The Chefs Table

The most important thing that anyone who handles food needs to know is the cause and effect of their food handling actions. Those who have been trained about of the essentials of food safety are less likely to cause food related contamination. This hour long course of study will equip you with these essentials.

There are three types of food contaminations are Chemical, Physical and Biological.
As a food handler what you need to remember is

1. All cleaning chemicals must be handled according to the manufacturers stipulations. The chemicals can not be stored near any food production areas.

2. Physical contaminations include hair, nail fragments, bandages, metal fragments, and broken glass.
a. Always keep your hair constrained within a hairnet or hat according to the operation manager’s regulation.
b. Keep your nails trimmed and clean, do not use finger nail polish, wear gloves when handling ready to eat foods, or if your hands have bandages, nail polish, or irremovable rings.
c. Metal fillings from can openers must be cleaned off between each use.
d. Glass must never come in contact with ice dispensing areas, or used in the kitchen to consume beverages. If glass is stored in the refrigerator it must be stored away from ready to eat foods.

3. Please review the following video concerning biological contaminants.

The key item to remember is that food has a certain amount of time that can remain in the temperature danger zone, or TDZ. The TDZ or temperature danger zone is between 41° and 140°. Chilled food must be stored below 41° and all hot food must be held above 140°. The amount of time that these foods can be held outside of the TDZ depends upon expiration dates, and the HAACP proven systems of time and temperature control.

As part of the time and temperature control systems food can only be held hot for a defined period of time and must be reheated to 165° if the temperature drops below 140°. The current regulations include a minimum variance of hot holding between 135° and 145°. Please check with your operation’s manager to verify the correct minimum holding temperature in your establishment.

The correct actions by a food handler are the keys to ensuring safe food. These include:
1. Washing your hands.
a. After using the restroom.
b. After touching your face or skin.
c. After removing the trash.
d. After handling soiled dishes, service ware or pots.
e. After handling raw foods.
f. Between glove uses.
g. In between tasks including before you start work.

2. Report any illness’s to your operation’s manager. You may need to provide a doctor’s clearance before you are permitted to handle food that is to be consumed.
3. Keeping yourself clean by bathing or showering daily. Avoid using perfume or cologne before preparing food.
4. Only wear clean clothes and a clean apron while involved in food preparation.
5. Hair must be contained within a hat and/or hairnet.
6. Change or use gloves when:
a. Utensils are not practical.
b. If you have a wound on your hand.
c. When handleing ready to eat foods.
d. The glove becomes torn or damaged.
e. When leaving your station or changing tasks.

Another way that a food handler can ensure that food is safe is to cook or reheat foods to the correct temperature. The only acceptable method to check the internal temperature of a food item is through the use a calibrated thermometer. Check with your operation manager or standardized recipe for the correct cooking temperature.

Cross contamination is one of the leading causes for food borne illness. Always wash rinse and sanitize;
1. Hands between tasks, after handling food or chemicals with your hands, and before beginning work.
2. Cutting boards in between tasks.
3. All preparation items after each use.

Never
1. Use sanitizer in place of soap and water.
2. Combine raw and cooked foods or place on the same surface.
3. Store potentially hazardous foods above ready to eat food.
4. Prepare vegetable or fruits that have not been washed properly.

Finally only prepare foods that are wholesome to begin with:
1. Purchase food from approved sources.
2. Never use a product from a damaged container.
3. Receive and store foods at the correct holding temperatures.
4. Only use foods that have been covered, labeled and dated.
5. Store food in the refrigerator based upon how potentially hazardous they are. Always keep proteins in a seperate refrigerator to lessen the chance of cross contamination.

Refrigerator 1 Example
- Top shelf-Cooked Ready to eat foods
Stocks and prepared mise en place.
Produce
Dairy
Bottom ShelfEggs

Refrigerator 2 Example -Top Shelf-Sealed Packaged Seafood
Sealed Package Whole Proteins
Portioned Proteins
Portioned Ground Meat
Sealed Packed Poultry
Bottom ShelfPortioned Poultry

Whole seafood and fish that is packed in ice must be stored in its own refrigerator

6. Don’t use prepared food items that are more than 7 days old.
7. Control all pests by keeping food preparation areas clean.
8. Store chemicals away from food.

