Mouldy food being served in the SYD F lounge

[RAM]

Maybe there was a Jet* flight due to depart soon?

Don't you mean a few deathstar flights that were cancelled due 'mechanical problems' so they had the food leftover...

Those plastic bags sweat so badly when left out on the tarmac.

BTW: If handled with 'contaminated' hands then mould can appear much sooner.

Never forget the science experiment where everyone in the class touched a piece of bread brought that day and they were all placed in a fumes cupboard that got 5-6 hours of sun each day.

We soon learnt who not to accept ANYTHING from. Within two days some pieces of bread could move by themselves whilst others looked as good as day one.

 

[opusman]

And then there's the other extreme:

Man keeps McDonald's burger for 14 years and it looks exactly the same as the day it was first flipped in Utah | Daily Mail Online

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

RichardMEL, no, I will still make it a visit, at least once to the QF int MEL and SYD F lounges, maybe BNE (int F & J) later.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I hope I don't become ill because of this.

Hey I love Roquefort Cheese and I'm doing real well !!

 

[Kangol]

Personal offence aside, I’d like to clarify:

- I’m not based in Auckland, today or any other day. Nor is the whole Social Media team
- This example was immediately escalated to the most senior operational management at Qantas, Rockpool and Accor

As you would expect, these matters are taken extremely seriously. Something was indeed done, and in real time.

A thorough review of processes and delivery of this otherwise exceptional customer experience has already seen some changes.

While I sincerely appreciate your concerns (I fully agree there’s no excuse for mouldy bread), further follow up is between Qantas and the OP.

Thankyou for posting Red Roo, I tried to send you a PM here and it was bounced back because your inbox is full.
I then sent an email to the customercare at qantas do com dot au address and a reply came back saying that the address is not monitored.
I have just sent in details via the online customer care form on the QF website.
Looking forward to a timely reply.

Out of respect to QF, at this stage I will not provide any details here and will do so should such an event be appropriate.

 

[maninblack]

Interesting if Gordon Ramsay were served this! Any which way you look at it this is inexcusable in any food and beverage outlet, but from one that holds itself out to be a first class provider this is staggering and makes one concerned about their general kitchen practices.

 

[Red Roo]

Thankyou for posting Red Roo, I tried to send you a PM here and it was bounced back because your inbox is full.
I then sent an email to the customercare at qantas do com dot au address and a reply came back saying that the address is not monitored.
I have just sent in details via the online customer care form on the QF website.
Looking forward to a timely reply.

Out of respect to QF, at this stage I will not provide any details here and will do so should such an event be appropriate.

My sincere apologies regarding the full inbox. I've since made space for new messages.

Customer Care are the correct area to address such matters, and their online form is the best way to contact them. For your future reference, [email protected] is an invalid address and has been defunct for some time.

I can confirm that your correspondence has been received, and a senior member of the team will be in touch soon to further discuss this unfortunate experience with you.

 

[Ansett]

Interesting if Gordon Ramsay were served this! Any which way you look at it this is inexcusable in any food and beverage outlet, but from one that holds itself out to be a first class provider this is staggering and makes one concerned about their general kitchen practices.

In any kitchen anywhere in the world there are issues and incidents that occur I for one am not overly concerned. Yes it is bad is it happened but its no where near as Bad as the BA kitchen issues in its First and Concorde Lounge.

How many incidents do we have reported of any one becoming ill as a result of eating poor or ill prepared meals in any of the Qantas First lounges.

Have any of the F kitchens been reported to or by Food safe as having poor practices? I dont think so.

Really do think that some are making a mountain out of a mole hill here.

 

[maninblack]

In any kitchen anywhere in the world there are issues and incidents that occur I for one am not overly concerned. Yes it is bad is it happened but its no where near as Bad as the BA kitchen issues in its First and Concorde Lounge.

How many incidents do we have reported of any one becoming ill as a result of eating poor or ill prepared meals in any of the Qantas First lounges.

Have any of the F kitchens been reported to or by Food safe as having poor practices? I dont think so.

Really do think that some are making a mountain out of a mole hill here.

I have had significant involvement with the F&B industry for 30 years and I do not agree with this assessment at all. This type of incident should never happen.

 

[Mal]

In any kitchen anywhere in the world there are issues and incidents that occur I for one am not overly concerned. Yes it is bad is it happened but its no where near as Bad as the BA kitchen issues in its First and Concorde Lounge.

