While we sit back, relax and enjoy the slow-passing time at a restaurant table, slowly devouring a savory appetizer, impatiently dreaming of the meal we’re about to be served fresh straight from the kitchen, things can go wrong on the other side of the curtain. Although we’d like to think we are 100 percent sure of the restaurant’s quality, freshness, and hygiene—after all, it’s buzzing with people and you couldn’t trick them, right?—this is not always the case.

In fact, the restaurant industry and especially the very core of it—the holy kitchen—is notorious for keeping its secrets tight shut. The good and the bad ones. From reheated shrimp cocktail to restaurant staff having nicknames for regular customers, to a chef that cooks expensive meals 11 hours a day only to have dino nuggies at home.

Thanks to the subreddit “Kitchen Confidential,” there are a lot of stories to discover about the daily bread and butter of food industry professionals, so we selected the most interesting ones below. Scroll down and after you’re done, be sure to check out more kitchen confidential posts right here!

#1 Heard

Image credits: mattwallaert

#2 So Many Orders, So Few Tips

Image credits: Both-Growtth

#3 Seems Accurate

Image credits: TechnicallyRon

There are many reasons why people love eating out. We like the fun of it, the change of place and atmosphere, the opportunity to see people and meet friends, to dress up and relax, forget about things back home or at work, treat ourselves, or simply save time. All are solid reasons just showing how much we all waited for the restaurants, eateries and cafes to open again after the worldwide lockdowns.

Having said that, we can’t ignore the obvious—it’s getting pretty darn expensive to eat out. Restaurant prices have increased by 5.8% since the beginning of 2021, which is the highest 12-month increase since 1982. This is because groceries got more expensive this year, with the overall cost rising by 6.4%, which is the largest 12-month jump since 2008. The numbers are mind-blowing. Just think of it—the cost of beef has risen most, with a 20.9% jump. Overall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that consumer price inflation for goods across the board has risen by 6.8%.

#4 I Don’t Want That Ham If It’s Been Processed, I’m Trying To Eat Healthier

Image credits: ButtonKing

#5 I’m With The Boomers On This

Image credits: braidednosehair

#6 One Of My Employees Keeps This So Clean, He Did This After A 26k Saturday Night. Show My Guy Darian Some Love He Deserves It And Doesn’t Get Enough

Image credits: RReags228

What does that mean to us? Well, eating nice and well is getting very costly. This applies to both restaurant meals and home dinners, and even breakfast plates. Especially if we’re talking about nutritious and well-balanced diets. It’s no secret that many people are convinced, probably more than ever, that eating cheap and healthy is impossible, and that healthy foods cost an arm and a leg.

To find out how true that is, Bored Panda spoke with Charlie Middleton, a lecturer in Nursing at the University of Dundee. Charlie has a broad area of interests including health inequalities, nutrition, and the early years of life.“One example is how certain foods are marketed as so-called ‘superfoods’ ( i.e. avocado) and are given higher price tags, but many very nutritious foods are actually very cheap,” she told us. “Another is the way researchers have measured the cost of food… Consider two bars of chocolate, one regular and one with less fat. If we use a price-per-calorie measurement, the lower-fat chocolate bar seems more expensive because it contains fewer calories.”

#7 Good Work, Tyler!

Image credits: vk2786

#8 I Don’t Disagree With This

Image credits: actatumonline

#9 I’m On My Last Few Days At The Industrial Bakery I Manage. Our 160qt Mixer, Pete, Broke Down So We Won’t Be Able To Use It. I Did The One Thing I’ve Been Dying To Do For Years Since He Arrived

Image credits: maggieeeee12345

However, the studies comparing prices per unit weight of food from the same food group reveal interesting results. “They show how healthy options are often cheaper—for example, if we think about a source of protein; 200 g of chickpeas versus 200 g of chicken breast. Chickpeas are often priced cheaper than a chicken breast.”

When asked what cheap and nutritious products we should all add to our grocery shopping bag, Charlie said that there are many things. “In general, plant-based products cost less than meat or fish, but tinned products can be cheap and nutritious options if these are a part of your diet. Vegetables in season are often cheaper than others. At this time of the year in the UK, root vegetables are very cheap and affordable. Dried red lentils (for example) are store cupboard ingredients that cost pence and can be kept for years. Frozen vegetables also keep for long periods and remain nutritious.”

#10 Found On The Facebook

Image credits: rootinuti611

#11 Not As Good As Some I’ve Seen, But It’s Mine And I’m Proud

Image credits: AggressiveWallaby76

#12 Flipping Burgers

Image credits: runolgarun

Some skeptics claim that cheap and healthy meals take ages to prepare and that’s their biggest disadvantage. But Charlie argues the opposite. “Lots of cheap and healthy foods can be cooked in minutes. Tinned tomatoes make a great base for a pasta sauce and cost a lot less than processed sauce. Add seasonal vegetables and legumes to increase the nutrition. Batch cooking for the week ahead, and freezing portions also saves time,” she concluded.