Month: July 2017

Famous people do some pretty weird stuff. Michael Bublé eats his corn on the cob like a hot dog, and Chrissy Teigen famously licks the seasoning off Doritos before sticking them back in the bag. Tim Tebow is known to put butter in his coffee.

But some celebrities take eating to a whole new level of strange. From Mariah Carey’s all-purple diet to Karl Lagerfeld’s separate house for dining (yes, you read that correctly), here are some of the most bizarre eating habits of the stars.

Tom Brady doesn’t eat nightshades.

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying Tom Brady’s athletic prowess on the field. Patriots fans can thank his wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who put their family on a strict diet that Brady follows religiously.

The Brady­–Bündchen clan famously eats an 80 percent vegetable diet. But Brady, in particular, does not eat nightshades.
Unlike medieval Europeans, who believed tomatoes and other nightshades to be poisonous, Brady doesn’t consume members of the Solanaceae family because there is some evidence they can cause inflammation.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Brady says of his strict diet, “I learned so many different things…because I was kind of—and still am—an aspiring athlete in a lot of ways. I still want to reach my maximum potential, I still love doing what I do, and I want to do it as well as I can for as long as I can.”
With five Super Bowl wins under his belt and no signs of slowing down, Tom Brady might just be onto something.

Karl Lagerfeld has a separate house for eating.

Lagerfeld drinks copious amounts of Diet Coke during the day, preferring only cold beverages.

Lagerfeld has a lot of bizarre habits, including an obsession with the color white, cleanliness, and exclusively wearing 17th-century-style custom-made nightshirts to bed.
As one does when one uses the main house to sketch and daydream, Lagerfeld has a second home for eating and entertaining. Lagerfeld explains: “I never have lunch, but when I do, I ask them to bring it to me in the house. I actually have two houses.

“This house here, it’s only for sleeping and sketching, and I have another house two-and-a-half meters away for lunch and dinner and to see people, and where the cook is and all that.”

Kourtney Kardashian eats her placenta.

Yes, you read that correctly. Kardashian made headlines a couple of years ago for taking placenta pills. Placenta is an organ that develops during pregnancy to nourish a fetus in utero. When a baby is born, the placenta is delivered soon after. While nearly all mammals eat their placenta postpartum, the practice of consuming placenta is pretty rare for human women.

Kardashian said her placenta pills were “yummy” and may have influenced her sister Kim’s decision to also take placenta pills postpartum. Kim Kardashian West decided to consume her placenta because she struggled with postpartum depression after her first pregnancy.
Some anecdotal evidence suggests that consuming placenta may help combat postpartum depression, so Kardashian West thought, “why not try it? What do I have to lose?”

The Kardashian sisters may have made headlines for consuming their placenta, but having it ground into pills is one of the tamer ways to consume one’s own internal organ. Instead of eating hospital food, one woman had her placenta stewed into a tasty broth for her first post-birth meal.
Usain Bolt has a McNugget addiction.
If you want to train like the fastest man on Earth, head straight for the golden arches. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bolt consumed 100 chicken McNuggets a day.

“At first I ate a box of 20 for lunch, then another for dinner. The next day I had two boxes for breakfast, one for lunch and then another couple in the evening.”
That’s just under 5,000 calories in nuggets alone, not even counting dipping sauce! Of his nugget addiction Bolt says, “Man, I should have gotten a gold medal for all that chowing down.”

For the most recent Olympics in Rio, Bolt gave up his McDonald’s addiction. Instead, he opted for yams, lean protein, and his least favorite veggie, broccoli, to get in shape.
Mariah Carey eats purple foods three days a week.
Most women work out in sneakers, shorts, and a tank top, but Mariah Carey is not most women. She opts to get her sweat on in stilettos and fishnets instead. When it comes to her diet, Carey is just as over the top.

After the birth of her children in 2013, Mariah Carey turned to the purple diet to get back in shape.
The purple diet is exactly what it sounds like: You may eat as many naturally purple foods as you like. Carey reportedly chowed down on purple carrots, cauliflower, and eggplant three days a week. Purple foods have anthocyanins, a powerful antioxidant, which may aid in weight loss.

While Mariah Carey looks phenomenal no matter what color food her food is, she has evidently moved on from the purple diet. According to Carey, on her new food plan, “All you eat is Norwegian salmon and capers every day. That’s it.”
Sounds tasty.

