Listen, I love a good salad bar. Seriously — I have chosen Ruby Tuesday’s over other chain restaurants based on the fact that their salad is always green, fresh, and totally delicious. That said, I know the risks. There’s a sneeze guard to try and prevent any sort of contamination, but you’re literally trusting strangers to make sure their hands have been properly washed before touching the food. When you realize that an actual co-worker could have put your life at risk, it’s even more awful of a crime.
This story isn’t focused around a salad bar. In fact, it’s something far more dangerous.
Even though there’ve been a lot of recalls on veggies recently (I’m still giving a side-eye to romaine, to be honest) raw meat can really cause a lot of issues. For one, it needs to be properly contained and refrigerated. Otherwise, it’s easy for bad bacteria to rapidly grow.
You’d assume that this guy would have thought about that when he brought a bag of raw chicken into his work potluck.
From the tweets about this dangerous affair, it seems as if he initially meant to make some chicken wings, but missed out on a few crucial steps beforehand.
At least he planned on cooking them since that was unclear at the very beginning.
My coworker brought raw chicken to the potluck today. I—
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
And yes, yes he is. pic.twitter.com/F8mGLtljep
Roughly 20 minutes after that tweet, user @caveofbeauty reported that a deep fryer was witnessed at the scene.
But he was missing something else.
Here’s an update. He brought a deep fryer too. There are no spices in sight. He’s putting *bare* chicken in the fryer and putting the sauces on them after. And yes he said that’s the seasoning. pic.twitter.com/0iI5b7UjfN
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Let’s just say, Oprah would have been mortified.
Not too long ago, an old clip was resurrected where she openly hated on a woman’s chicken recipe, which actually won a prize. The reason why? Lack of seasoning.
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wl8mQVIvDI"]The chicken was eventually cooked in the mid-afternoon.
Not only had it been sitting out, but @caveofbeauty’s coworker started cooking it with his bare hands.
This has gone entirely too far. First he had salmonella brewing in the air with the open bag of raw chicken.
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Now he’s touching it with his bare hands. SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE. pic.twitter.com/GdpfdbVeUn
When handling raw meat, it’s a proper procedure to wear gloves.
And that especially applies to when you’re cooking food for a large group, and not just yourself. If you wash your hands correctly before and after, that’s even better.
But, this coworker didn’t do that.
Instead, he proceeded to touch everything in the office, which only spread germs even further.
I’m literally shaking rn. I need my inhaler. 💀💀 he’s just casually walking around the room touching things after touching RAW CHICKEN. This entire place is contaminated. Oh my god.
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Supposedly he also used taste, and not color, to see if his chicken was still raw.
Spoiler alert: It was definitely raw. Always use a thermometer, people!!!
Update: He just bit into one to see if it’s cooked. It’s still raw.
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
But the thing is, his other coworkers might have missed the fact that he was so unsafe in his prep work.
People actually thanked him for making chicken.
Another coworker: “wow I appreciate you going out of your way”
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Raw chicken guy: “ehh, it’s what I love to do!”
PLS STOP DOING IT 💀💀
Even worse, it was hard for him to take “no” for an answer when @caveofbeauty refused to eat his chicken.
Good thing there was other food around. I mean, pizza wins over chicken always, salmonella-risk aside.
He keeps offering me the salmonella and I’m downing pizza slices just to say I’m full. I don’t even eat pizza anymore. I’ve had 3 slices. In 20 minutes.
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Unfortunately, people who ate the chicken were feeling some of the effects.
It’s kind of odd that @caveofbeauty didn’t warn others outside of Twitter about what she saw.
One of my coworkers who ate the wings just said “yo my stomach kinda hurts. Idk what’s wrong” SALMONELLA IS WHAT’S WRONG.
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
But still, the wings were continuously being cooked.
It made @caveofbeauty rethink the entire job. It may have been a little severe, unless her place of business was a restaurant.
After today I’ve concluded that this is a toxic and hostile work environment. I have to go. 😭😭
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
Yet it may have been a joke.
Since aside from the possible food poisoning incident, it seems like the job has a lot going for it.
For reference, it’s my third week here. Everything has been going great so far. Dope environment/culture. Dope people. Great pay. Great benefits. But....this. I can’t move past this 💀
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
And for the record, yes.
At least one person told her that she was leaving early after eating the wings.
My coworker had to leave early because she’s dead ass sick 🙂
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
He offered to make more tomorrow and I immediately said “no today was enough!” And he laughed it off but sir I’m being serious.
Remember the wings were unseasoned?
It turns out they also weren’t sauced properly. This detail may be the grossest one of all.
I forgot to tell y’all the worst part lmao. To sauce the wings, he was putting them in Tupperware and instead of tossing them....
— Lily (@caveofbeauty) March 8, 2019
He turned them.
With his bare fingers.
And licked his fingers a few times to get the sauce off. Then continued on with putting sauce on the rest.
If anything, it serves as a PSA to always wash your hands.
And, if you see someone making food improperly in front of you, make sure to tell your closest allies.
— Burgers, Fries and Gucci Slides (@BurgersnGucci) March 9, 2019
A few people did ask why raw chicken was such a threat.
It’s not just the fact that it was raw, it’s the fact that it was sitting out for quite a bit before being cooked.