The proper cooling of prepared foods is critical. To ensure that food is cooled properly always cool the prepared food in shallow pans. This two stage cooling check system required that the food must be cooled to 70 degrees within the first two hours and cooled then cooled from 70 degrees to 41 degrees in less than 4 hours. Maximum cooling time allowance is 6 hours from above 140 degrees to below 41 degrees.

Lets Review.

To summarize: Wash you hands often, wear gloves when needed, watch how you store food, and abide by the time and temperatue rules of food preparation.

Please visit our website for additional products and services. www.chefreference.com

Here is one of my favorite scenes concerning the issue of a purpose driven restaurant… to satisfy the customer and make money. (There are some colorful metaphors used, please excuse the language)

This interview, concerning the Kauffman organization, really brings out a great topic of discussion. Because I grew up in “IBM country”, the Hudson Valley of New York, I have observed the growth of many entrepreneurial startups in the Poughkeepsie area since the massive job cuts of 1993. This was due in part to a disenfranchisement with the consumers needs. In the 1980s companies like Microsoft and Apple where producing larger quantities of smaller capacity computers and software, meanwhile IBM was producing smaller numbers of massive capacity computers. As history has proven the sale of the smaller capacity computers and greater capacity software exponentially grew while the sale of the larger capacity computers continued to decrease. IBM missed a fundamental paradigm shift—that the value added in computer sales was shifting from hardware to software. The aggregate value of intellectual capital in software was on the rise while hardware was becoming a commodity product whose prices experienced diminished returns.

In my research I have found over a hundred startups in the East Fishkill New York area, as a result of the IBM job cuts. One of the things that I had assumed as a lad was that IBM would continue to grow, many of my friend’s parents had worked for IBM and our family business, retail pharmacy, relied upon the continued growth of IBM. So you can imagine we were concerned in the 1990s when the structure of our microcosm of high tech industry based jobs changed. What was really amazing was the rather quick growth of these smaller yet nimble computer design firms. Prior IBM employees had learned that their future success was really in their own hands. They could no longer rely on a single entity to support their career choice.

As we see the similar restructuring of companies and displacement of North Carolina jobs today, Bank of America, NASCAR Teams and Freightliner to name a few, what will the future hold? Those innovators who have the ability to accept the change, overcome and adapt to the market shift will be the leaders of tomorrow’s entrepreneurial growth.

Unmet Expectations
How many times have you visited a restaurant only to end up with a sour feeling in the pit of you stomach? You just realized that warming up the leftovers from last nights dinner would have been a better choice then spending fifty bucks for your family to dine on packaged pre-prepared microwaved dishes from a chain restaurant.

In my book The Culinary Reference Guide, I discuss this concept in the preface entitled, Mental Mise en Place. “Have you ever been to a restaurant where you ordered the same thing on twp separate occasions? When you went back to the restaurant was that meal just as good as the first time? If your answer is no then perhaps, your second experience was an improper execution of the formula. …. This is where the consistency of preparation is critical; you ordered the dish the second time because you liked it the first. Most guests will not reorder a dish that they did not like the first time….”

Drs. Joann and Jim Carland put it another way in their Catching the Dream Series of course materials, to quote and paraphrase from chapter seven of New Venture Growth 3rd edition- Production management. To paraphrase managers are in charge of achieving production goals without sacrificing quality, “if inferior raw materials are purchased inferior products will result. If poorly trained or incompetent people are used on the production line, inferior products will result.”

Quality
Quality is the consistent delivery of a predetermined standard. Without recognized standards and customer-validated expectations, the growth of a brand will not succeed. Why has McDonalds done so well over these past 53 years? Think about it…. the consistent delivery of a predetermined standard. McDonalds became popular as Americans took to the road in the 1950’s, and with any road trip, the necessity, for families to find a safe, quick, and inexpensive place to eat. The reason why there are so many chain restaurants today is directly linked to the success of this business model.