Stephen King eats cheesecake every day.

Like the Golden Girls, Stephen King loves cheesecake. Evidently, the king of suspense eats a piece of cheesecake every day before writing.

In an interview with Bon Appétit magazine, King said, “I have a son who swears by creme brulee and always eats it before he writes. For me, it’s cheesecake.”
Cheesecake is a decadent treat to have every day, but King might be onto something by eating it daily. Cheesecake does actually offer some nutritional benefits.

Cheesecake is Stephen King’s brain food, but there is one dish he won’t touch. “I don’t eat oysters. It’s horrible, the way they slither down your throat alive.”
Nicolas Cage only eats “dignified” meat.
Back in 2010, Nicolas Cage made headlines when he revealed the weird way he eats: “I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don’t eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl.”

While we’re not sure if fish and fowl are more dignified than other animals, Cage’s dignified diet is pretty healthy. Fish and poultry are lean proteins, and most nutritionists recommend pork and red meat in moderation.

Scott Foley eats peanut butter on scrambled eggs.

Peanut butter tastes delicious in some pretty unlikely combinations.

Elvis Presley famously had his staff fly with him to Colorado to satisfy a late-night craving for a peanut butter, jelly, and bacon sandwich. Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum likes PBJ&Cs (peanut butter, jelly, and Cheetos sandwiches).
Scott Foley, who stars on the ABC drama Scandal, recently revealed that his family eats peanut butter slathered on scrambled eggs for breakfast. Says Foley, “It’s so good. Don’t knock it till you try it. …Peanut butter eggs. Dig it.”

There’s no denying that both peanut butter and eggs are a great source of protein, but we’ll just take Foley’s word for it on his unusual breakfast combination.

Our lives hinge on trust.

When we drive, we trust the people around us to operate the thousands of pounds of steel that are under their control responsibly and in accordance with traffic rules. We trust experts in a particular field to give us accurate information about subjects that we don’t have the time or resources to fully understand ourselves.

And we trust that the food we eat contains the ingredients it says it contains, is handled in a way that is sanitary, and aligns with the standards of its claimed attributes (e.g., nut free, organic, free range, kosher).

Food quality has not always been so controlled, however. An excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle paints a vivid picture of Chicago’s meatpacking industry before federal regulations existed:

“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs.

“There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.

“This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”

Feeling a bit queasy? You aren’t alone. The novel’s details, which Sinclair gleaned over weeks spent touring Chicago’s stockyards and slaughterhouses, created such public outrage that they led to the passage of food-safety legislation that same year.

Sinclair’s intent had been to move readers to consider the tragic lot faced by The Jungle‘s protagonist, an immigrant laborer, but it was disgust that stuck in the back of their throats. “I aimed at the public’s heart,” Sinclair would say after the book was published, “and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

The stomach is a powerful place to be hit. And though we’ve come a long way since poisoned-rat sausage, food quality in the U.S. still has its faults—which is why it’s important that we continue educating ourselves as consumers about what exactly we’re putting in our bodies.

Reader’s Digest did the work of collecting insights from company executives, marketers, and food scientists about what’s really up with our food. Some of the secrets they found may just change the way you eat.

Things are not always as they seem

“Manufacturers can hide things under natural flavoring,” says Jason Burke, founder of the grass-fed beef jerky company New Primal. “When I started in this business and was interviewing possible partners, I was shocked at the amount of deception. Manufacturers and copackers would ask what ingredients I was using for preservation, and then they would tell me, ‘You know you can use X or Y—just call it natural flavoring on the package. No one will know.'”

This is why we need disinterested outside parties monitoring the behavior of food companies. Humans’ tendency toward in-group favoritism is a well-known phenomenon, and this can easily translate into corruption when an in-group holds any kind unchecked power.

Go for whole grain, not multigrain.

By now, you’ve probably gotten the message that bread with “grain” in the title is nutritionally superior to white bread. Refined grains, such as the flour used to make white bread, have been processed in such a way that key vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, protein, and fiber are no longer present.

Staring down a loaf of multigrain bread, you might imagine that it’s still got all the good stuff intact. But as nutritionist Katherine Tallmadge tells Reader’s Digest, it’s a trick!

“The term multi-grain usually means a product is not a healthy choice,” she says. “People confuse it with whole grain, but all it means is that several kinds of grain were used. The first ingredient should be whole grain.”