Yep, BA failed food hygiene inspections at LHR in their First and Concorde lounges. I don't forget that at all, and despite them regaining a passing rating, still consider their food to be cafeteria style slop.

 

[samh004]

I have had significant involvement with the F&B industry for 30 years and I do not agree with this assessment at all. This type of incident should never happen.

So you expect a restaurant to not have one error in 30 years... I don't believe such is possible.

 

[RichardMEL]

Yep, BA failed food hygiene inspections at LHR in their First and Concorde lounges. I don't forget that at all, and despite them regaining a passing rating, still consider their food to be cafeteria style slop.

OT to this thread but agree re food dished up in the T3 Galeries F lounge on several visits. Certainly not on par with the QF F lounges.
(but the champagne bar is kinda nifty)

 

[legroom]

Any good restaurant could have a "bad day". So could QF F lounge.

The OP was fortunately not ill.

Red Roo was the first to respond and actions were claimed to have been taken to rectify the error.

It's near impossible to be perfect all the time but the responses are the key to judge if similar events may happen in the future.

Serfty had a bad S&P once but many, many more of us have not.

Only last weekend my main meal had 2-3 strains of human hairs coming out of a 2-hatted restaurant kitchen in Sydney ! Yet to see that at QF F lounge !!!

 

[maninblack]

So you expect a restaurant to not have one error in 30 years... I don't believe such is possible.

I don't believe that this is their only error. Do you? Serving mouldy bread is simply never acceptable. That is all, it's not okay and I doubt the consulting chef would think so either!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So you expect a restaurant to not have one error in 30 years... I don't believe such is possible.

This incident is interesting on several levels.

I don't think anyone believes even the best restaurant won't have some spoiled food at some stage. These things happen. But you'd expect a chef to inspect their ingredients at the time they are using them, and stop something like this actually getting out to the customer.

On another level, this is an interesting use of social media. Firstly, the thought to post the picture. It shows how difficult PR has become in these days of social media.

The other interesting angle highlights some of the issues faced by companies in dealing with a social media rich environment - particularly the balance between telling consumers what their experience is (or has been), and customers increasingly in position to be able to make, or want to make, that determination for themselves (rather than be told).

 

[Austman]

But you'd expect a chef to inspect their ingredients at the time they are using them, and stop something like this actually getting out to the customer.

Yes. Although the mould was on the bottom of the roll (it seems) - maybe not so immediately obvious.

 

[burmans]

And then there's the other extreme:

Man keeps McDonald's burger for 14 years and it looks exactly the same as the day it was first flipped in Utah | Daily Mail Online

I believe this, we had a guy in our office who did this as an experiment. A year later no obvious mould or rotting.

 

[BD1959]

Yes. Although the mould was on the bottom of the roll (it seems) - maybe not so immediately obvious.

It does beg the question: how many mouldy rolls were consumed unnoticed prior to the OP bringing the issue to the kitchen's notice?

Of course, we'll never know - unless off-list QF confirm with the OP that his was the first burger served of the day. I don't think I'd notice ... too much of a "guts"!!

Regards,

BD

 

[RichardMEL]

It seems QF have and are responding appropriately and in a timely manner to this issue. Well done.

As others have pointed out this is hardly the first or the last restaurant in the world to have something like this happen - be it the local take away or a 5 star place in Paris.

I'm wondering on the time of the meal and how busy the lounge was? Not ANY kind of excuse at all, but sometimes when I've been in the SYD lounge it has been overflowing almost and the staff run off their feet to get meals out. It could well be a very busy time and a combination of the kitchen and wait staff not noticing (specially kitchen, as once the meal is plated the wait staff just take it to the table, you wouldn't want them picking up your food to look at it I think!). I can absolutely see a busy kitchen prep staffer taking the roll from the bag/container it's come in with its brothers, putting it on the plate to pop the contents in and never seeing the bottom. Again not an excuse, but I can absolutely imagine this happening.

To me the supplier is the first port of call, since - assuming everything is sourced freshly on a daily basis-and you'd assume so for the F lounge - that the bun could well have come from the supplier that way (for whatever reason, without trying to presume anything).

No doubt they are currently being hyper vigilant with all bread products in the lounge right now - so I bet this week is a GREAT time to order the fish burger

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It seems QF have and are responding appropriately and in a timely manner to this issue. Well done.

They have responded in a timely manner, but I'm not sure we know the 'appropriately' bit yet? We don't know the steps taken, or how extensive those steps are, to remedy the issue (if there is one!)

To be honest - how many of us will now turn over the burger before eating it at the FCL?