ngatti

82.00 It's a dear aquaintance and the occasion is an apology. I think so. At any rate more than I do I guess I just lost my head. Nick

I just bought a bottle of 1997 Opus One for a gift. Those of you who know me, know that I'm an absolute amateur at this (knowing just enough to get me into trouble ). Did I do good? Be brutally honest please. Nick

DO refreigerate onions of the Vidalia and Mauii variety. These are *fresh* onions and haven't been 'cured'. They will rot if you leave 'em on the shelf unrefrigerated. I refrigerate canned tuna and mayonaise. Using this stuff already cold when making prepared salads (tuna, chicken), retards bacteria growth and gives me a little extra 'shelf life'. Nick

Sphia Loren???Nahhh Marisa Berensen, Si Nick

Thanks for the wishes folks. Nothin' too serious. Just no guitar for a few days. Nick

Yeah, that and a 5:00 AM wakeup for a 6 o'clock golf outing. Having been out with a few of you incorrigibles before, I knew *that* wouldn't happen. So I begged off. Nick

Sorry I missed it folks. Sounds like my loss entirely. The fates had intervened anyways. I spent the evening at Englewood hospital ER. Triaged for four hours waiting for six sutures. Seems my breaking knife got in the way of my finger. Nick

Even better: bring your own cockroach. You won't get charged at all. And don't think it doesn't happen. Nick

I should have been clearer. They only list individual violations if serious enough to warrant a fine. You were quite correct, Rosie, if I read your implication correctly. Individual violations (and it is a very rare establishment that gets *NO* violations) are not listed if the establishment gets a "Satisfactory" rating. Otherwise only failed *inspections* are listed (Conditional = failed inspection, to my way of thinking), or 'Satisfactory' if achieved upon reinspection. On another note, I see one of the 'Conditionals' is making an appearance for (at least) the fourth time this year. Nick

Hi double OO, As a fellow Brooklynite, I tend to stay out of these discussions about Jersey pizza. Being of the mind that there ain't any (pizza that is). If you've got some good recs for pizza like they used to make at home (Brooklyn), I'm all ears. Right now the nearest decent to me (Dumont) is a drive to Brooklyn's Coal Burning in Hackensack. I like Big Tomato in that area just west of rockaway. The ritzy area on th peninsula east of Riis Park but west of Rackaway Beach proper. Thanks Nick

Fitz, many years ago I used to work for an outfit called Sterling Affair Caterers. They are still around, located in Edgewater NJ. It's an off-premise operation. The Chef/owner is a guy named Bernard Norget, who used to own a restaurant in NYC called 'La Folie'. You should be able to 411 for a phone number. Anyway This guy used to do some pretty intersting locales for his functions. He was a regular at the aircraft carrier Intrepid, but by far the most intersting site (for me), that we used to work regularly, was the rotunda library at Columbia University. Beautiful space, IMO. Very interesting and classy. FWIW Nick