“All multigrain means is that the product contains more than one type of grain—they may be refined and stripped of their natural nutrients and fiber,” registered dietitian Carrie Dennett tells The Kitchn. “If you like the idea of multigrain breads and other products, make sure that those grains are also whole grains. Read the ingredient list and look for the word whole before each type of grain or flour listed.”

Nutritionist Jennifer Adler advises in The Kitchn to “look for claims like 100% whole wheat or 100% whole grain” and she says that “[t]he first ingredient on the ingredient list should be a whole grain.”

Can’t pronounce an ingredient? Look it up.

You’ve likely heard before that you shouldn’t eat foods with ingredients that you can’t pronounce. Although it certainly won’t hurt you to stick to whole foods that don’t require an ingredients list—especially long, unfamiliar ones—this advice doesn’t always hold up.

“I think that reflects an ignorance of chemistry and nutrition,” says food scientist Kantha Shelke. “Take riboflavin, cobalamin, and pyridoxamine. They’re big words and sound like things you don’t want in your food, but they are actually all forms of vitamin B, and skipping them can be detrimental to your health.”

“Instead of being scared of ingredients you don’t know,” she advises, “educate yourself.”

Be skeptical of organic.

If you’ve ever decided to “go organic” and almost passed out at the cash register once your total had been rung up, you know that buying groceries this way is not an option for everyone. Many have assumed, though, that this would be the ideal way to eat if they could afford it.

This isn’t necessarily true.

“Organic foods are the new kids on the block, so producers are fighting aggressively for market share,” says Bruce Chassy, a food safety and nutrition scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. “One way they can increase sales is by convincing you that all chemicals are bad, [genetically modified organisms] (GMOs) are bad, pesticides are bad—and some of that has no basis in science or fact. That makes it very confusing for consumers.”

The benefits of buying organic have been regarded with skepticism for a while, but a 2016 meta-analysis of data pooled from more than 200 studies did suggest that organic food may be more nutrient dense.

Keep in mind that there is always a lot of room for murkiness in labeling, though, so when you decide that you do want to buy something organic, be sure to educate yourself about what you’re really purchasing.

Before you shell out so much cash for that extra-virgin olive oil…

Olive oil is expensive, but we continue to buy it because it’s delicious and, we assume, good for us. Before you spend a lot on a big old bottle of the stuff, though, make sure it’s the real deal.

“Your extra-virgin olive oil may actually be a lower-grade oil,” says Dan Flynn, executive director of the University of California, Davis Olive Center. “In our research, approximately 70 pe
rcent of bottles pulled off supermarket shelves were either rancid or did not meet the criteria for the extra-virgin grade.”

He advises finding quality stuff by looking “for a dark glass or tin container, which protects the oil from light, and a harvest date, which better producers often include on the bottle.”

Into Greek yogurt? You should know about this.

It’s no secret that companies will do lots of shady things to save time or money, and yogurt companies are no different.

“Watch out for Greek yogurt that is not authentically strained,” warns Melanie Warner, author of Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal. “Some manufacturers will use add-ins instead of straining the yogurt to make it thick. How to tell: If you see either whey protein concentrate or milk protein concentrate on the ingredients list, the company is taking shortcuts.”

(No) surprise: Approach meat with caution.

When it comes to buying and consuming meat, it pretty much comes down to choosing the lesser of the evils, of which there are many. If you’re like me, you know that nitrites and nitrates are bad, but you’re not really sure why. Apparently, manufacturers of hot dogs, cold cuts, and bacon have caught on to this ignorance and are trying to use it to their advantage.

“When the label on meat says no nitrates or nitrites added, that’s incorrect,” says Joseph Sebranek, professor of meat science at Iowa State University.

“Most of those products take celery powder, which is very high in natural nitrates, and convert it into a chemical that, in the lab, is no different from the traditional version.”

The trouble appears to lie with cured meats generally. “One concern about processed meats is that nitrites can combine with compounds found in meat at high temperatures to fuel the formation of nitrosamines, which are known carcinogens in animals,” reports the Associated Press.

“It’s a chemical reaction that can happen regardless of the source of the nitrites, including celery juice.”

