Behind The Kitchen Door Summary

In 1987, IBP (Iowa Beef Processors) fined 2.6 million dollars to a Dakota City Plant for underreporting injuries, then another 31 million for a high rate of cumulative trauma injuries. The book spoke of the dangers and the “behind the scenes” event behind the making of fast food, such as the process of the food and workers undergo. Eric Schlosser spoke about fast food, showing us what we’re really eating and the tragedies behind the closed doors of the slaughter houses. The book explains fast food in another sense. He wrote the book because he wanted to inform the reader of the reality of fast food and the way the workers put their lives on the line. In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser’s purpose is to get the word about the terror in the fast food industry as demonstrated by his use of rhetorical strategies such as, repetition, figurative language, and pathos.

The study begins by explaining how much the residents of Gourmand love good food. They love food so much that that over time, a commission of distinguished chefs had decided that not any one should be capable of opening up a restaurant. If a restaurant was to be open, a chef would have to have 21 years of training, attend a prestigious school, and obtain a license to become a chef. These guidelines would ensure that when a resident would go to a restaurant, the food would be good. The first-class quality of food consequently rose the prices of restaurant meals to become very expensive.

“I’m working a part-time job at Wendy’s.” What is the first thought that comes to your head when you hear this sentence? Greasy fries, polyester uniforms, cheap food? What about the people who work there? Do you picture a first-time worker, a high school dropout, other pimple-faced workers taking your order? For some reason, in our society, we’ve associated low-quality workers with low-quality food? In his article “Working at Wendy’s” Joey Franklin paves the road towards a new perspective about those who come to work at Wendy’s. Instead of explicit points and unshakable statistics, and powerful calls to action, Franklin alternatively leads gently us through a process of revelation. Drawing from his own experiences working at his local Wendy’s Franklin gives an eye-opening view into the world behind the counter.

When working at a fast food restaurant, more often than not it is accompanied with a stigma. People tend to believe that those who work in fast food restaurants are not capable of anything better. They assume people working at fast food restaurants are slow and uneducated, or they simply look down upon them because these jobs have become known as "dead-end jobs." This so-called "dead-end job" is what people might describe as low-wage labor that employees have a susceptibility to become trapped in. Fast food employee’s face many challenges, morally and socially.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

Simply stated, I am advocating for the spread of awareness of the inhumane treatments and violations made by workforces in the food industry. All lives are valuable and every living thing deserves to be treated with respect.

When going out to eat, we don’t observe the workers of the restaurant we’re at. We become focused on our friends, our order, and even the people around the restaurant. Sure we talk with the server or smile at an employee when eye contact is made, but we never really observe how the community in the restaurants we go to are like. I want people to be informed that in order for the restaurant to be great, it all starts with its workers. These blue collar workers are the shadows when it comes to restaurant research, however they are more interesting than one would usually think. To allow people to gain more knowledge on this, I decided to do my ethnographic research on the community of restaurant workers, more specifically the community within the restaurant Sweet Tomatoes. I have been part of the community for almost three years and have been able to interact with all kinds of people that have worked there. I want people to know what goes on behind the kitchen doors and understand how the workers interact when the environment becomes stressful or relaxed, so they understand how the setting influences the employees.

Many feel that the fast food industry is providing a valuable service by catering to consumer needs; that it is inexpensive and easily accessible. For people who don't have time to prepare meals, for households in which both parents work, there's no question it provides a service. But what is the true cost of this convenience? In the book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser reveals that the cost is the lives of the people who work in the meat processing plants. Meat packing is now the most dangerous job in the United States.

This book discusses the fast-food industry and seeks to describe the impact of the industry on the U.S. economy and society. Also, it talks about the guys who has been investigating the fast food industry for many years. From his broad research, he has uncovered an abundance of little-known, frequently unsettling truths about the fast food industry.

People today believe that the government is supposed to eliminate any possible danger from the food they consume, but that is not the case. In the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal written by Eric Schlosser, he discusses numerous problems with food production. Some of these issues are discussed in the “Epilogue”, “What’s In Meat”, and “Most Dangerous Job” chapters where Schlosser elaborates on the government’s role and how workers are mistreated. In the article, “U.S. Meatpacking Under Fire: Human Rights Group Calls for Line Speed Reduction, ERGO Standards,” it explains how the working conditions in the meat packaging industry are hazardous and are violations of basic human rights. Although workers are affected by the government’s role in the food industry, consumers are affected as well. The consequences of the lack of governmental oversight, like food contamination and others, are discussed in the film Food Inc. “Escaping the Regulatory Net: Why Regulatory Reform Can Fail Consumers”, an academic journal written by Henry Rothstein, explains how “putting consumers first” is difficult for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to accomplish because with consumer’s interests that means regulatory reforms are most likely going to fail.

The New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is one of the most riveting books to come out about fast food restaurants to date (Schlosser, 2004). Fast food consumption has become a way of life for many in the United States as well as many other countries in the world. The author Eric Schlosser an investigative reporter whose impeccable researching and bold interviewing captures the true essence of the immense impact that fast food restaurants are having in America (2004). Beginning with McDonald’s, the first fast food restaurant, which opened on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois to current trends of making fast food a global realization McDonald’s has paved the way for many fast food

The fast food industry treats their workers unfairly. The employees in the fast food industry work long, hard hours and get paid minimum wage, in which many cases is not enough to support themselves and their families. Some of the employees put their lives at risk working in the fast food industry. Many workers are greatly affected by their long hours and their salaries. Due to the long hours and salaries they aren’t able to support their families with the essentials. Also many risk their lives to support themselves and their families.

This articles target audience is for those who believe that fast food is bad, and think everything should be made how it was in the “olden days.” Laudan’s argument was very effective. Laudan says, “In Mexico . . . women without servants could expect to spend five hours a day kneeling at the grindstone preparing the dough for the family’s tortillas” (Laudan 336). This really helped Laudan’s argument because spending five hours a day at the grindstone is not something that people think about when they wish they could have food the old fashioned way.

McDonaldization is becoming the new wave of job types where workers are being deskilled, dehumanized and exploited. Machines are taking over tasks which the employees used to do such as bank machines (interact). The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. These jobs are becoming less interactive and personal because workers are becoming dehumanized and only allowed to follow a script, there is also the fact that fast food Company’s use drive through, where limited interaction occurs and are many restrictions. These types of jobs which the author George Ritzer labeled

Never have I taken the time to think of the significance of the kitchen table in my life, but I have come to realize that my kitchen table has always been a place to unwind and share with my family members. From childhood to my adult hood, I have always come to the kitchen table in celebration, conference, in search of security, and enjoyment. The kitchen table of the past always brought my family together, and the table in my present brings focus to my school work and an occasional “catch up” conversation with my family, and in the future I hope to have a similar kitchen table setting as I did in my childhood, but with my own style.