Celebrity chefs rack up health code problems at restaurants
Health Inspections.com reports that on a recent health inspection, Chef Emeril Lagasse's Miami restaurant was hit with 13 critical violations that could make customers sick.
The restaurant was cited for violations such as foods at dangerous temperatures, hygiene violations, and foods not stored properly.
The television program Inside Edition found that restaurants connected with many famous TV chefs have significant health violations.
Inside Edition even video taped mice running freely at BLT Fish in Manhattan, operated by Laurent Tourondel who has appeared on the Iron Chef television program.
I'm not surprised. A 2004 paper we published based on 60 hours of detailed viewing of television cooking shows found that an unsafe food handling practice occurred about every four minutes, and that for every safe food handling practice observed, we observed 13 unsafe practices. The most common errors were inadequate hand washing and cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
Among the violators:
Anthony Bourdain: The restaurant Les Halles in Coral Gables, Florida was shut down by inspectors 3 times since 2006 for dangerous violations. In the last inspection, the inspector noted 30 fresh rodent droppings on a baking rack. Bourdain is the 'chef-at-large' for the restaurant.
Mario Batali: His "Spotted Pig" restaurant in New York was found to have mice and insects. On two prior inspections, there were a high number of critical violations that required inspectors to come back for follow-ups.
Wolfgang Puck: At his Spago Café in Vegas, nasty employee lockers were found to have roaches. There were also violations for a dirty food slicer, foods at the wrong temperature, and employees not washing properly because of a lack of soap.
Celebrity Chef Todd English has the worst record of the TV cooks. His three Boston restaurants have consistently failed inspections. One of them, known as Kingfish Hall, has failed five inspections since January of 2007.
Paula Dean's restaurant "Lady and Son" in Georgia had consistently high scores on health inspections.
The Inside Edition story on celebrity chefs who don't quite make the grade is available at:
http://healthinspections.com/video.cfm?bWVkaWFJRD0zOA==
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http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/admin/trackback/70088
Ha HA HA Mr. BAM guy! I went to your over-air conditioned NOLA restaurant, had a crappy sub-par meal and got sick too. Am not surprised by this!
I was enjoying Sara Moulton's cooking show on PBS, thinking that her fried rice dish looked fast, easy, and nutritious and feeling relaxed by her brisk, friendly delivery. Then came the raw shrimp, which she peeled and sliced in half, then dumped into her pan. Without missing a beat she proceeded to handle and cross-contaminate items ranging from her spatula to her serving bowl. Then, wiping her shrimp knife with a kitchen towel, she used it to chop some crystallized ginger in the same spot on her cutting board where the shrimp had lain minutes ago. Not so bad if it had been cooked, but she forgot to add it until the last minute when she tossed it on top of the heap in the pan, stirred for a few seconds, and dumped the whole into that serving bowl (and a close-up revealed a bead of dried blood on her right pinky nail, but that could happen to anyone...)
Yeah this kind of crap is ticking me off. It is as if these people are allowed to violate health code standards then so too are local establishments.
Food eaters everywhere should picket outside of violators establishments! :)
ALL eateries have this problem. It is difficult to keep up with. Still, we need to be more careful. However, you folks go look in YOUR OWN kitchen and see what you find. It ain't pretty. Far worse than what you will find at Emiril's or Todds.
Most people at home do NOT wash their hands at home. This is a BIGGIE.
There is no such thing as a totally safe food preparation area. One can cut down on the risk
but no one would be able to have enough employees
to realistixally eliminate all health code violations. While most estalishments strive for food safety, try to floow the codes yourself at home and see how long it takes you to prepare and store food to code. Then decide if you mind dinner experiences to take 45 minutes longer and cost 50 percent to 100 percent more.the bottom line is you can worry about food bourne illnesses
or you can sit down and enjoy your damn dinner.You can have your sterile envronment. Me, I think i'll take my chances in the real world.
Bring me another portion of that shrimp and chicken carpaccio.
HAS ANYONE NOTICED WHERE IT STATED PAULA DEAN HAS HAD CONSISTANT PERFECT RECORDS IN HEALTH, AS WELL AS ALTON BROWN (MY BROTHER)?
I am not surprised by any of this, they consider themselves hollywood stars so why should "they" worry about germs. I just wouldn't want to be one of the backstage people that might decide to eat this stuff. I have heard that alot of these food programs, the recipes don't work and need a lot of tweeking to make them edible.
iF YOU EVER WATCH EMERIL LAGASSE'S "LIVE" SHOW, TAKE NOTE THAT HE GOES AROUND SHAKING HANDS IN THE AUDIENCE AND THEN PROCEEDS UP ON THE STAGE AND THEN BEGINS TO COOK.. HE FLINGS HIS TOWEL OVER HIS SHOULDER AND BEGINS... YOU'LL NOTICE THAT HE NEVER, I MEAN NEVER WILL RINSE OR WASH HIS HANDS BEFORE HE BEGINS HANDLING THE FOOD....WHO KNOWS WHERE ALL THOSE HANDS (INCLUDING EMERIL'S) HAVE BEEN (IE., NOSE PICKING, NOSE BLOWING, REST-ROOM TRIPS, ETC.). THIS IS GROSS AND IT'S A NO WONDER HIS RESTAURANTS VIOLATE HEALTH CODES BECAUSE HE CERTAINLY DOES.. GROSS, GROSS, GROSS !!!! THINK ABOUT IT !
I am not surprised that Alton Brown has a perfect record. He is the best chef on T.V. and every one of his recipes work for me. I have not had one failure. Talk about understanding how food works he explains it perfectly.
As for Paula Dean, I am amazed she has not been cited for licking her fingers and after tasting food and never washing her hands afterwards, Ugh! She sure turns me off with her slopey methods.
If you have the brains to open a resturant,then why not run it properly.Do as the military and get the cleaning done,in this case clean up your act according to the inspectors findings; or close them up. I do find more woman wash their hands frequently at home and do take notice as to were they chose to eat their food. These findings of poorly ran resturants are most important to the public, in my personal opinion and I thank you.
While we're on the subject, one of the biggest turn-offs for me is when waiters handle the rim of my glass while setting it down. I ask for a different glass.
Alton Brown has it all down to a science and doesn't rush around his kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off, so it makes sense that he has excellent hygience ratings.
Unless its a chain restaurant, most kitchens I've been in have severe health code violations. I worked at a ritzy Italian restaurant in the past. They had cockraoches, drug addicts working there (some intravenous), people urinating in fish buckets in the freezer..yeah..it was bad. The food was cooked well,but, it was often recycled. The owners had such a reputation around here that it was obviously overlooked. They sold the place eventually for 6 million dollars. Anything to cut cost and earn more. Bastards. I think if people saw where their food came from they'd eat more family dinners at home, thats for sure.
I absolutely love Paula Deen--but I have to agree she does lick her fingers a whole lot! Not a good thing
Take it from a microbiologist.....WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!! If people could actually see what they were putting in their mouths, there would be no problem with obesity in this country.
Does make you wonder how an average home kitchen holds up in terms of safety measures. Granted most Americans do not have rodents scrambling around their counters, statistics show that only 65% of Americans are stringent about their hand washing. Makes you wonder.
This problem exist on most restaurants all over the world and our government should do something about this problem.