Waitress fired after exposing how restaurant's mac 'n' cheese is made
A woman claims to have been sacked after she ‘exposed’ how a restaurant makes their famous mac ‘n’ cheese.
Bri Ramirez shared a video of how the macaroni and cheese is made at Panera Bread, an American bakery-cafe chain, to video sharing platform, TikTok.
The video shows someone picking out a bag of the frozen mac ‘n’ cheese and then placing the bag in what looks like hot water.
The bag is then removed from the water, cut open and the contents are then placed into a bowl, ready to be served.
The video was then shared by @UberFacts on Twitter, an account with 14 million followers and the video has since been retweeted over 10,000 times and has received over 66,000 likes, since it was uploaded on October 11.
Ms Ramirez also retweeted the video.
“Lol I lost my job for this video,” Ms Ramirez said on Twitter.
When asked how her employers found out about the video Ms Ramirez said the story appeared on the local news.
Despite losing her job, Ms Ramirez seems to be taking the sacking very well and even defended Panera’s decision to fire her.
“There was no wrongful termination. Having such long nails and my phone out is a risk to food safety and health regulations. Everything was completely justified,” she tweeted.
“I made a mistake and i’ve learned from it. I will always love Panera and their food.”
Ms Ramirez previously tweeted she was “extremely proud” of her “work ethic”.
I will forever be extremely proud of my work ethic.
— Bri (@BriiRamirezz) September 19, 2019
“I go to college full time and I work two jobs. I am exhausted,” she tweeted on September 18.
Panera Bread has not confirmed whether Ms Ramirez was fired for the video. However, in a statement to The Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Panera Bread said the company confirmed the original video’s authenticity.
As for the method in which the mac ‘n’ cheese is made, the spokeswoman explained the dish is made offsite, but developed by chefs.
“It is shipped frozen to our bakery cafes — this allows us to avoid using preservatives which do not meet our clean standards,” the company said to The Washington Post.
“Panera is know for being “fresh” in the sense that they don’t have preservatives in their foods, not that everything you can order is made from scratch,” one person said in defence of the method on Twitter.
“Anywhere you go well [sic] have pasta pre-prepared; it takes too long to boil pasta and then make it into whatever the dish is.”
“I'm cool with it being prepared this way but then CHARGING ALMOST $7 FOR A SMALL BOWL?!?!?!? OK THEN,” another person tweeted.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
