There is ample information on kitchen hygiene; this by no
means is a comprehensive “what to do” and “what not to do” in the kitchen. I
already dealt with the washing of poultry; I also made comments here and there in the various
recipes. Some things are just plain common sense, such as not to cut raw meat
and bread on the same surface. The following remarks are my pet peeves
with fellow cooks and chefs, yes; chefs have BAD habits too.
It takes conscious revision of one’s cooking but only for awhile. Good kitchen hygiene can be every bit as habit forming as careless handling of food.
Tasting:
Most cooking, unless painstakingly measured out, requires
tasting the food during preparation. Please keep in mind not to double dip the
tasting spoon. Rinse it under running water or get a clean spoon for each scoop
from the pot. Digestion begins in the mouth. How close do you want to get to the cook? Double dipping is actually the bacterial equivalent of French kissing. TV chefs are notorious for double dipping. Apparently 73% of all cooks double dip. If a chef does that on TV, what else does he do when nobody is looking? Respect the food you share with others.
Germs:
Don’t lean OVER the pot. If you do, you are depositing
billions of microbes into the food from your body and clothes. We are walking
farms of bacteria, we have more bacteria inside and on the surface of our bodies than human
cells. We are literally covered head to toe with bacteria; even the air we
breathe is full of living creatures.
Licking:
Don’t lick and smack. Licking does not substitute wiping or hand washing. Once I couldn't escape from having to eat the same jam filled crepes I just watched the cook roll up with saliva laden fingers. Lick and roll, lick and roll... there was not a single crepe on the platter without a layer of saliva.
Hair:
Leilah, my girl is cursed with hair in food. We sit down to a nice meal in a restaurant, and 8 times out of 10, she will find hair in the food. She is not imagining it I have seen it. She sends back the food, gets a plate of fries and a free dessert but the enjoyment is gone. There
is a reason why the kitchen staff wears white and hairnets [well sort of]. Of course the servers
don’t. They wear black and would you believe it they are the ones cleaning the
restroom. OK enough said. Manly men cooking without a shirt beware of
chest hairs and women past forty shedding hair into the food. Please don't follow me around while I cook. I can see strands of hair clinging to your clothes. Here is what I do when I cook for
company. I put on fresh clothes that went through the drier, I wear an apron,
and I fully cover my head with a bandanna. I don’t find it comfortable and it ruins my
hairdo, but it would be far more uncomfortable if my guests found hair in the food.
wikiHow Really?
Pets:
One Christmas a friend’s trifle was decorated with 8 long
dog hairs. So I ate from the plum pudding. People are generally impervious
to their pet’s hair in the food, but not all guests are immune to pet hair. I don’t want to share my bowl with your cat either, pet bowls and human bowls are not
interchangeable. I know they are family, but please don’t let me see you rinse
Bunny’s bowl in the same sink that you washed my plate. And if you are using fancy dishes, chances are they were never sanitized in the dishwasher.
Dishwasher:
If you have a dishwasher and don’t use it, your utensils are
dirty. Quickly rinsing your forks leaves crusties and I don’t want to pick them out under the tablecloth. If your dishwasher doesn’t do a good enough job, call
a repairman. In my youth when I had to wash everything by hand, I regularly
bleached my pots and flatware and poured boiling water over my dishes.
Flies:
I will never forget one of the Hungarian aunties waiting for
us in Jim’s birth village with a pan of delicious squares; her whole kitchen filled
with sweet plum aroma... and flies. I still feel bad for her when I think about it, but
even today, older and wiser I could not eat those fly kissed squares. I told her we just
ate, I knew I could not bring myself
to take a bite without gagging. Flies are filthy creatures. They fly from poop
to food to poop again spreading their regurgitated flecks of bacteria-saturated
poop. Unless overrun by flies, our immune system is generally sufficient
that a few flies will not pass on some deadly disease. However, I cannot eat in the presence of
flies. Come to think of it, I never could have been a world traveler.
Cleanliness in the kitchen is vitally important. I am not a
germaphobe and my kitchen is often a mess; I cook after all. But practicing good kitchen
hygiene and awareness of cross contamination will go a long way to reduce
intestinal infections and making me come over for a meal. There are reasons why I prefer my own cooking. Oh my God! I have become my own grandmother!