If you’re more of a seafood person, make sure you’re checking out its country of origin. Beware, specifically, of shrimp. According to Dave Love, a researcher at the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:

“The FDA inspects less than 2 percent of our seafood imports, while the European Union inspects 20 to 50 percent of theirs. Since 90 percent of our seafood comes from other countries, banned drug residues and unwanted contaminants could be getting in. If you can, choose domestic seafood (the FDA requires that seafood be labeled with its country of origin), especially if you buy shrimp, because when it is inspected, it fails more than other products.”

Above all, eat more fruits and vegetables

When in doubt, there is one golden rule of health that has never gone out of style: Consume more produce.

“It can get overwhelming with all the advice that’s out there, but the number one basic step you can take is simply to eat more fruits and veggies,” says Bruce Bradley, former marketing executive for General Mills and the author of Fat Profits. “If you want to go further, cook more.”

And go eat a salad.

What’s the difference between foods labeled “all-natural” and “organic”? Just what are all those hard-to-pronounce ingredients on the back of the cereal box?
Food labels and nutrition facts are supposed to be easy for the average consumer to understand, but sometimes it feels like you need a PhD to decipher them.

Grocery shopping shouldn’t have to be as shrouded in mystery as the plot of Twin Peaks. Read on to discover exactly what to look for in on food labels and nutrition facts.

Food Labels

If you’re looking for healthy meal options, you’re probably drawn to food labels that say things like “natural” and “organic.” These labels, however, can sometimes be misleading. Know the difference in these key food label phrases to shop smarter.

Natural

Sixty percent of Americans reported purchasing a food item because it contained the words “all-natural” on the label. To most consumers, “natural” foods are assumed to be free from dyes, preservatives, and other additives. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate foods that claim to be a “natural” product.

According to the FDA, “From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth.”
For example, you might have recently purchased a box of “natural raisin bran cereal,” only to find out upon examining the label that the cereal actually contains several chemical additives.

Because the cereal contains grains and raisins—both technically food items found in nature—it can be marketed as a natural food.

Organic

Unlike the natural label, foods marked as “organic” have gone through strict labeling requirements. If a food item has the iconic green and white “USDA Certified Organic” sticker on it, you can be safely assured it met the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines. These guidelines restrict the kinds of soil fertilizers that can be used, as well as the use of antibiotics/hormones in animals.

Be wary, however, of prepackaged goods that are labeled “organic.” These items are only required to contain 70 percent organic items, leaving wiggle to room to include synthetic additives.

Non-GMO

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been a hot-button topic for the past couple of years, despite the fact that most people don’t actually understand what they are or what they’re used for. What exactly are genetically modified crops? GMOs are, simply, foods that have been bioengineered.

However, this doesn’t mean your corn on the cob has suddenly turned into the Terminator (and it won’t turn you into a robot either). Instead, crops are usually engineered to become more drought-resistant or produce higher yields.
Genetically modified foods are a fiercely debated issue, and in 2016, President Obama signed a law requiring that foods that contain GMOs are labeled as such.

However, the law left a lot of loopholes. Most foods only have to be labeled “GMO” in their raw state. Processed foods that contain a “non-GMO” label may still contain oils and sugars, which are exempt from the GMO labeling law.
That box of “non-GMO” cookies you just picked up could possibly (and probably does) contain GMO ingredients.

That being said, you should also know that most fresh foods, like fruits and vegetables, are not genetically modified anyway, so labeling them “non-GMO” is purely a marketing tactic. You’d be better off purchasing produce with a certified organic label instead.

Nutrition Facts

Now for the back side of the box: nutrition facts. Nutrition facts are meant to help consumers better understand the ingredients in food, but they can end up being more confusing than clarifying. Often, nutrition labels contain chemical ingredients with names that sound more like something Willy Wonka would have made in his factory.

Not all of these hard-to-pronounce additives are necessarily bad. Unless you’re a Little House on the Prairie enthusiast, you probably don’t own a farm, a mill to grind wheat into flour, or a smokehouse to store fresh meats.
That means that most of the time, your foods will need some sort of additives for them to stay fresh long enough to hit your table.

Below are some of the most common food additives found on nutrition labels.

Food Dyes

You probably know that food dyes are found in everything from ice cream to hot dogs. However, food dyes can be found in fresh produce as well. Oranges are often dyed to give them a brighter citrus color before hitting store shelves.