Recent Experience
Recently my family and I went out for lunch to a chain restaurant that we had visited last year. Our first time was on Mothers Day, of all days, the service was ok the food was good. It seemed as if someone had finally found the formula to produce this ethnic cuisine in a sustainable efficient manner. I am a big fan of this particular ethnic cuisine, (by the way I am not trying to indict this restaurant chain in any way and therefore will only give the particulars that are relevant), and since moving to Charlotte several years ago have only found one restaurant, of this cuisine, that has been consistent and of good quality. This recent visit left us walking away, and, as mentioned earlier questioning why we did not have leftover instead. The food was hot and apparently safe, but there was something missing, oh yeah, the flavor we had enjoyed in the past. The key to prepare and serve this particular cuisine is in the freshness and quality of ingredients, and since the time of our last visit something had changed, the quality of food. Our meal tasted like it had been prepared from a box of prescribed ingredients as opposed to being made from fresh product.

The Taste of Industrialized Cooking.
Upon investigation of this restaurants parent company Brinker International some quality issues are rather apparent. Brinker International is one of the world’s leading casual dining restaurant companies. With more than 1,900 restaurants and over 120,000 team members in 25 countries, we welcome more than 1.2 million guests into our restaurants every day. (Source -Brinker.com). Doug Brooks, Brinker International President was quoted in the The Dallas Morning News on October 30, 2008 by Karen Robinson-Jacobs stating their restaurant are experiencing a “difficult operating environment as our country works through these economic challenges,” It is for that reason the Brinker is seeking to expand its brands in markets outside of the U.S. by opening 41 new operations. Going global brings with it a different standard of customer expectations. One of the largest growth areas is the Middle East, yes the land of milk and honey and crude oil is going to be introduced to Salsa, Guacamole and Fajitas. Actually, the cuisines are quite similar- meat grilled and served on a flatbread with a raw vegetable sauce. Brinker International advertised in the August 2008 Food Safety and Quality Website for a Quality Assurance / Food Safety Manager listing the job requirement: “Design, implement and manage the product assessment process for assigned products to ensure that all products are routinely assessed for the physical, chemical, organoleptic and/or microbiological analyses per specified parameters and frequencies Ensure that all suppliers and distributors have annual third party sanitation facility audits, recall programs and all relevant food safety and product quality programs”

So you are probably asking yourself, so what does this have to do with the change in quality control issue from the last visit. Simply, in my opinion, when a food company goes global the distribution of ingredients, consistency of product availability and above all prime costs are factors that may have precedence over the quality of the product. Looking over several quarterly reports issued by Brinker cost of sales increased from 27.9 percent in the prior year to 28.6 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, August 05. By the end of the Second Quarter Fiscal 2009 on January 22 Brinker reported “Cost of sales, as a percent of revenues, decreased from 28.3 percent in the prior year to 28.2 percent in the second quarter of fiscal 2009. During the quarter, favorable menu price changes more than offset the negative impact on cost of sales of unfavorable commodity prices primarily related to chicken, produce and oils and sauces.”

Yes, we can have the same entrée in Charlotte and Dubai, but that does not mean that the entrée will please both Ricky Bobby’s and the Sheiks taste buds.
In summary something had changed in this ethnic restaurant’s recipe of quality assured preparations, it was not the cook in the restaurant, the server, our even the menu. It was the marginalization of the mass produced sauces, and preparations. Shaving pennies from the cost of food budget has probably caused this company to reformulate their base recipes, which of course could affect the final product. A company can only succeed if it exceeds its guests expectations, altering the production standards may help for a few financial periods, but in the long run marginalization of production ruins the brand.

