Manchester United slapped with 1/5 food hygiene rating after guests at corporate event given raw chicken | Back up to 4* now but still issues

neon_badger said:
It's a bit of big deal and it demonstrates how the club if failing off the pitch as well as on it.

I started in 2010 only working on matchdays it was a good place to work, I grafted my way up to being one of the lead chefs, working 70+ hrs a week, sometimes going 4 weeks without a day off but i enjoyed it, during this time the money men came in, people head hunted to come in and cut costs everywhere the standards were dropping whilst much of the corporate suites (over 2000 covers on a matchday) were being upgraded, squeezing in more guests with more expensive food offerings and operating out of a central infrastructure that was massively inadequate, more and more corporate events fewer staff, experienced staff leaving and not being replaced. Around 2015 a food safety officer was hired to complement the existing food safety staff, the place nearly broke him and he left when he realised the Ralf Rangnick style dossier of things that neede correcting was filed in the nearest bin. Matchdays were being staffed on a wing and a prayer, agencies sending clearly unskilled inexperienced staff under the pretence they were chefs, many were kitchen porters or kids that had never stepped inside a kitchen. Covid game along and again the money men, HR vampires etc desended and rinsed the few of us that remained and somehow despite unions and local mps intervening on our behalf the club managed to spin exploitation into good PR. Once fans returned we tried to continue but we all knew bigger problems were coming and we all started walking, I still have good friends there and all I hear is the same problems. I'm amazed they've got away with it for so long, it might only be one incident of raw chicken but I suspect its been enough for trafford council to properly probe (unlike the chicken) the place and factor in the risk of the huge numbers they do ( the largest room can hold 900 covers for a plated service, and there's over 20 other function suites of varying sizes, plus all the executive boxes) all of this has escalated during the Glazers ownership, it's sad, they used to look after their staff and value fans, now everyone is £ on a spreadsheet somewhere and nothing more.
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you’re basing that on an article in the fecking Daily Mail.
 
altodevil said:
Have you just been sacked?
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Sacked them years ago
Rams said:
you’re basing that on an article in the fecking Daily Mail.
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I'm basing it on the 12 years I worked there, the information of the chefs I currently work with who also continue to work at Old Trafford and the fact i know the people involved and how it happened....I can tell you the marinade that was on the chicken if you want, I can tell you the middle name of the chef who's recipe it uses, I can also tell you that this has been in the news for weeks from multiple news sources. Its only made the likes the Mail today as the food rating outcome has been confirmed.
 
Withnail said:
It happened me recently in a nice restaurant in Paris. It can happen on occasion. It depends how many were served uncooked to really judge the severity but it's quite funny it was a health and safety expo.
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the french aren’t known for their food. no wonder you got the squits.
 
neon_badger said:
Sacked them years ago

I'm basing it on the 12 years I worked there, the information of the chefs I currently work with who also continue to work at Old Trafford and the fact i know the people involved and how it happened....I can tell you the marinade that was on the chicken if you want, I can tell you the middle name of the chef who's recipe it uses, I can also tell you that this has been in the news for weeks from multiple news sources. Its only made the likes the Mail today as the food rating outcome has been confirmed.
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ok if you really worked there then answer me this. what city is old trafford in?
 
neon_badger said:
Sacked them years ago

I'm basing it on the 12 years I worked there, the information of the chefs I currently work with who also continue to work at Old Trafford and the fact i know the people involved and how it happened....I can tell you the marinade that was on the chicken if you want, I can tell you the middle name of the chef who's recipe it uses, I can also tell you that this has been in the news for weeks from multiple news sources. Its only made the likes the Mail today as the food rating outcome has been confirmed.
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OK. So if you really are in the know faired income. If not, you’re a tw@t. That’s the problem with the internet. But from my experience shitty catering at footballl stadiums is not necessarily exclusive at Old Trafford, and we don’t need this story to know how the standards of the club has dropped and what a shitty mess it’s in.
 
The amount of negative press United get in the Daily Mail is just astonishing. Almost every other article is about the club and how bad it is.
 
