Excuse Me, Theres a Fly In My Soup – No Really
We all know the jokes starting “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup…”. One young diner, Andrea Svensson from Gothenburg, Sweden, didn’t see the funny side when she was served a French Onion soup with a half-dead fly swimming in the bowl. 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.” The diners, understandably not happy, delivered the cliched line to the nearest waiter. To make matters worse, the waiter who came to see them actually took it as a joke and walked away, grinning knowingly! “Sounds like a joke I know, but it wasn’t funny at all.” said David Tomas, Andrea’s boyfriend. “It really killed our appetite – hygiene is really important to me, especially at these prices. To be honest I just got more annoyed when he laughed it off as a joke.” 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. It was too little too late for the couple, however, who couldn’t bear to stick around and sample the main course.
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 electric fly 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 the first time it has happened, but we know we must do something about it,” commented the head chef. “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.” Hopefully there are other restauranteurs following this story who will heed the warning. Just one of these fly in soup incidents is enough to ruin a reputation. Not to mention attracting larger bugs like health inspectors, who can quite easily close an establishment down for something so simple and cheap to prevent.
