Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 23
1 were just -- the Manager of the kitchen -- and I often was
2 the Manager of the kitchen -- my major problem would be
3 quarterpounders a lot of the time; it would be the
4 production of quarter pounders, because the grill just
5 could not keep up with the -----
6
7 Q. What was the situation with the regulars in terms of during
8 the week?
9 A. During the week -- well, the thing is, during the week
10 you could probably have got away with cooking an 8/4, but
11 the thing is, because people did it on a Saturday in the
12 busiest period, they thought: "Why should we do an 8/4 when
13 on a Saturday, when we serve more people, we do a 12/6?"
14 So you cannot -- people still used to do a 12/6 during the
15 week. I would say -- I cannot be certain, but sometimes
16 you definitely needed it, but sometimes they would be doing
17 a 12/6 and you did not need it, just because it was habit.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are going to have to explain why the
20 quarterpounders -- I understand that there was a greater
21 demand for everything on a Saturday. But why was it that
22 quarterpounders were not a problem during the week but were
23 on a Saturday? The quarterpounders are the same
24 circumference, are they, but thicker?
25 A. No, they are all round bigger.
26
27 Q. They are thicker and ---
28 A. They are thicker and wider.
29
30 Q. -- larger?
31 A. Yes, larger. You can only fit -- you were only meant
32 on our clams, I think, to fit six under.
33
34 Q. Just pause a moment.
35 A. I am pointing out those, because that meat was so much
36 thicker, it was -- a burger could look very cooked on the
37 outside and yet be raw on the inside, as well as, with a
38 quarterpounder, when we sent them over they actually used
39 to cook; you know, as you took them off the grill, they
40 were still cooking. So it was very difficult to see
41 whether one was raw. It could have been raw inside.
42
43 It was the fact that we were breaking -- again, we were
44 just ignoring the beef integrity policy. I did it myself,
45 and I do not know of a Manager who did not do it, really,
46 when they ran the kitchen -- because it was that or not
47 have the food.
48
49 Q. How many of the quarterpounders are you saying were put on
50 the platen during the Saturday rush?
51 A. If you were very busy, really stretched, you would put
52 nine under; you could just about squeeze nine under. But,
53 normally, you would squeeze eight under there. You would
54 be doing it in -- I am not even sure if they actually
55 figured out a system in the end.
56
57 With the regulars, there is a certain timing that you can
58 get into to cook the food, and everybody has a certain
59 thing they have to do at certain times, so the food can
60 come over the production line. But the quarterpounders, it
