Ten Years of Culinary Excellence
Ten Years of Culinary Excellence
The Last Few Feet The chicken was cooked to the right temperature. The sauce was cooled correctly. The vegetables were reheated safely. Everything was held at the right temperature, and the kitchen did exactly what…
Everything you've learned so far assumes contamination is an accident — a mistake, a missed step, bad luck. This post covers two different things: what happens when someone contaminates food on purpose, and what a…
Before we go further — a friendly warning, not a threat. This page is loaded with foundational ideas: definitions, mechanisms, vocabulary you're going to lean on for the rest of your food safety journey. It's…
Why this page exists You're going to spend your whole career being told to cook chicken to 165°F, wash your hands for 20 seconds, and send sick coworkers home. This page is going to tell…
A line cook wipes raw chicken juice off a cutting board with a rag, then uses that same board to slice tomatoes for a salad. A different cook uses a clean cutting board to make…
Picture this: you are managing a restaurant with a salad bar and you just found out one of your food handlers who has been prepping ingredients — cutting carrots, trimming lettuce, portioning out salad dressing…
A case of chicken is pulled from refrigeration, carted through a refrigerated warehouse onto a refrigerated loading dock, and stacked inside a refrigerated truck. It’s at exactly the right temperature: 38°F. It’s in perfect condition.…
A food handler at a busy salad bar cuts her finger while prepping lettuce. She bandages it right away — good instinct — but skips the glove that's supposed to go over it. A few…
A prep cook slices up a few melons for a platter first thing in the morning, well ahead of that afternoon's event. It's just fruit — cut, arranged, ready to eat. No raw meat, no…
Bacteria get most of the attention in food safety, but they aren't the only threat on your prep line. This page covers the other biological hazards you need to understand: viruses, parasites, fungi, and biological…