If you cook, you taste. If you don’t taste, you’re probably not a very good cook. You have to be able to balance the flavour.

I wouldn’t eat someone else’s table scraps though. That’s more hygiene than anything.

You should be able to take leftovers home, though. What you cook but no one orders. What’s left in the pan. That should go without saying. People who make the food should be entitled to eat some of it. That isn’t stealing, that’s guaranteeing the food is good, the people who made it are willing to eat it. One of my first “real” jobs was Taco Bell, and for years I was willing to eat it after I left. Following policy, they don’t really do anything wrong. The meat comes cooked and frozen, and they boil it in a deep fryer with water to heat it up. The beans come dehydrated in a bag, they pour them into a metal bin and fill with boiling water, stir, and let set. All fine. I just don’t have the taste for their brand of “Tex-Mex” anymore. I still think the bean burrito and soft taco are good. Keep it simple. The fajita wraps were good, but they haven’t had those in 30 years. And the gordita — the flatbread taco. That’s been gone a while, too. IIRC it was never profitable, the flatbread cost too much. It was good stuff though. Probably the best bread in fast food back then.