A man who claims he worked in a Wetherspoon kitchen for five years has offered a 'behind-the-scenes' look into life at the discount pub chain. He has also warned about which meals he would avoid as well as the ones that are worth a try, reports the Mirror.
The former employee claimed he worked there while studying and overall enjoyed his experience, with the social life being a particular highlight. He also revealed how he was allowed a free meal if he worked a shift that exceed seven hours. Depending on the time of day, he'd usually treat himself to a pizza, wrap, burger or large breakfast.
The man claims Wetherspoon food is mostly either heated up in the microwave or deep fried, although the burgers, steaks, paninis and pizzas are all made as good as "from scratch", while the fish is "battered fresh".
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The man further clarified on Reddit that the burger patties "come in a packet as you'd get at Tesco ", and so aren't made completely from scratch, however, they are "properly grilled". The bacon is also cooked fresh, not microwaved, as some believe.
On Reddit, the former kitchen worker goes by the username u/Itsdarkinhere11 and explained: "The pizza is decent in my opinion, and the curries aren't bad for being microwaved. I'd avoid the steaks, I never ate one but always thought they looked awful."
He also spoke about which burgers customers should order, adding: "The beef ones are cooked fresh, they're not the best but for the price, they're not bad. Gets a bit dicier when you start going for chicken or veggie or vegan in my opinion." The anonymous man also claimed eggs were "fried on a flat top grill thing", which proved very difficult to clean, and were then "scrambled and poached in the microwave".
He claimed that "poached eggs came pre-poached", and that it was "always funny watching managers try to come up with excuses for how we could serve fried/scrambled eggs but not poached or vice versa".
Eddie Gershon, from the Wetherspoon PR team, has responded to the claims, saying that "fish is freshly battered every day", while pizzas and paninis are both "made fresh to order". He added that "curries are made to bespoke Wetherspoon recipes and are delivered frozen and then heated in the microwave".
In regards to breakfast, Eddie revealed: "For the majority of the time, breakfasts are cooked to order. During some busy periods, in order to ensure customers are served promptly, some items are pre-cooked and held for a limited time. Our poached eggs are pre-poached to ensure the quality of the product is consistent for the customer."
He continued: "A small percentage of our dishes, by volume sold, are microwaved. Most high-volume products such as burgers and steaks are grilled and a number of other meals such as pizzas and jacket potatoes are oven cooked.
"Wetherspoon’s top three cooking methods are (in order): 1. Grilling ('clam' or flat grill OR 'char' grill), 2. Frying, 3. Oven-cooking."
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