Le Bon Marché 2 Health inspector 1….. Blog number 47

Hello everyone. Sorry I didn’t write last weekend but it was inventory and we were doing some touch- up painting as well. We’re starting to pick up now and things are moving along. But I really want to touch on something that has being going on the past couple of weeks; The Health Inspector. I was in the office a couple of weeks ago, on the phone, when Brendan came in and said something to me. I didn’t quite pick up on what he said but I could see a guy behind him. I thought it was a guy applying for a job. After the call, I went out to see him only to find him in the kitchen going through my fridges. I was just about to let him “have it” when he stuck out his hand and introduced himself as the health inspector. I’m used to dealing with another inspector, so this guy surprised me. “Great, a new one”, I thought. I like dealing with the same inspector time and time again because you get to build a relationship. You know what they’re like and they know what you’re like. But new one keeps you on your toes. I was very busy so I told him to go ahead and look around and to come find me afterwards.  He did. We passed no problem on the inspection, but then he started asking questions. Damn I hate this.  My friends and family will tell you that I’m not one to go with the flow. I challenge everything. I believe if it’s right it’s right. I should roll over a lot more and play possum. I’d probably be a lot happier but alas I was made differently.

So he asked me about our burgers and carpaccio. He asked what temperature we cook our burgers to. I replied whatever the consumer wants. WRONG  answer. Or was it? You see, you have to cook ground beef to an internal temperature of 70 degrees c or higher to kill all bacteria. This is a good practice as ground meat is everything else we usually don’t want as a consumer. I make my own burgers out of inside round and tenderloin. So I should be able to serve it rare. But sadly the law is the law.  As soon as I grind it, it becomes ground beef and falls under that category. This is a dumb law but I understand that the health board needs to police things and there are a lot of yahoo’s out there cooking when they can’t even tie there own shoe laces. But A): I am a certified chef and B): I’m a restaurant owner. I want you to have a great experience and come back to me. Loosing customers is the worst thing that could happen.  I could write a letter to my MP but really with all that goes on in the world, medium rare hamburgers aren’t going to make the grade. You have to be careful with the health inspector. If you piss them off they can cause you a lot of stress. But I won’t roll over either. I know what I’m talking about. In Britain, as a Chef, you have to write a food safety exam every twelve months. Or at least I did when I worked for the big companies. Chefs are held to a much higher level over there and are respected a whole lot more. And rightly so I believe because you can make a lot of people sick (or worse) if you don’t do things right. But I digress. I fought my battle with him and tapped out. Now let’s speak about carpaccio and Tartar. I was told I couldn’t do it. Ding, Ding, the gloves are off and I told him I could and it was legal and there’s nothing wrong with it. I must point out here that we were just talking not really fighting. He’s actually a really kool guy.   His brother happens to be a chef and they apparently have the same fight all the time too. This should be in my favour. If his brother is a chef, he may know culinary a little as well and most health inspectors don’t. They know what was taught to you and force it upon you. It’s a huge job being a health inspector.  I try to work with them as much as possible to make their job easier. I also let them know that I am on their side and working to give the consumer a peace of mind when they go out to dine.

So after a lengthy discussion about the carpaccio and tartar, he left.  I treated myself to a hamburger RARE!!! Ha ha ha. He came back later with a bunch of info. He said “I’ve been doing some research and “you’re right on the carpaccio and tartar, but it’s never really been done in Northern ON.” ‘Would you be willing to do a health and safety food audit?” “Absolutely” I said. He asked me when I could be ready to do it? I said “What about now?” He’s a busy man and he had appointments that afternoon so we made a date for the 4^th.  He came in on Friday and we got to work. I have to make the dish from scratch in front of him. He takes notes, temperatures and pictures throughout the process. When we were done, he said everything was fine and that we could in fact serve the carpaccio and tartar. Awesome!!!! So tartar will be on the summer menu in 2012. Incidentally, tartar uses eggs. Because it’s served raw, the egg must be pasteurized. I didn’t have pasteurized eggs on hand, so I cooked one while keeping it runny. I think he was impressed by that. Again, I don’t want to sound stuck up here people; but you get what you pay for. I’m highly trained and so are the staff at LBM. We do this job because we love it. It is our life. The cook that just wants money can go work for a union somewhere. I look at myself and my crew with our constant tired looks, bags under the eyes, the frustration of not having a lot of money and substance abuse. The coffee overdosed cigarette smoking self abuser. I’m just looking at my hands now at all the cuts and bruises and the proverbial third knuckle I have on me left index finger from 25+ years of rubbing a knife against it. I have built up a callous witch is probably the hardest thing on my body.  All these frustrations and still we keep going in this crazy world we call the hospitality industry. And I love every single minute of it!!!  And I must say, movie stars can’t hold a candle to a waitress or a female cook!!!! They’re the most beautiful women on the planet. So with that, I’ll leave you for the week. Enjoy and we’ll talk to you next week.

Rusty Chemise.