Brain Top Off!

It’s a classic series of jokes – “waiter, waiter – there’s a fly in my soup…”. It wasn’t funny, however, for Andrea Svensson, to whom it actually happened in an expensive restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden. Svensson was on a date with her long term boyfriend and fiancé who had splashed out on a romantic evening – but the night took a wrong turn when her starter was served with the floating insect. I nearly put the horrible thing in my mouth before my fiance saw it and stopped me,” said Ms Svensson, 27. “It was revolting.” Angry, the pair straight away called over the waiter with their complaint. Now this waiter then proceeded to do the worst thing possible for customer service – thinking they were joking, he laughed off the complaint and walked away! “You might think it’s hilarious, but at the time we weren’t laughing.” said David Tomas, Andrea’s boyfriend. “We expect better standards of hygiene from a restaurant this expensive. To be honest I just got more annoyed when he laughed it off as a joke.” The couple eventually had to call the restaurant manager, who saw the fly and immediately withdrew the dish, offering them a free meal. However the young lovers by this point were far too put off their meal and decided to take their business elsewhere.

Joking aside, any restaurant knows how big a health and safety nightmare this situation could be. The hot summer weather naturally attracts insects, especially in a food preparation area, and installing a low cost insect killer is an absolute must in any commercial kitchen. However this establishment, not being used to hot weather due to the normally chilly Swedish climate, was not equipped with one. “It’s a warning to us that we need to do something about it,” said the head chef later. “This has never happened here before and we need to make sure it never does.”. “We do take hygiene very seriously in our kitchens, and actually have an air filter already to trap airborne viruses, as well as air conditioners throughout the restaurant.” In a way it’s a blessing for other restaurants, who should really take this opportunity to learn the lessons here. Just one of these fly in soup incidents is enough to ruin a reputation. Then of course there’s the even bigger danger of a visit from the health inspector, who has the power to shut down a restaurant for incidents like these.

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