Spent 45 minutes chasing a weird smell, turns out it was my own apron

Wednesday I kept catching this funky odor while breaking down a side of beef, thought maybe the walk-in had an issue or a drain was backing up near the Chicago shop. Another guy even came over and sniffed around the block saw, we both checked the gut rack and the grinder, nothing. Finally I looked down and realized I'd spilled some marinade on my sleeve that morning, so the smell was just me all along. Has anyone else had a mystery scent that turned out to be something dumb like your own shirt or a forgotten rag in your back pocket?

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1 Comment

wyatt_green19d ago

Man, that is so relatable! Ha, I had a similar thing happen last month where I kept smelling this sour milk kinda scent every time I walked past my station. I checked the ice machine, the reach-in, even pulled the drip tray out of the soda gun, nothing. Turns out I had a sweaty dish towel stuck in my back pocket the whole shift, it was just me the entire time. The worst part is that the other line cook probably thought I was crazy when I kept asking him to smell stuff. You'd think after a decade of this I'd learn to check my own clothes first, but nope, my brain always goes straight to the equipment being broken.