SS&GF: Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

Forget the glitz and glamor you see on Food Network.  Thus far school has been about nutrition, food borne illnesses, organization, and keeping my chef whites clean and pressed.

I’ve mopped, squeegeed floors, scrubbed dishes, and scraped pans.  I can break down an industrial dishwasher and clean out the garbage disposal.  I know how to set up a 3 compartment sink with the proper detergent and sanitizer concentrations.

Need to store fresh veggies and raw meat in the same refrigerator? Put the raw meat underneath the raw or ready to eat food to prevent cross-contamination.

Photo Disclaimer…I only had my iPhone with me – not my best pics.

I’ve done a little cooking and made some dressings.  Assembling crudites will never be the same for me again.  I attempted a carrot stick thinking that’s what one puts on a raw veggie tray.  Chef was appalled.  Instead, he taught us some interesting cuts.  It makes the veggies 2-bite delights with surface room for dipping instead of long, akward pieces of vegetable stalks.

I’ve volunteered for events.  At Savor Dallas, I was able to work with Chef Bruce Ross from The Tower Club.  This event was a high-end fundraiser with 60 of Dallas’ best chefs showcasing their food.  I spent the night putting American Sturgeon Caviar and chervil on top of Horseradish Cauliflower Panna Cotta.

After topping about 800 servings, the smell of of fish eggs had penetrated the disposable plastic gloves required for serving ready-to-eat foods but but my soul was at peace.  Not glamorous but I was able to learn a little about the long hours and intense study that  led to Chef Ross’ success as an Executive Chef.

The Grapevine Chocolate Fest was another learning experience with our head Pastry Chef, Chef Brown.  We served Chocolate Raspberry Cake Truffles double dipped in Orchid Chocolate, Cocoa Nib Shortbread, and Chocolate Drizzled Butter Brittle, all made in-house.  The word quickly spread that our Chocolate Raspberry Cake Truffles were divine and people where aghast when we ran out.

It’s just been 8 weeks. I’ll put my knives and whisks to good use as I start Basic Food Prep and Fundamentals of Baking this week.

Spring Cleaning – Bleach & Antibacterials


So what does this have to do with Spring Cleaning?  Well, I’m going to give you a different perspective on sanitation.

Did you know that most food borne illness is caused from improper food handling?  It’s true.  Proper hand washing plays a big roll in this as well.

There are little fecal-oral transfer bugs that can be transferred to foods and solid surfaces, including food, when hands aren’t properly washed – we’re talking Norovirus Gastroenteritis, Hepatitis A, Shigella, and Giardia.  I don’t know about you, but I want the people making my food to be really good hand washers.

Effective hand washing can be done with hot water and liquid soap – no antibacterial agents needed.  Just sing “Happy Birthday” in your head while you vigorously scrub your hands, making sure to get in between your fingers.  That’s long enough to kill most germs.

There’s a slew of other nasty pathogens that can make you sick when food isn’t handled safely.  E-coli, salmonella, hemorragic colitis, listeriosis to name just a few.  Again, the risk of food borne illness increases without proper sanitation.

In a Commercial Kitchen

If I’ve learned anything at all, it’s how to serve food safely.  The reality is that your meal passes through many hands before it’s placed in front of you.  The idyllic farm-to-table model isn’t a reality for most of us.

Forget the actual farming, packing, and shipping processes for now – even though those can be sources of contamination, too.  Let’s just take a very general look at what happens once food gets to a restaurant.

Restaurants, at least the good ones, take great care in selecting their suppliers because food has to come from a reputable, safe source.  Not only does the facility where the food comes from have to be sanitized, but so do the delivery trucks.

Once delivered to the back dock, the order is verified for accuracy and then put away.  Food temperatures are checked and, yes, the thermometers are sanitized after each use.  We can’t go sticking a thermometer just used to check the temperature of raw poultry into a vat of milk without proper sanitation in between.

When food is prepared, the kitchen staff must wash their hands correctly and sanitize their work area with a chemical solution that has a specific concentration. Quaternary ammonia is often used, sometimes bleach.  Why? If there are little creepy crawly bacteria on the table they can get into your food and make you sick.

Work areas must be sanitized every time a new task is started.  This is incredibly important when switching from raw meat prep to working with ready-to-eat food.  Many restaurants have entirely separate areas for these two types of food to minimize cross contamination risk.

Care is taken when cooking and serving, too.  Would you want your sandwich to be put on your plate with a spatula just used to flip a hamburger?  Or salad on a plate that hadn’t been properly washed and sanitized?  Bob Customer’s saliva could still be floating around.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a complete picture of all the sanitation that goes on in a restaurant.  It’s a brief overview to give you a slightly different perspective.  Few things are all good or all bad.

A Better Solution

Is there one?  I’m sure there is. But until then, I wouldn’t dine anywhere that doesn’t practice proper sanitation.

For more thoughts on bleach and antibacterials, head over to Kitchen Stewardship for Spring Cleaning.  Tomorrow she’ll have Mr. Linky so we can share our thoughts about using bleach and antibacterials.

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