After being terminated from a renowned restaurant, a former employee chose to make a memorable exit. The ousted worker from Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, Demeatis Long, reacted creatively to the news of her job loss. Rather than taking the setback lightly, she seemed to seek a flavorful form of retribution against her ex-employer.
Given Raising Cane’s reputation for its signature chicken and secret dipping sauce, the discharged employee took to Twitter to unveil the coveted recipe. In a photo alongside ketchup, the company’s renowned secret sauce was displayed in a clear plastic container.
Following her tweet announcing, “Cane’s fired me,” Demeatis Long, initially identified as Twitter user Get’em Jan (@JanniAreYouOkay), proceeded to disclose the formula for the secret sauce: “mayo, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper [and] garlic powder.” She generously shared the ingredients, allowing her followers to recreate their own version of the famous sauce. However, her saga didn’t end there.
As the tweet gained thousands of retweets and favorites, the disgruntled former employee decided to escalate the situation, taking her actions a step further. Evidently seeking to prolong her newfound internet fame while delivering a final blow to her former boss, she opted for a bold and attention-grabbing move.
Following Get’em Jan’s initial revelation, she took it a step further by updating her followers with precise measurements of the secret sauce ingredients, as reported by Fox 7 Austin. Accompanying her detailed instructions was a photo showcasing her own homemade rendition of the renowned sauce.
However, Raising Cane’s didn’t stay silent for long. Two days after Long’s tweet, the Baton Rouge-based fast-food chain counteracted on Twitter, asserting, “Did you know that only our Restaurant General Managers are told the secrets of our Cane’s Sauce? Now you know!” Furthermore, the General Manager of the Baton Rouge Cane’s, the branch where Demeatis Long was terminated according to Human Resources Management, vehemently denied sharing the recipe, emphasizing that the sauce’s formula is passed down through a strict oral tradition from manager to manager and is never committed to writing.
Undeterred by the brewing controversy, Get’em Jan, as reported by Chron, intensified her disclosure of trade secrets. Shifting her focus to Cane’s bread, she tweeted, “Canes bread: Holsum BBQ bread, butter & garlic salt. Grill it.” However, an unexpected twist unfolded.
Suddenly, Get’em Jan’s Twitter account vanished, leaving some outlets to share unverified reports suggesting that “The Twitter user in question was never a Raising Cane’s employee. Her story appears to be a hoax gone viral. Upon heightened attention by other Twitter users, she said on Twitter that she never worked at the restaurant.”
Despite this, HRM, which had identified the Twitter user by her real name and even pinpointed the General Manager at the Cane’s where she allegedly worked, might provide insights into the sudden change in her employment claims.
Addressing the potential legal consequences of Long’s actions, HRM noted, “The sharing of trade secrets is a hotly contested subject in employment law, but one expert told HRM that for a case to stand up, a company would have to prove they suffered some sort of damage or negative repercussion in order to make out a successful claim.”
With the prospect of legal implications, the article leaves the question open-ended: Was this a hoax or a genuine revelation? The decision is left to the readers, and the author playfully hints at a personal quest to validate the recipe by heading to the grocery store to procure the necessary ingredients and share the purported secret sauce recipe with a Raising Cane’s enthusiast.
