Food Safety

MasterChef Judge Makes His Restaurant Diners Sign Waivers for Their Doggy Bags

He says please sign for that leftover tzatziki.
He says please sign for that leftover tzatziki. Photo: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

MasterChef Australia judge George Calambaris seems to be the latest and most high-profile chef Down Under to take steps that will discourage customers who get sick on spoiled leftovers from blaming the restaurant. Ask for a doggy bag at his Hellenic Republic restaurants, and the server will say of course — as soon as you sign this waiver declaring they’re not responsible if you subsequently get sick later on when you reheat it.

That above form is the one given to a customer named Ross Katsambanis, who said he wanted to box up the meat and dips left over from his grandparents’$2 50th wedding anniversary banquet. Katsambanis says the form was “just bizarre,” since “There’s no chance I was going to sue them.”

But the head of Australia’s restaurant association says eateries are increasingly being sued by people who get sick from food consumed at home. As a rep for Hellenic Republic tells the Mail, “We don’t really know how they’re going to store the food. It’s kind of out of our hands what the customer does … after they leave the venue.” She says waivers supposedly function to firmly remind customers to act “in their best interests” regarding food safety, and while that nanny-style reminder doesn’t look like it’s migrated here yet, no one loves suing more than American consumers, so those indemnity-free days might be numbered.

[Daily Mail UK]

MasterChef Judge Makes His Restaurant Diners Sign Waivers for Their