Operating a restaurant truly takes a lot of elbow grease. Every industry employee has to be fast, clean, efficient, able to multitask and communicate well for it to function smoothly. All while trying to be the best of their craft, making top-notch food, and meeting customers' expectations and demands. So there’s really no surprise that workers sometimes try to do everything just to get through the day, even if it means cutting corners or committing unethical practices. 

However, all of this is happening behind the scenes, where such industry secrets are kept tightly shut. But mysteries exist so they can be revealed, and the online community “Kitchen Confidential” takes pride in doing exactly that. From poorer-than-poor conditions to ridiculous rules to dealing with weird customer requests, scroll down to find restaurant workers getting real and spilling secrets about the industry.

#1 About To Work The Grill In 100°f+ Weather With No A/C. It Was Nice Knowing Y’all

Image credits: AndyJaeven

#2 Worst Day In Sauce History

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#3 My Prep Cooks Got Tired Of Slicing Onions

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#4 Prep Guy Left A Spoon In The Fish Batter. Figured He Was Saving It To Eat Later So We Plated It For Him

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#5 Music Not Allowed In The Kitchen

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#6 Girlfriend’s Little Brother Just Worked His First Thanksgiving Double. This Was The Staff Meal

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#7 Can We Stop Glamorizing This

Give us cooks a break to sit and eat a meal like a human.

Image credits: Honest_Concentrate85

#8 I’m Not Even Mad. That’s Hilarious

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#9 A Tally Of Pet Names My Just Turned 18 Waitress Got Called In An Hour

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#10 Soup Du Jour! (Dishie Refuses To Change The Water And Just Says He’s Been Washing Dishes For 40 Years)

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#11 There's A Story Behind This Sign That I Need To Know

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#12 *common Sense Has Left The Chat

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#13 So My Dishwasher Was Sent Home Beyond Drunk When He Was Caught Sleeping In The Customer Bathroom, Guess Who Has To Clean This Up. Happy 4th Of July Everyone

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#14 They Don’t Want Me To Scrape Or Clean It

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#15 Stole This Off Facebook, Sounds Like They've Had A Few Chats About This Lol

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#16 The Color Of The Water That Drips Out Of The Ceiling In Our Walk In

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#17 Line Cook Quit

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#18 Fired After Working A Double On Christmas

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#19 Fng Was Asked To Strain Out The Stock

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#20 Fun Fact, Adam Sandler Brings His Own Ezekiel Bread To Restaurants

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#21 Dishie Asked For A Handburger. I Had To Make It

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#22 Thought You Guys Would Enjoy This

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#23 May This Person Find Their Special Pickle

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#24 Yep

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#25 How Does Everyone Dry Their Mops

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#26 I Wonder What The Meeting Is About

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#27 Sliced Tomato’s For Burgers As Prepared By My Colleagues

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#28 People Have Been Asking Why Chefs Hate Brunch…

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#29 Its Cool I Dont Need Those Fridges

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#30 Am I In The Wrong Here? I Called Off Yesterday After Talking With A Nurse, My Manager Told Me To Come In Today, This Is The Third Time Theyve Asked Me To Come In While Sick, Once When I Had Covid

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#31 Im Positive This Has Been On Here Before But I Couldn’t Help Sharing Again

Image credits: reddit.com

#32 I Was Fired For Reporting Unsafe Practices. Shrimp And Chicken Were Left Out At An Ambient Temperature Of 81° F For Over 14 Hours

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#33 Somebody Just Ordered This

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#34 Please Give Me A Notice

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#35 The Way The New Guy Labeled This Box

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#36 This Is From A&w Near Me

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#37 My Disaster

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#38 Whelp, Ok If That’s The Ticket

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#39 Just Found Out What This Restaurant Uses For “Goat Cheese”

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#40 Our Walk-In Is Just A Closet With An Air Conditioner

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#41 I Received This Tip Today. What Does It Mean?

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#42 You Already Know We Roasted Tf Out Of Jakob

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#43 What Do We Even Do In This Situation?

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#44 Tell The Owner We Need Potatoes For Potato Salad For A 55 Person Dinner, And He Brings In A 5lb Bag

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#45 Got This In A Little While Ago. I Have No Words

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#46 My Kitchen’s Hood Is So Loud They’re Giving Us Earplugs

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#47 Flipping Burgers

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#48 I’m Still In Shock

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#49 Not Sure Whether To Laugh Or Cry

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#50 He Should Probably Start Preparing His Own Food

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#51 Never Thought I’d Have To Make This Sign

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#52 Reviews/Owner Responses Like This Make Me Unbelievably Happy On The Inside

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#53 Nuff Said

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#54 Just Experienced The Worst As* Kicking I’ve Ever Had. Happy Father’s Day Everyone!