Resources
1.Tiess, Frederick. The Culinary Reference Guide. 2nd. Matthews: Le Guild Culinaire, 2006.
2.JoAnn & Jim Carland (2005) Catching the American Dream: New Venture Growth, Whitney Press.
3. www.mcdonalds.com
4. www.brinker.com
5. Robinson-Jacobs , Karen . Brinker counts on international restaurant growth as U.S. economy sags.” The Dallas Morning News October 30, 2008 , ‘natl. ed
6. Arabian Food Supplies Launches Popular Mexican Restaurant Locations In The Middle East.” UAE NEWS. 2 Mar 2009 .
7. “QA / Food Safety Manager – Dallas, TX.” The Comprehensive Food Safety Website. Aug 2008. FoodHACCP.com. 2 Mar 2009 8. www.businessdictionary.com
9. www.youtube.com

Getting your bearings straight. To state it simply the 4 C’s of credit are Character, Capacity, Capital, and Conditions. All of these factors are used in the evaluation by a prudent loan officer to develop an extension of credit from a lender to a borrower. Besides being the most important factor Character also hold the distinction of being the hardest of the factors to accurately measure. Capacity refers the borrower’s ability to repay the loan. Capital evaluation involves looking over the financial strength of the borrower by determining his or her Net Worth. Finally, the economy, national security, and unemployment rates are all Conditions that may affect a borrower’s ability to secure a loan.

In Irons – to head in the wind and refuse to fall off
Character evaluation is the single most difficult measure of a person’s ability to repay a loan. Has the person been bankrupt before, has their car ever been reposed, have they attended college, do they own a home? These are all questions, plus many others that a loan officer must use to determine if a person is of good character for a loan consideration. In my opinion character must be developed at a rather young age, and rarely develops past the stage of pre-pubescence. When morals, ethics, and values are instilled in a child, he or she will have the ability to make the tougher choices when they are older.

Waterline -the line along the hull at which a boat floats.
Capacity to repay a loan is the second factor in a loan evaluation. How much does the borrower owe, own, and earn? This is one of the problems associated with today’s housing crisis. In the October 13th 2008 issue of Time Magazine Niall Ferguson wrote “when families and banks tip into bankruptcy, more assets get dumped on the market driving prices down further and necessitating more deleveraging This process now has so much momentum that even $ 700 billion in taxpayer money may not suffice to stop it.”
So with our current figure of bailout dept reaching a trillion how can we expect to stay afloat?
Ferguson stated the cause “Much of the increase in debt was used to invest in real estate. The result was a bubble….as bubbles always do- it bursts” All of the mortgage telemarketers, Di-Tech commercials and snail mail loan offers in the world will not fix the storm that we have created for ourselves. How will the government fix it, sorry to tell you but they can’t. We have to start thinking a little more for ourselves before taking that “Live Now Pay Later” refinance deal that in some cases have place the value of the principle mortgage more than the home is worth. Why are some people sinking in this mortgage crisis, they have consumed so much that their boats waterline is now below sea level.

True Wind -the direction and speed of the wind felt when stationary, at anchor or on land.
Capital has been for years been based upon the value of one’s home, as collateral. Today though, one’s net worth is really based upon liquid assets, stock, bonds, and securities. It is for that reason that the credit market has been frozen, and yes beginning to thaw these past few months. With a dead housing market, diminished holdings no wonder we have seen so many commercials concerning selling and buying of gold. After all it is really the only stable capital .

Jibing – changing direction with the wind aft; to change from one tack to another by turning the stern through the wind; also spelled gibing.
Conditions have affected the credit market for the last few months and will continue to in the long run. Our current state, we are at war on at least two fronts, we are in the biggest economic recession since the depression, our invest securities market is less than half the value that it was last year, we are bleeding millions of jobs. Today Jeannine Aversa, an AP Economics Writer quoted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “Only if that is the case, in my view there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery,” Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee. So just when the wind picks up, the seas are getting a little rough, the sails are trimmed and we have a new helmsman, gibe ho. Lets hope for the best. By way the markets did go up based Bernanke’s comments.

So what is the most important thing to remember about the 4 C’s of creditConcerning Consumer Credit- Common Sense

Resources
1. JoAnn & Jim Carland (2005) Catching the American Dream: New Venture Growth video series.

2. Fox, Elizabeth. “BASIC SAILING: Sailing Terms.” 1997. Rutgers University School of Communication

3. Ferguson , Niall. “The End of Prosperity.” Time Magazine 13 Oct 2008: 36-39.

4. Jeannine Aversa . “Bernanke: economy suffering ’severe contraction’.” Associated Press Tue Feb 24, 4:59 pm ET 24 Feb 2009

5. Rosland Capital Commercial