You guys used to go home?!? Nick

Ah coincidence. I was about to start a thread on the very subject. Prompted by the third straight appearance of a local Bergen County restaurant in the health violations column. This restaurant has also been cited three times earlier this year. In fact there appears to be a small coterie of Bergen County Restaurants, which wait until they fail an inspection (often two or three) before finally cleaning up their act…that is until the next inspection, where the Health Department pas de deux starts all over again. I don’t understand why these places are allowed to remain in business. There are at least two other restaurants that I know of, whose names regularly appear in “The Record”, not because of advertising dollars, but instead, due to the various town health departments failing them for assorted health code violations in order that they may achieve the dubious distinction of having their names printed in Monday’s “Health Checks” column. Some background: There are three levels of Health Code ‘achievement’. The most sought after is the “SATISFACTORY”. Let me say here that there is no such thing as an “Excellent” or a “Good” rating. The highest ‘rank’ one can attain is the “Satisfactory” rating. It merely means that you’ve been inspected and are in compliance with the vast majority of the local codes and ordinances. Some problem areas may have been found, but has been deemed to be, for the most part, minor (Rosie, here is where your backdoor flies come in). There may have been a major violation discovered (I myself have had sudden problems with the temperature of the final rinse on my dishwashing machine, which would be considered major), but depending upon the judgment of the individual inspector, your relationship with him/her and past track record fixing violations, you may be given a pass (with the understanding that the problem be repaired by next visit). Next is the “CONDITIONAL”. This is for all intents and purposes a failed health inspection. You get one of these if you have one or more serious violations. You must display the “Conditional” sign in a prominent place and an appointment is made to reinspect the restaurant, with the primary goal being to make sure that the cited violations are addressed. The third health rating is the “UNSATISFACTORY”. Now I have always thought that restaurants that receive this rating are subject to immediate closure. I may be wrong about this and would encourage anyone with more knowledge than I to post a clarification. In any event the things that would cause this rating are (I suppose), open sewage running through your kitchen preparation areas; repeated failure to fix your “CONDITIONAL” violations; being absolutely overrun with various and sundry vermin, and/or complete indifference to fundamental health standards and gross incompetence regarding basic safe food handling/storage knowledge and techniques as demonstrated by the obvious condition of the kitchen in question. Having described some of the criteria involving the various ratings, let me state for the record that a health inspection is an inherently stressful thing. Even if you feel as if you’ve done everything possible to meet code, it is possible that you may have missed something important. Wait staff may be hiding four gallons of three weeks out of date milk along with a dozen out of date yogurts in their lowboy pantry refrigerator (“That’ll be $50.00 per violation, Chef Gatti”). Your night cleaner may have forgotten to pour bleach down the drains the previous evening, resulting in maggots suddenly crawling out of them (“sorry Chef, but this a major violation and we are going to shut you down until you can demonstrate that the maggot problem has been addressed to our satisfaction”). Someone in haste may have stored raw chicken above the cooked roast beef (a major no no, this raw above cooked thing is, “That will earn you a conditional. “We’ll be back in a week to see if you’ve moved the chicken, Chef.”). You may (gasp!!) get a guy you’ve never seen before and he’s got a…HAT FETISH!!! (“Sorry, Chef Gatti but I see 7 cooks, none of them wearing hats. That’ll be $50.00 per lack of hat”). You get the idea. What can one do? Well first and foremost, be polite. Not obsequious, but polite. Seem interested in what the inspector is doing. Offer to escort him around your kitchen as he performs his inspection. If he declines then make it clear that you will be available if he finds a problem that needs immediate attention. Offer him a cup of coffee and perhaps a piece of Danish (but that’s all, propriety and appearance are important to these people). Allow the inspector a quiet place where he can complete his report. Do not argue any point. I stress again. DO NOT be contentious. Your job is to listen to the inspector and implement his suggestions either immediately or as soon as humanly possible. Some specifics: Dodge: I don’t believe that there is a glove law in NJ (I could be wrong). This doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t use them. We go through 1800 latex gloves per week at the club! I require them for all food that is going to be served cold without any further heat processing. You go to the bathroom? Remove your gloves and throw them away. Having a cigarette? Remove your gloves first, AND make sure you wash your hands before returning to work...etc…etc…I myself use approx. 100 gloves per day. I am of the opinion that all salad prep guys and garde mangers should wear gloves AND change them frequently. Health departments, love cooked food to be stored above raw. Do so!! It takes very little effort. In fact, do what I do. The entire bottom shelf of a rack in one of my walk-in refrigerators, are reserved strictly for raw poultry. Inspectors love to see that all food storage is off the floor and on dunnage racks. Inspectors like to see that a copy of the last health inspection report is close at hand, with all listed violations addressed. Remember that this report must be surrendered for inspection to ANY member of the public who asks to see it. In addition the rating sign (SATISFACTORY/CONDITIONAL etc…) must be prominently displayed. Restaurant kitchens don’t have to be registered HAACP facilities (though I don’t see anything wrong with that), but it does not take much effort to keep a place reasonably clean and in compliance. Who needs the grief and bad publicity from making people sick? Finally, I must agree with Tommy. If you want to know where all the real problems are, try taking a look at your very own kitchens at home. Thanks for listening Nick

I don't doubt your source, Rosie. But with as with any controversial subject, there tends to be a fair amount of confusion and a bit of misinformation on both sides of the argument. All I can do is post my anecdotes about dealings with the various boards of health. I can give my take on how to deal with an inspection (yes, they are stressful and we *deal* with them), and what I think it takes to keep as violation free as possible within the constraints of actually trying to run a business. Nick

