Celebrities get into the restaurant biz, so celebrity followers are getting into the restaurant inspection biz.

After the New York Post reported this morning that Jay-Z's 40/40 Club piled up enough infractions during a recent health department inspection to shutter the place, celebrity news site, TMZ, cited a rep as saying, it was just bad luck because a refrigerator died just before the inspector showed up.

But Ron Berkowitz says the staff identified the problem immediately and had no intention of serving the food from that fridge. Berkowitz says the fridge was fixed by noon the next day and the club was permitted to re-open.

Except it was more than the fridge.

Other infractions included mixing salsa with bare hands, no thermometer or thermocouple, and inadequate personal cleanliness.

The refrigerator was at a rancid 60 degrees instead of 41 — jeopardizing the safety of 50 pounds of raw chicken wings, five pounds of raw shrimp and 100 turkey burgers, the sources said.

Five pounds of cooked mashed potatoes were left out at a temperature of 89 degrees, while 10 pounds of cooked rice and 50 turkey burgers were kept at 67 degrees.

All the hot foods should be at least 140 degrees, the sources said.

The club’s restaurant was immediately closed, and new patrons were barred from entering. Those already inside were allowed to remain.

“If you have a walk-in place with food like this, you put a hell of a lot of people at risk,” said the source. “A night of dinner and dancing should not include the risk of contracting foodborne illness.”

A night earlier, the hip-hop mogul held an A-list party to reopen the hotspot, which was closed for 10 months for a $10 million makeover. Famous guests included Russell Simmons, Spike Lee, Lance Bass and Warren Buffett.

I used to think Hell was a continuous loop of Entertainment E-News or Leonard Cohen songs.

Now I’m convinced it’s a continuous loop of any show on Bravo.

I go to sleep early; Amy winds down by watching bad TV on the computer, including the Real Housewives of Anywhere, and Millionaire Matchmaker (optimistic bias?).

On a possibly recent episode, Patti the Matchmaker introduces Z-list actress Tori Spelling as a woman who has it all and evidence that women can do it all.

Tori plays faux homemaker for Patti and the douchebag-looing-for-a-mommy woman, baking some stuff, and inviting the guests to sit down, asking, “do you mind sitting at a table with a chicken?”

While the people engage in some horrible banter, the chicken is walking around the table, munching on biscuits, and acting like it owns the place.

T-list Tori has flashed her poultry before, and was involved in a dubious promotion of soft-serve ice-cream for expectant women at Baskin Robbins in 2008.

Pancakes are a popular breakfast treat around my house. They are so much of a fixture that I asked for (and received) an electric griddle as my only Christmas present. I can now churn out 8-10 pancakes at a time. I don't think I've ever made pancakes that have led to a back injury though.

Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider reports (Via Yahoo hockey blogger, and barfblog favorite, Puck Daddy) that Dustin Penner is suffering from a back ailment that was triggered by a stack of "delicious pancakes."

"I woke up fine, sat down to eat and it locked right up. It never happened to me before. I couldn't stand up. I was probably at the third stage of evolution. So my wife helped me get dressed, and then I drove to the rink here, to hope they could do some magic and get it opened up. Kinger [trainer Chris Kingsley] just looked at me and said, 'Go home.' So I got some treatment and went home.

"Apparently it's one of those mysterious things, where you can throw it out (from) sneezing. I just leaned over to dip into some delicious pancakes that my wife made. It's just like it [the pain] wraps around you and squeezes. … So it was disappointing. Hopefully it's just an isolated incident, and not something that's going to become chronic."

Fox News reports Chicago’s Alinea was given the Michelin Guide’s coveted three-star rating last month, the only Chicago restaurant to earn that top honor, but later in the month it failed an inspection by the City of Chicago's food protection division.

Violations included foods at improper temperatures, employees not able to wash their hands properly, black mold growth inside an ice machine, and the front door was cited as not being insect or rodent-proof.

More food safety, less food porn.

That failing inspection report was listed as taking place on Nov. 30th. One week later, on Dec. 8, the restaurant was re-inspected and received a passing grade.

The second report did still mention a few issues, such as ventilation equipment that was needed, but it was a passing grade.