The Chicken Did It!!

So manager Doug called me last Thursday morning reporting that he'd been "violently ill" all night and wouldn't be coming in to work. Later that afternoon, my stomach started doing sommersaults too, and I struggled with chills, sweats, and loss of appetite for a few days following. Doug wondered if we'd eaten the same wrong thing. We ran the same circuit, after all, including an evening reception on Wednesday night that involved Kobe beef burgers and mini pizzas. But because another coworker who went on Wednesday didn't get sick, and because our symptoms weren't exactly the same (I never threw up after all), and because my illness lasted a few more days than Doug's, I blamed it on the flu bug and Doug blamed his wife's cooking.

UNTIL this morning when I heard reports of all of the OTHER people who had become violently ill over the last few days. Our commonality? We'd all had lunch together at the posh Park Hyatt Toronto hotel on Tuesday afternoon. This was a full-service, three-course meal, set in the ballroom of the Park Hyatt. At the time, I thought it was a lovely, fancy meal at one of Toronto's finest hotels. I would have never have thought that they were plating samonella alongside the roasted chicken breast entrees. So that solves the mystery... or at least part of it. Because now my wickedly cruel coworkers are wondering if it was the source was some undercooked chicken, or some greasy line cook who didn't wash his hands properly. EW.