Well, about the hygiene; It's sad to say, but it varies amongst resturants and is heavily dependant on the managements.
Generaly though, based on my experience, restaurants in Europe have higher standards due to tougher rules then in America.
I can only speak for my restaurant; We follow the health-rules to the point and even more.
We have the philosophy that IF someone where to be sick from our food, the reputation will take a looong time to repair. So instead we take that little extra time that is needed and get the staff to understand the importance. We enforce handwashing every 30 min MINIMUM for everyone, along with mandatory handwashing if you leave your station, eg. kitchen-staff going into the freezer to get a bag of something, as they have touched the handle to the freezer, and there is a risk that it's contaminated by someone elses hands, eg. someone in the front who have accepted money, and that money is contaminated by perhaps have been on the floor where perhaps someone has walked on that just came from the car where his wife sat the day before when she drove home from the stable after riding a horse.....
That's the thinking you should have to get the understanding why hygiene is so important.
Sadly... As it is such a lowstatus work in America, it attracts idiots, who just aren't capable of realizing this.
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Meh....
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