Food dyes are already regulated by the FDA, but recent evidence suggests that certain dyes may have a negative impact on a child’s behavior that the FDA doesn’t list on labels.
Food dyes rarely have complicated names. You may see them listed on nutrition labels as Red No. 40 or Yellow No. 5. If you’d prefer to skip the synthetic dyes, you can look for alternatives on nutrition labels.

Some of these safe, natural alternatives to synthetic food dyes include beta carotene, the stuff that causes carrots to be orange; chlorophyll, the pigment in plants that turn them green; anthocyanin, a flavonoid found in berries; and carminic acid, which is actually a red acid produced by cochineal insects.

Butylated Hydroxyanisole

This hard-to-pronounce antioxidant commonly known as BHA is most often used as a preservative in butter, cereal, beers, and baked goods. However, it can also be found in petroleum and rubber. Yikes!

The FDA has found BHA to be a safe food additive, but some research shows that BHA is also a known carcinogen and has been shown to cause cancer in animals.
However, the animals tested all developed illness in the forestomach, an organ humans don’t have.

In addition, the BHA levels found in food are incredibly low compared to the BHA levels used in the studies. What’s more, the antioxidant properties of BHA, when combined with fats found in oils, butter, and other foods, may actually neutralize the carcinogenic risk.

Sodium Nitrate

You may not have even realized you were eating sodium nitrates/nitrites until the World Health Organization released a sweeping report about the negative side effects of eating processed meats. Nitrates are commonly found in hot dogs, bacon, and cold cuts like pepperoni.
Sodium nitrate is a salt-based preservative that keeps harmful bacteria from growing in meat products. However, nitrates have been linked to higher cancer risks, which is why most processed meats also contain an antioxidant, which can neutralize, but not eliminate, the risk.

There is probably little risk in indulging in the occasional hot dog at the ballpark, but most scientists agree that consumers should limit the amount of sodium nitrates they eat.

Propylene Glycol Alginate

Otherwise known as E405, propylene glycol alginate is an emulsifier and thickening agent commonly found in salad dressing, jelly, and ice cream. E405 is also used to make antifreeze, polyester, and synthetic items.

Despite its non-food uses, the FDA considers E405 a safe additive in food. However, it has been shown to cause rash and other skin irritations when applied topically. If you’re a fan of making your own beauty products, check food labels for E405 before mixing up that face mask.

Shop Smarter

Despite hard-to-read nutrition labels, sometimes the worst ingredients are hiding in plain sight. Large quantities of sugar and salt continue to be the biggest health concern when it comes to food.

One of the easiest ways to make sure you make healthy choices at the grocery store is to download a nutrition app. An app like ShopWell can help you read a nutrition label correctly and decipher ingredients quickly.

You Yelped the perfect brunch spot. After sending Snaps of the meal to your nearest and dearest, you take the first bite…and it’s disappointing. You expected a fabulous meal but got mediocre instead. That’s because, according to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, brunch is when chefs use weekend leftovers to create “brunch specials” on Sunday morning.

If brunch isn’t sacred, what is? Chefs share other foods you should never order at a restaurant and other insider tips for fine dining.

1. Don’t ask for well-done steak.

In addition to skipping brunch, Bourdain also advises restaurant goers to avoid ordering a steak well done. According to Bourdain’s best-selling book Kitchen Confidential, chefs save the toughest, least-appetizing cuts of steak for patrons who want their meat cooked well.

While Bourdain’s insider tip for ordering steak is just as true today as it was in 1999 when Kitchen Confidential was published, he has since recanted another one of his most famous pieces of dining advice. According to him, it’s now safe to order all the fish you care to eat on Mondays.

2. Pass on the soup du jour.

Unless you’re Lloyd Christmas, you might want to pass on the soup du jour, according to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Instead, Ramsay advises diners to ask what yesterday’s soup du jour was.

If it’s the same, chances are you’re eating yesterday’s soup instead of a fresh batch.

3. Eating sushi? Skip the wasabi.

Sushi chefs actually put exactly the right amount of wasabi in sushi as they prepare it. Adding extra wasabi is considered an insult to the chef, because adding too much overpowers the actual taste of sushi. What’s more, in the U.S., the wasabi that’s served on the side with sushi is actually a mixture of horseradish, spicy mustard, and green food coloring.

In addition to skipping the wasabi, Chef John Um of Sushisamba Las Vegas says sushi diners should avoid rubbing their chopsticks together once you break them apart. It insults the restaurant, suggesting their chopstick quality is subpar. If you do see a splinter, just ask for another pair.