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#55 I Know Cubes Are In The Past But.... Squid Cube!

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#56 A Very Real Note Passed To Me By A Customer At My *pizza* Restaurant

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#57 Fire Inspector Accidentally Set Off My Ansul System

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#58 Thought This Group Would Appreciate…

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#59 When You Go In To Eat On Your Night Off

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#60 Found This On Craigslist

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#61 I Accidentally Used Pancake Mix Instead Of Biscuit Mix. Y'all Think Anyone Will Notice? The Other Cook Doesn't Know Yet

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#62 New Restaurant Might Not Make It

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#63 It’s Used Coffee Grounds. FoH Will Think Twice About Eating Things That Don’t Belong To Them

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#64 My Demented Chefs Rules Aka "Kitchen Truths"

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#65 Is This Legal?

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#66 Someone Had A Single Chicken Wing Roll Off And Touch The Table. She Asked For One More Remade For Her

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#67 Seen On My City's Subreddit

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#68 Wanted To Make Some Beer Dogs Tonight For A Father's Day Buffet. Asked The Bartender For Whatever Beer Was Not Moving And Got A Bunch Of Bud Light. Made "Woke Dogs" With The "Woke Beer". They Won't Drink It But They Sure Will Eat It. Every Single One Was Gone

Image credits: jlmckelvey91

#69 Aitah For Not Letting Them Cook Asparagus With Plastic Rubberbands Left On Them?

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#70 Got Fired Over Text This Morning. Happy New Year!

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#71 Congealed Oil Fat. For The Grubbiest Of Waiters

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#72 Owner Bought This Instead Of Reg Butter, How's This Gonna Go?

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#73 I Was Told To Pick Through These And Wash Them Off To Serve. Is This Wrong? It Seems Gross To Me

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#74 One Sysco Driver Finds A New Way To Make Me Ask "Why?" Every Delivery. He Doesn't Think. At All

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#75 Another Critter Situation

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#76 Prepping Carrots And Came Across This Monster

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#77 Work Smarter, Not Harder

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#78 Chef Forgot To Order Sugar. I’m The Baker

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#79 Made A Guy A Burger. He Wanted A Picture Of Me And My Ukulele. But He Also Wanted The Burger In The Photo. This Is My Job

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#80 Love Cooking, Hate People

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#81 Co-Workers Put Up A New Sticker For Our Ticket Machine

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#82 Why Do You Hate Brunch?

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#83 My Sister Is Having A Disagreement On Presentation With Her Head Chef

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#84 Premise Of This Show Was Ridiculous

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#85 I Need To Use Up 36 Gallons Of Skim Milk Due To An Ordering Error. Any Ideas How To Use It Up?

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#86 Chef Is Trying To Convince Me This Is Medium Rare

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#87 Local Restaurant Posted Online Today…

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#88 Guys... I'm The Truffle Guy From Yesterday. I'm Begging You Pls Don't Shoot The Messenger

So the guy just ordered 400 oysters on top of the 200 we already had ( and are getting old) + the ones in the showcase for sale... Long story short, what do I do with 600 fresh oysters we can't sell??? Ideas so far: shuck>sousvide>freeze>fried oyster special. Home made oyster sauce.... Today I almost passed out when I realized the situation

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#89 How Does This Make It To The Table?

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#90 My Dishy.. Broke Up With Me?

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#91 This Is How The Kitchen Are Putting Out Chicken Wings. Should I Say Something To Management? It's An Embarrassment

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#92 Walked In To Work Today And Saw This

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#93 Just Told Doordash To Get F**ked. Feelsgoodman

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#94 Ok Then

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#95 Table Had Just Ordered And The Server Was Already Done With Them

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#96 Someone Paid $95 For This…

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#97 Absolute Chad Chef

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#98 Local Spot Enforcing Their Own Rules. Thoughts?

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#99 “We Gotta Defrost The Shrimp” - Chef

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#100 Pretty Sure I'm Never Going To This Chipotle Again. Good Lord

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#101 Pervert Dishie Got Fired After Three Days And Keeps Sending This Stuff To My Boss

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#102 After All These Years I Didnt Know This

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#103 Allergy List From Customer!

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#104 Whoops

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#105 S Hook Found In Our Pasta Tonight

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#106 So Owner Decided He's Going To Cook A Couple Days A Week. This Is His Station. Yes We Are Open

Image credits: rossposse