What chefs never tell you:

C'mon, admit it; you've always wanted to know what the chef's know about dining out. Who better to ask? The people at the Food Network did and here are some highlights:

--Chefs are picky eaters; most in the survey said they hate liver, sea urchin, tofu, eggplant, and oysters.

--When eating out in other restaurants, chefs say they avoid pasta and chicken. They're often the most overpriced (and least interesting) on the menu.

--Appropriate tip: 20 percent, which is what chef's say they leave when they eat out (but 90 percent said it's fair to penalize bad waiters with a smaller tip).

--Menu "specials" are often experimental dishes. Only five percent said it's a way of using up old ingredients. Most use specials to try out new ideas or serve seasonal ingredients.

--Favorite restaurant: The French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. Dinner for ONE: $240. Before wine.

--Favorite fast food joint: Wendy's.

--Critics are more likely to get special treatment before movie stars do, by a 71-to-63 percent margin

--Roaches are more common than you think. Three-quarters admit they've seen roaches in the kitchen, but 85 percent give their kitchens an eight out of 10 for cleanliness.

--Only 13 percent have seen a cook do unsavory things to a customer's food.

--Chefs cook when they’re sick. Half admitted they did. It's not uncommon to get cut on the job, get stitches and come back to work.

--The five-second rule actually applies. One quarter said they'd pick up food that dropped on the floor and cook it.

--Waiters try to influence the order, according to 95 percent of the chefs.

--Restaurants mark up wine by a lot more than you think --up to 2½ times what it would cost in a wine store.