Do Restaurants Really Recycle Bread Baskets?

In his book “Kitchen Confidential,” Anthony Bourdain claimed that restaurants commonly recycle uneaten bread from complimentary baskets, describing it as a “standard practice.”

Assessing the claim of restaurants re-serving uneaten bread is difficult, as it would violate health codes and is illegal; thus, restaurants are unlikely to admit to such behavior.

However, accounts of the practice persist online, with reports from workers and customers shared across platforms such as Quora, Reddit, and advice columns.

At the same time, those discussions also feature plenty of pushback from other industry folks indicating that they always ditch the bread after it’s been served once.

Based on this (very anecdotal) evidence, it seems that recycling bread baskets probably happens in some lax establishments, but may not be as widespread as Bourdain suggested.