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    23 Secrets People Who Work In Italian Restaurants Will Never Spill

    You don't understand hard work unless you've scrubbed burnt polenta from the bottom of a pan.

    1. You're supposed to eat the bread with your main course, so you can use it to mop up your sauce.

    2. Talking of bread, we eat a lot of it.

    3. We also eat a hell of a lot of olives.

    4. And the amount of grissini we get through is ridiculous.

    5. Nothing is as hard as scrubbing polenta out of a pan that it's burnt on to the bottom of.

    6. We know the faded photograph on the wall from the time Ant and Dec visited is naff, but we love it.

    7. We don't know how to pronounce all of the fancy pasta names.

    8. But we do actually know a lot about wines.

    9. But tbh, you'll be happy with the house red.

    10. Italian restaurants are incredibly romantic, and serving loved-up couples all night long can make us feel incredibly single.

    11. And the romantic music makes us feel like we're in a movie.

    12. If you tell us your pasta is undercooked, we'll just tell you it's al dente.

    13. Please don't compare our pizzas to the ones from Pizza Express, Strada, or Prezzo.

    14. And don't ask for a weak coffee either.

    15. Peperoni = bell pepper. Not a skinny sausage.

    16. Burning yourself on a pizza oven is very, very painful.

    17. And polishing wine glasses is very, very boring.

    18. But it's all worth it, because we get to eat the last bit of gelato straight from the tub.

    19. Talking of dessert, we make a special effort to be friendly to the dessert chef.

    20. You have to tell us when you want us to stop grating parmesan on to your meal.

    Parmesan Sir? "Yes please" Say when. *Grates Parmesan* Sir? "..." *Grates fingers* SIR? "..." *Grates entire hand* Please...I have a family.

    We can't guess how much you want, so we'll just keep going.

    21. Washing-up shifts on food prep days are actually really fun.

    22. Customers who buy us a shot of limoncello when they have theirs are our favourites.

    23. And no matter how much Italian food we eat, we literally never get bored of it.