The first place I worked at not only allowed this, but it was part of your training. When a new menu item came out you had to do a short quiz on it where they showed you a video about it and then you had to answer questions about what was in it. Then, during slow bits of the day you’d be called back into the kitchen to make the thing with one of the line cooks, or a manager. When you were done you got to eat the thing.

I’m vegetarian and couldn’t eat basically any of it, but I could at least confidently say “if you like spicy stuff this is genuinely as spicy as advertised” or “well there’s a lot of sugar in the teriyaki sauce, so if you’re not a fan of sweet and savoury together I’d say stick to the regular chicken burger” or whatever.

But it was certainly better than the pizza place I worked at who’s employee discount was “25% off within an hour of hour shift starting or ending”.

A standard personal pizza was $9 (it was an arcade in the middle of nowhere. The nearest alternative food was a Taco Bell 20 minutes away walking). Even at 25% off that’s almost an hour’s wage. I ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches that summer, and when people asked if the food was nice I honestly told them that I didn’t know. They also made me do kitchen stuff despite telling them I didn’t have a food handler’s license, and tried to get me to work unpaid overtime. Fuck that place.