4. Stay away from the chicken.

According to real chefs, chicken is one of the most overpriced and least interesting items on menus. In addition, chefs have a hard time making chicken dishes flavorful and exciting.

To make up for the bland flavor of poultry, extra seasonings and sauces are often added, which can end up making what you thought was a healthy choice into a dish that’s full of excess calories, fat, and sodium.

5. Order the least palatable item on the menu.

You might be scratching your head at this one, but Tyler Cowen, a food writer at The Atlantic, suggests ordering the least palatable-sounding item on the menu at a fancy restaurant.

According to Cowen: “An item won’t be on the menu unless there is a good reason for its presence. If it sounds bad, it probably tastes especially good. Many popular-sounding items, on the other hand, can be slightly below the menu’s average quality. …And consider that a few items may be on the menu specifically because they are generally in demand, not because the chef cooks them with special brilliance.”

So, skip that tried-and-true pasta dish, and go for something unusual instead. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how tasty stepping outside your comfort zone can be.

6. Chefs hate picky eaters.

“But I’d like the pie heated and I don’t want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side, and I’d like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it’s real; if it’s out of the can, then nothing.” –Sally Albright, When Harry Met Sally

Sally Albright might be a movie character, but her penchant for complicated orders is something real chefs hate. Chefs cite kitchen efficiency as one reason they don’t allow substitutions. When a patron has a complicated order, it slows down production.

For others, like Chef Jon Shook of Los Angeles eatery Animal, asking for substitutions is an insult to the chef’s talent, suggesting the chef’s pairings aren’t up to snuff. As Shook said to Today, “Would you ask Picasso to change his painting?”

7. Don’t ask the waiter’s opinion.

You might be tempted to ask the waiter for a menu recommendation when out for a fancy meal. However, you’re probably not getting an honest opinion. There are a couple of reasons why your server might be less than honest with customers.

At fine dining restaurants, waiters actually don’t get to try many of the meals. At most fancy restaurants, chefs will allow all their servers to sample a taste of dishes once, but that’s it. If a server recommends a dish, chances are they don’t even remember what it tastes like but have been told to push certain menu items by the chef.

In addition, since servers work for tips, they will often “recommend” the most expensive dishes last, which are the ones customers are most likely to remember. This way, servers increase their chances of a bigger tip when diners choose the more expensive dish.

8. Dine out Wednesdays and Thursdays.

According to restaurant owner Robin King, the best days to dine out are Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Typically, Mondays and Tuesdays are the slowest days of the restaurant business. These are the days that most head chefs take off, allowing kitchen managers to run the show.

Your meal will most likely still be just as tasty on these days, but if you chose a restaurant specifically to try a certain chef, you’d be better off dining later in the week.
King also suggests avoiding Fridays, as this is typically the day most people choose to go out. Dining out on Friday usually results in a long wait for a table, less attentive service, and a hastily prepared meal.

9. Always check the bathrooms.

Willie Degel of the show Restaurant Stakeout suggests checking the bathrooms of a restaurant prior to ordering. If the bathrooms are in top shape, then odds are the kitchen is super clean as well.

Most upscale restaurants, however, are always extra clean. According to an anonymous survey by the Food Network, 85 percent of chefs gave their kitchen an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 for cleanliness.

10. Keep Your Reservation.

A chef’s biggest pet peeve? Patrons who just don’t show up for a reservation. After all, you wouldn’t make plans with a friend and then fail to show up without good cause, right? The same goes for dining out.

At upscale or specialty restaurants, chefs have stocked the kitchen based on the number of reservations they received. In addition, a restaurant may have turned away other diners because their reservation log was already full. When you simply don’t show up, you’re causing restaurants to lose out on major profits.

Plus, it’s just common courtesy. If you’re unable to make your reservation, let the restaurant know as soon as possible, so they have an opportunity to try to fill that table.

11. Compliment the chef.

Everyone loves to receive compliments on a job well done, and a restaurant’s kitchen staff are no exception. However, unlike servers, the people who actually prepared your meal rarely receive tips for a job well done.

On busy nights, a chef probably won’t have time to come out to your table so you can compliment them on your dining experience. However, you can still show your appreciation. If the restaurant doesn’t allow kitchen staff to be easily tipped after your meal, consider sending a note with a gratuity enclosed to the chef or kitchen manager for a job well done.