It’s not so funny when there actually IS a “fly in your soup”…
September 7th, 2009 |We all know the jokes starting “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. The young lady was out for a romantic dinner with her fiancé but the evening took a sour turn when she actually found a dead fly floating in her $30 starter. “It was horrible,” said Miss Svensson, 27, “I was so close to putting the disgusting thing in my mouth before my boyfriend spotted it.” The diners, understandably not happy, delivered the cliched line to the nearest waiter. The waiter made the situation worse by thinking it was all a joke and simply laughed and walked away! “Sounds like a joke I know, but it wasn’t funny at all.” said David Tomas, Andrea’s boyfriend. “It was a real breach of good hygiene and put both of us off our meal. When they didn’t take us seriously it just made me more upset.” In the end they had to get hold of the manager of the restaurant, who, upon seeing the insect apologised and offered the couple dinner at no charge. This offer was hurriedly refused by the pair, who were by this stage not feeling so hungry any more and decided to leave.
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. This particular restaurant however, not being used to hot days in the Swedish climate, didn’t have one. “This has never happened to us before – we are aware of the importance of making sure it never happens again,” said the head chef. “We do take hygiene very seriously in our kitchens, and actually have an air purifier already to trap airborne viruses, as well as air conditioners throughout the restaurant.” Hopefully there are other restauranteurs following this story who will heed the warning. Reputations have been shredded in the past on incidents such as these. Even worse than the damage to reputation is the prospect of a visit from the dreaded health inspector, which can in extreme cases get the business temporarily closed down.