I don't want to frighten anyone away from eating in restaurants with some of my stories. I have never worked with anyone who would tamper with a guest's food. No matter how upset it made them that the guest didn't like the dish, or no matter how many times the guest sent it back. (Bobby Brown once sent back his chicken 3 times, but that is another story.) Everyone believes it would be a reprehensible act no amount of attrition would atone. Having said that, it is perfectly acceptable to wreak havoc on your fellow employees for real or imagined transgressions. Most often this involves boobytrapping food someone is stealing from you for personal consumption.

I will start out with the most basic of stories. In many restaurants, french fries will be held in the expo window in a bowl or some other container while they await whatever they are accompanying to finish cooking. Servers were constantly taking the french fries and eating them. This was especially annoying when I had enough for all of my orders then, had to cook more. So, one day I cooked up a batch of fries, gave them a liberal coating of cayenne pepper, and placed them in the window. Within 5 minutes I had my first victim. There is nothing like a mouthful of cayenne to send someone scampering toward cold water. Later, she came to me and said, "There's something wrong with your french fries!" Don't feel sorry for these people. In all the stories, they were warned on numerous occasions.