Let us salute the kid in kindergarten who ate the crayons, the fourth-grader who tried to see how much of a pencil he could get up his nose, the teenager who microwaved a battery to see it blow up. Apparently, many of those knuckleheads managed to evade death (and prison) and find work in restaurants. How else to explain the serial lapses in judgment that make the industry seem like it may have sniffed one too many Magic Markers?
The repeated flubs—the four cardinal restaurant sins of 2015—have been reported, condemned and regretted. Yet chances are high that a restaurateur will awake on Monday to ask how his staff could have made such a patently bad call over the weekend rush.
Maybe word never hit the boneheads. Or harried management failed to anticipate the temptation. Or, perhaps the transgressors just didn’t get it.
Regardless, here are what recent headlines suggest as the four commandments that should be up on the walls of every restaurant break room.