I am often reproached for praising the times of the USSR too much.
In fact, there was little praise from me at that time, I just really look at things. In comparison with what was happening during the time of the Russian Empire, the USSR made a huge leap forward in the nutrition of citizens.
And catering was just a part of this leap. You can treat Soviet cafes, restaurants and canteens in any way - praise them or scold them, everything, for the most part, depended on which establishments came across a person's path. And the food in them depended on the team that worked there. There were cooks who treated their work with full responsibility, and there were those who worked for anyhow... everything that was good or bad and was guided by the phrase said later, but very capaciously characterizing - people grabs.
With such a "people grabbing" and my parents came across, more often while traveling. I remember that in one Yalta canteen, a woman in a white chef's hat shouted to a colleague in the hall:
- If there will be something about goulash (here is a word that Zen rules do not allow to write, answer right away (there are also words that do not allow to publish Zen rules that such meat was brought, they do not want to let not (and again, words that cannot be published according to the rules Zen).
From that dining room, we made legs instantly. There is nothing to eat in places where they say so, food will be poisoned there.
And I remembered this case because of what.
Recently, in one provincial, but with pretensions, cafe, I had to send back a banal salad of cucumbers and tomatoes with herbs and oil dressing.
I know, the first question that has now arisen is how you can mess with such a salad that the guest sends it back? And the very first thoughts - some kind of inadequate guest.
In fact, there are a lot of options for "shoals" - from too much salt to using rancid oil, especially if the oil is olive. I have heard a couple of times that rancid aftertaste is not a jamb of a kitchen or a jamb of storage, no, no, it's a natural, fucking flavor of the best Spanish, Italian and Greek olives.
However, this time everything was fine with the oil.
It was just that the cucumbers were "cottony" and with voids, and the tomatoes were plastic. Tasteless. With cucumbers - as I already wrote, cotton and even with some strange sourness, it all sounded well, oh-oh-very threatening for the appetite.
When I asked what is so inedible on the plate and why they brought it to me, the waitress made big eyes.
And then they answered me:
- Well, it's not the cafe's fault! IT IS SUCH VEGETABLES FOR US!
And then, gentlemen, I was bombed. That's actually the bomb. I do not believe in such a degree of human naivety that would allow a guest of a cafe or restaurant to tell that they have an inedible dish, because they cook it from low-grade, inedible products. For me, for example, this is an indicator of arrogance.
Because the products from which they prepare in cafes and restaurants are bought by the representatives of these cafes and restaurants. That is why the establishments themselves bear full responsibility for their taste and quality.
In our country, there has been no centralized supply of products for a long time in accordance with the State Planning Committee and the tasks of the five-year plan. And if the institution bought inedible food, it is purely his fault. well, and the desire to save money.
In this case, the guest has every right to vote in rubles, not eat, send back and refuse to pay the check. Because cucumbers, you know, shouldn't be sour. And have "cotton" pulp too. With tomatoes it is more difficult, however, in this case, the administration of a normal institution will apologize and next time it will be more careful to control purchases (if it has been careless before).
And this applies not only to vegetables, but also to any products. Black-speckled French fries - back to the kitchen. It's not your problem that you got it in the bag if you were cooking frozen. And if you peeled and chopped right there, then it's not your problem that the potatoes grow in their skins.
A withered salad with a mourning border on the leaves is also there.
Dry meat, fish frozen and spreading into porridge, traces of darkening on cabbage, acidified to inedible pickled vegetables - anything that makes the dish less appetizing is the fault of the team institutions.
And this is not arrogance. It's quite normal.
And the excuse “well, these are the products” does not work here at all.
This is not even the soviet mentality that they like to scold so much. This is a banal arrogance.