anyone taking spoiled beef, trimming off the green sections, and serving up the rest?

Have you heard of anyone serving up 3 week old oysters?

Have you heard of anyone washing rancid oil off of spoiled fish with lemon juice to hide the odor?

I watch a lot of shows on the Food Network, and I haven't seen Bobby Flay do any of those things. Heck, I haven't seen Rachel Ray do anything like that. As a matter of fact, the only time I've seen anything like that was on Fear Factor.

Apparently the head chef at this restaurant has been a chef for 25 years, and he figures that if the food is younger than he is, it counts as fresh.

The good news is that most of you reading this are like me, and you'll never get the chance to eat at this exclusive Knoxville eatery.

Posted by Rich at December 3, 2006 8:52 PM | TrackBack