How to Fail a Kitchen Inspection

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Video written by Amy Muller

[WaterGuns]

1:10 If you're wondering why 98 is a bad score in NYC, it's because they (apparently) start at 0 and count up for violations, instead of 100 and counting down.

[TheDarkbluerock]

I remember a Kitchen Nightmares episode, where Gordon Ramsay found a pidgeon in the food storage. Now I know that's worth 11 points...

[BonkedByAScout]

I worked at a Papa Johns years ago as a manager, one time a manager from another store came back into our prep area with a cockatiel on her shoulder. I told her like 5 times to get it out, she kept insisting it was fine, then it pooped on her shoulder.

[CaptainMarvelsSon]

There was this little bowling ally snack bar that served lunches once a week. The place got a C rating, had to shut down for two weeks to get their act together, and when the inspector came back, he gave them a D. How they managed to make things _worse_ I have no idea.

[busterbeagle]

someone that’s been in the industry for 25 years you should be doing a video on how to pass one because failing one is easy

[iainballas]

The soup kitchen my parents ran for 20 years had to get health inspections, and when they took over it never got anything less than a perfect score. Every single time, an absolutely perfect score. One time, there was a single problem (hot stuff going into the fridge before being cooled down), but dad went right down to the store, bought the thing they said to get, and they still gave us the perfect score. People have tried to get them shut down because they don't like poor and homeless people in the area, and restaurants don't like us giving out free food.
Then one day, two months ago, they came in and there was a seagull in the kitchen. The city ordered us shut down. They'd been waiting for years for an excuse, and said we were 'vermin infested'. They refused to re-issue the permit to operate, and when they were closing it down, almost 60 people turned out to cheer as they put up the 'closed' sign for the last time, and yell at them.

20 years of perfect scores, but people thought the filthy subway two blocks away was a cornerstone of the community, despite all the drug deals going on in the parking lot.

[JoeBleasdaleReal]

I thought the US food safety system just consisted of Gordon Ramsay throwing containers around and calling you a “panini head” and a “pillock”

[joaovitormatos]

I'd probably watch a Wendover video about the Gulf Oyster incident that led to all those regulations

[SleepNeed]

I remember when I was in high school, we went to a Chinese buffet for a team dinner. The first time I ever saw a "C" score posted in a window. Never going to forget a lineman saying "I'm not going to a restaurant with the same letter as my GPA." We went instead to a local diner.

[RJRJ]

In the UK the local council inspects and scores businesses from 1-5 which has to be displayed on their door and online e.g. uber eats. I havent had food poisoning in over a decade, the system really cleaned things up as many customers refused to shop at places <4 even though a 3 would be considered a pass in most places in the world, with 2 and 1 being minor and major improvements needed.

[DavidCowie]

"You can tell a lot about a restaurant by the state of the toilets. It's a lot easier to keep a toilet clean than it is to keep a kitchen clean, and they let you *see* the toilets."
-- "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain.

[jolly]

I worked for a major fast food chain, and the most disgusting thing I ever witnessed was the health inspector stopping counting when we were 1 point shy of being shut down. He came back 3 days later and gave us the same score.

[KevinScottFries]

One important thing that wasn’t mentioned in this video is that restaurants often pay for for 3rd party inspections, usually from NSF. These inspections are far more stringent and thorough than the regular inspection from the Health Department.

[nathanapplegate]

One thing you left out was the food prep sink. This is completely separate from hand washing and 3 part dish washing sinks. The food prep sink is used exclusively for food prep. There’s no soap in it. Can’t do that because that’s called chemical contamination. In the coolers, food has to be stored a certain way. Raw meats have to be stored on the bottom shelf because they can drip juices. Storing them on higher shelves above vegetables is called cross contamination. Not washing your hands after handling raw meat and then working on vegetables is called cross contamination.

[TobiNightcore]

Here in Denmark the health inspector checks a number of areas, and the establishment is rated for the lowest score (1-4) overall. Meaning if you score 1 in one thing and 4 in everything else, you're rated 1. Additionally, if the establishment gets top score 12 months in a row, they get an elite grade.

Also, when the establishment gets a poor result, the *establishment* has to pay the follow-up inspection

[RaccoonHenry]

Amy inspecting Half as Kitchen is exactly why I'm subscribed to this channel

[SodawarsGaming]

Fun fact, most fast food companies you regularly eat at also have regular surprise inspections from companies they hire. At Chipotle we had audits from EcoSure, who in my experience were extremely thorough, and then occasional inspections by Chipotle's corporate Safety, Security, and Risk team (SSR), who were even more thorough and also looked at things outside of food safety, like building security, backup systems, cash handling, etc. Most restaurants score far lower on those third party and corporate inspections, and those are the ones the CEOs are looking at because, honestly, if your restaurant is decently run, it should be easy to pass a city health inspection.

[rwolfheart]

Would my home kitchen lose 11 points for having cats in it, 22 because there's two of them, or 0 because cats aren't explicitly listed?

[chughes]

As someone who works as a food safety specialist (someone who goes into kitchens and audits them ahead of time to prevent them from failing the health inspection), I appreciate the amount of information packed into your standard format. The only thing that was missing was how to calibrate the food thermometer.

[Novous]

half the restaurants in nashville (you can look it up online) basically violated every single one at some point. One restaurant that cost $50 a plate we to, we looked it up later, the inspectors said "nobody there could comprehend the fundamentals of food safety" which given how normally dry and careful they are with what inspectors write in reports, means they were INCREDIBLY pissed. Cans of raid were found above the food table next to onions, for example.