Rams said:
The amount of negative press United get in the Daily Mail is just astonishing. Almost every other article is about the club and how bad it is.
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The Daily Mail is an awful newspaper anyway. I wouldn’t even use it as toilet paper. I’d just be wiping my shit with more shit.
 
I quite like the idea of a bunch of corporate wankers being served raw chicken. I hope the chef pissed in their champagne too.
 
AVARiCE said:
You appear to be calling someone out on the internet having not read what they wrote.
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I didn’t mean to call @neon_badger out so my apologies mate! I’m more irritated at the reporting of the story in the Daily Mail. I’m sure they weren’t served raw chicken, and I do know that all over Western Europe catering is currently a nightmare.
 
We should try to poach Brighton's head chef, I'm a long time fan ever since his early days of working at 5 guys. If not him then I'd go for Dortmund's main guy, I heard he makes a mean bratwurst. Honestly tired of this club being incapable of competing with the top clubs.
 
Rams said:
I didn’t mean to call @neon_badger out so my apologies mate! I’m more irritated at the reporting of the story in the Daily Mail. I’m sure they weren’t served raw chicken, and I do know that all over Western Europe catering is currently a nightmare.
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I think you are dismissing this too easily. Raw chicken is one of the worst faux pas in catering. Much higher risk of food poisoning and people do die from food poisoning. Doesn't matter what happens in western Europe. Its a huge fk up to serve raw chicken
 
UpWithRivers said:
I think you are dismissing this too easily. Raw chicken is one of the worst faux pas in catering. Much higher risk of food poisoning and people do die from food poisoning. Doesn't matter what happens in western Europe. Its a huge fk up to serve raw chicken
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raw chicken. So how did raw chicken end up on the table and how did the person actually eating it not notice straight away it was uncooked chicken?
 
Easy to dismiss but I think it says so so much

One of the main ways a stadium makes money is flogging overpriced food to a captive audience.... and the leadership can't even oversee that.

I think everyone in this forum has encountered a business like Manchester United. A organisation that used to be elite but is now uncared for, tatty, old and dysfunctional. Of course, I wanted a full sale but all we can is hope and pray that Ratcliffe & Ineos will give the whole business a boot up the backside.
 
Wonder if it will make headlines when United get their 5 star rating that they used to have back?

I think I know the answer to that.
 
Champ said:
Wonder if it will make headlines when United get their 5 star rating that they used to have back?

I think I know the answer to that.
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A business like United should always have a 5 star rating. It shouldn't even need to be news.
 
Samid said:


Don't know which part is more hilarious, a safety health and environment show at Old Trafford of all places, or raw chicken being served at such an event.
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Anyone know what the feck is in that box?
 
I’m beginning to wonder if Rashford is moonlighting as the cook. Putting his usual effort in, beginning to cook the chicken before deciding it’s too much effort and giving up.
 
Rams said:
raw chicken. So how did raw chicken end up on the table and how did the person actually eating it not notice straight away it was uncooked chicken?
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“Raw” in this case is presumably an exaggeration of “underdone”. So neither those serving it or eating it (at least initially) would have noticed.

Raw sounds more headline-grabbing than underdone, which is why the Daily Heil used it. Not that that makes it ok.
 
@Rams its all good, Ihit my newbie post limit, in my little world this is huge, my phone hasn't stopped pinging today. The likelihood of serving undercooked chicken is most likely due to a combination of cheap poorly trained staff and inadequate equipment, the article says it was chicken thighs which i suspect was blasted in an oven until it hit 75° an experienced chef would go beyond this temp as its notoriously difficult to cook throughly and even then it gives the impression of looking undercooked due to blood content so I'd always cook slow and low or go way over temp, we have a saying in event catering nobody will pat you on the back for perfectly cooking something, but one mistake and you'll feel a thousand knives in your back. Most of the equipment at Old Trafford is old and poorly maintained the ovens are full of heat spots so 20 trays of chicken in one oven will all cook differently and will require multiple temperature probing checks, it's all a question of experience, the club lost this experience in droves and that's just the chefs.
 
