Bruce Horovitz

USA TODAY

Things heated up — perhaps a bit too much — in the kitchen of one Chili's restaurant.

That's where a now unemployed cook, at a Chili's in Valrico, Fla., opted to remove his shirt and pose for photos of himself lying on the very table where food is handled. Thankfully, there was no food in the photos that the shirtless cook — who goes by the Facebook name Justin J Speekz — posted on Facebook.

The photos were labeled: Sexy Cooks of Chili's.

When ABC Action News, which reported the story late last week, showed the photos to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which regulates restaurants, the agency said there appeared to be no violations because no food was being prepared.

Chili's executives declined to discuss the incident. But the company sent USA TODAY this statement: "Chili's clearly does not encourage this type of behavior in our restaurants. We maintain very high standards of food quality, safety and cleanliness and took immediate steps to ensure the restaurant continues to follow these requirements. Additionally, we ended this team member's employment after learning of his conduct."

So, in a social media instant, yet another restaurant brand joins the buzzy world of restaurant employees behaving badly — then posting the results online. Among the most familiar: way back in 2009, a Domino's kitchen worker posted a video of himself putting cheese in his nose. Last year, social media lit up with the image of a Wendy's employee eating right out of the Frosty machine.

But since no food is shown in the posting by the former Chili's worker, at least one corporate brand consultant says Chili's probably doesn't have a lot to worry about. After all, technically, there was no health code violation. "We'll stampede to buy a (sexy) fireman's calendar, but we're a bit uptight about a line cook with his shirt off," says Erika Napoletano, who goes by the title head redhead at RHW Media.

Perhaps, Napoletano suggests, this will spice up Chili's menu?