A tourist asked an Italian restaurant to cook her eggs a little more, but her receipt came back with a note: ‘Burn the eggs and spit on them’
'I simply asked, as politely as possible, for slightly more overcooked eggs.'
Maria Clara, a Brazilian tourist, was eating at a restaurant in Romagna, Italy. She asked staff to cook her eggs a little longer. According to Daily Mail, she says a staff member rudely told her the kitchen did not make raw eggs. The plate that came back was softer than she wanted, and she never actually asked for a recook. She decided to let it go rather than argue further.
In my opinion, that decision not to make a scene is what makes the receipt sting more. She initially assumed the note was a joke, until the words settled in. Once the joke stopped feeling like one, she and her group asked to speak with a manager. They were told at first that none was available, before another staff member stepped in and brought one over.
The waiter behind the note turned out to be a teenager, about 17 years old. He reportedly went pale and visibly nervous once the manager showed up. He apologized and said the line was a joke between him and the chef, according to Clara’s account. He tried to grab the receipt back and throw it away. The group stopped him and warned they would call the police.
The teenager owned up almost immediately
“If I had been rude, I could at least understand someone getting angry,” she said. “But I wasn’t. I simply asked, as politely as possible, for slightly more overcooked eggs.” The employee was reportedly removed, though the story didn’t end there. Clara later found the restaurant had posted a mocking TikTok video. In it, the owner plays an exaggeratedly demanding customer who orders a dish “with spit.”
A poll underneath asked followers whether the fired employee should be forgiven and rehired. The responses split, with some calling it unforgivable and others pushing for a second chance. According to the outlet, the comment section then took an even more troubling turn. People claiming to work or have worked in restaurant kitchens weighed in too, with several alleging, without any way to verify it, that they had spat on the plates of customers they found particularly irritating.
“At first we thought it was something absurd, written as a joke,” she said. “Then we read people saying, ‘I did it too.’ And we started to think that these things really do happen.” Clara said the viral attention brought her death threats and racist comments. She maintains, however, that no customer, no matter how difficult, should have to worry about their food being tampered with. That responsibility falls on the people serving it.
Friction between diners and restaurant staff has gone viral before, too, but this is a big deal none-the-less. This incident happened in Italy, but in the US, spitting in a customer’s food isn’t just a firing offense, it can be a criminal one.
According to Vista Criminal Law, California treats it as food tampering under Penal Code 347. That felony can carry two, four, or five years in state prison if the substance could cause illness or injury. Florida’s Anti-Tampering Act allows for a second-degree felony on the same conduct. North Carolina’s statute sets an even lower bar.
It treats knowing distribution of food capable of causing mild physical discomfort as a felony on its own.
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