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images
 
UnofficialDevil said:
How can you appeal serving raw chicken at a safety health event.
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They'll try it, but unfortunately the cats out the bag .....It's quite currupt, you pay the local authority to come and re-inspect in a few months, during which time you thow money at the problem fix everything and pretend it didn't happen, when I worked there they dropped from 5 to 4 and the aftermath was chaotic my bosses were pulled and told fix this or your gone, the source of the problem was the very people telling people to "fix this" yet they were cutting budgets and pushing more covers through the door and stretching the stadium to it limits for financial gain
 
A special episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey would be amazing.
 
neon_badger said:
It's a bit of big deal and it demonstrates how the club if failing off the pitch as well as on it.

I started in 2010 only working on matchdays it was a good place to work, I grafted my way up to being one of the lead chefs, working 70+ hrs a week, sometimes going 4 weeks without a day off but i enjoyed it, during this time the money men came in, people head hunted to come in and cut costs everywhere the standards were dropping whilst much of the corporate suites (over 2000 covers on a matchday) were being upgraded, squeezing in more guests with more expensive food offerings and operating out of a central infrastructure that was massively inadequate, more and more corporate events fewer staff, experienced staff leaving and not being replaced. Around 2015 a food safety officer was hired to complement the existing food safety staff, the place nearly broke him and he left when he realised the Ralf Rangnick style dossier of things that neede correcting was filed in the nearest bin. Matchdays were being staffed on a wing and a prayer, agencies sending clearly unskilled inexperienced staff under the pretence they were chefs, many were kitchen porters or kids that had never stepped inside a kitchen. Covid game along and again the money men, HR vampires etc desended and rinsed the few of us that remained and somehow despite unions and local mps intervening on our behalf the club managed to spin exploitation into good PR. Once fans returned we tried to continue but we all knew bigger problems were coming and we all started walking, I still have good friends there and all I hear is the same problems. I'm amazed they've got away with it for so long, it might only be one incident of raw chicken but I suspect its been enough for trafford council to properly probe (unlike the chicken) the place and factor in the risk of the huge numbers they do ( the largest room can hold 900 covers for a plated service, and there's over 20 other function suites of varying sizes, plus all the executive boxes) all of this has escalated during the Glazers ownership, it's sad, they used to look after their staff and value fans, now everyone is £ on a spreadsheet somewhere and nothing more.
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neon_badger said:
@Rams its all good, Ihit my newbie post limit, in my little world this is huge, my phone hasn't stopped pinging today. The likelihood of serving undercooked chicken is most likely due to a combination of cheap poorly trained staff and inadequate equipment, the article says it was chicken thighs which i suspect was blasted in an oven until it hit 75° an experienced chef would go beyond this temp as its notoriously difficult to cook throughly and even then it gives the impression of looking undercooked due to blood content so I'd always cook slow and low or go way over temp, we have a saying in event catering nobody will pat you on the back for perfectly cooking something, but one mistake and you'll feel a thousand knives in your back. Most of the equipment at Old Trafford is old and poorly maintained the ovens are full of heat spots so 20 trays of chicken in one oven will all cook differently and will require multiple temperature probing checks, it's all a question of experience, the club lost this experience in droves and that's just the chefs.
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Fascinating and damning read this, thank you for sharing it here, it's a rare insight into the inner management of the club beyond the football pitch.
 
rimaldo said:
ok if you really worked there then answer me this. what city is old trafford in?
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It's built on an ancient Indian burial ground north of the Peoples Republic of Gorse Hill just south east of the Ordsell Badlands and is best accessed via by the trouble over Bridgewater marshes....could be Manchester could be Salford...I live in Timperley and couldn't give a feck.
 
Reiver said:
I quite like the idea of a bunch of corporate wankers being served raw chicken. I hope the chef pissed in their champagne too.
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It was a private event, nothing to do with matchday corporate hospitality (not that they should be singled out for what would effectively be criminal harm) just as easily could of been the MUDSA Christmas party or any number of events.
 
Fans don't deserve better food having supporting this shitshow week in week out?
 
got shafted by referee week in week out in games, and the Club first appeal is on food rating.

Plucking terrible
 
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