Rosie and others, There is a big difference between a mere violation of the specific code and a failed inspection. (Conditional, Unsatisfactory). The Bergen Record publishes the results of failed inspections, fines levied for gross or repeated violations or successful reinspections of previously failed restaurants, *not* violations of Health Codes. I'll try to post more later regarding my experiences with various health departments both in NYC and NJ. Nick

i ahd quite a nice time at Frog's Leap and Chimney Rock. Nick

Thanks Mark. That explains the poussins. Nick

Remeber that frozen poultry will have pink boes and give the appearance of being undercooked. Also poussins have bones that stay pink after thorough cooking. Nick

Well, If I may, I think that the answer is contained within the various posts on this thread. Glyn and dstone were correct that the bacteria is essentially a surface one. The problem is contamination (belaboring the obvious). If you eat an undercooked whole roast bird, then your chance of getting ill from a contaminated bird increase because of, If I may, the little nooks and crannies that the, not so obviously, bloody juices get into (mostly the dark meat where the bone structure helps this along). It makes no difference if the whole roast bird is Chicken (well it does due to gnarly processing technique), duck turkey, whatever. Realize that most seared rare: (insert bird name here) is a breast of said beast. Aha!, surface contamination is killed in the searing process (check the post by 'Tissue" and others on rare chickenbreast in Japan. No bones to corrupt the surface and introduce crannies and nooks where contaminated juices can hide and start to multiply bacteria (such as the joint ends of thighs and drumsticks). The processing of chicken in this country is so horrendoudly unsanitary that the shotgun approach to eating it (chicken ) rare is implemented. Consequently no one eats any chicken rare. Just my thoughts. I will of course defer to you smug pedantic scientific bastards. Nick

Wilfred this is the only part of your post that ifeel qualified to post a reply to. It is a very clubby place, especially for lunch, where favorites are recognized and coddled (leastwise it was so when I worked there). Moreover the Grill Room has always been a sort of private club for the publishing and media moguls, no? Could this have something to do with it? Kinda like Conde Nast maybe not wanting to diss it's own hangout? Just a thought Nick

Blossom Hill Cab and Blossom Hill Chard (not very oaky). I guess they'd retail in the 3-6 dollar range. The Opici days are over. We will occasionaly get a nice bottle from the bar. Sometimes we need a specialty wine. Nick

Okay, so how are ducks processed? Are they not defeathered, gutted and washed too? I've not seen them otherwise at my supermarket. (Off topic, but the tuna thing is, I agree, annoyingly ubiquitous on restaurant menus. But it is also the quintessential fad food. Not good to eat, basically, but because it's so trendy everyone thinks it's marvelous. And, BTW, that waiter at Picholine was rude and wrong. The customer is entitled to have his food cooked to his preference.) I absolutely hate the taste of tuna cooked paste MR. I don't think it tastes good cooked at all, but that me. I wouldn't impose that on anyone else. Just talk about them If you don't like it rare don't eat it that way. Picholine is wrong also. What a surpisingly arrogant attitude (Picholine's). It takes absolutely no effort to bring a piece of tuna up to Well Done. MW is pretty difficult temp to achieve and maintain from kitchen to table in a piece of tuna (the carry up'll murder you). It's the only explanation I can offer for such an attitude besides the dogmatic arrogance. Jeez, how is a simple request like sauce on the side or allergens handled. Nick

Just as I thought. But man those crabcakes! Nick

I like the use of a double post to reinforce the point Nick

While discussing meat grading with an industry person, the name Peter Luger came up. My question was about how the Luger people select their beef. he explained that Luger's has a very specific and stringent list of criteria, that the fresh meat houses know about. So statements about Luger's culling the cream are accurate. An Anecdote: This guy used to get to the fresh meat houses as the strip loins were being unloaded off the trucks (very early). He would stamp what he thought the best ones for his own wholesale house, thinking that he could skim the best before the Luger people. When it came time for delivery, instead of say the 30 that were selected, he would only be deliveed twenty. The best 10 had gone to Luger's! Nick