Hair and a half-smoked cigarette: Six other (less) shocking tales of nasty things in food
After Hong Kong chef Martin Weir found an exploding cyst in a piece of pork collar bought fresh from a supermarket, we asked other kitchen veterans their own horror stories.
Hong Kong chef Martin Weir had a nasty surprise when he cut into an exploding cyst in pork collar bought from a supermarket this week. We asked some other seasoned Hong Kong food and beverage professionals for their own stories of shocks in the kitchen or front of house.
While none could recall anything as bad as Weir's experience, each has spent enough time around restaurants to have a tale to tell.
Food and beverage professional and former DJ Andy Curtis says he has found “hair, a bit of plastic bag, rubber band, string, and wire from a scrubbing brush”.
That doesn't surprise Christopher Gallaga, chef/manager at City’super, who says food professionals expect to find weird stuff in food all the time. In his time he has found packing foam, plaster, bits of metal from scouring pads, bits of glass, insects of every kind, and small stones.
“I once was served a dish of fried vegetables with the filter and half-smoked end of a cigarette right on top. It was at a local cha chaan teng. The server who's ear it probably fell out of just asked if I wanted something else instead.”
Jaakko Sorsa, executive chef at Nordic restaurant Finds, said: "Yesterday I found an eyelash but that kind of thing happens. It was at a Michelin-starred French restaurant.”