Michelin chef's bistro faces $1.3m fine after piece of wire brush served in coq au vin

[Yiannos]

Man, now here's a good reason not to go cheap on your cooking impletments...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/01/daniel-boulud-chef-new-york-bistro-fined-diner-swallows-wire-db-bistro-moderne

[Lisa Shock]

Those brushes are well known hazards, I won't use one. However, I will say that I have seen restaurants get in trouble for situations caused by a manufacturer or packer. Keeping extensive records of all equipment purchased can be useful, if in fact they do not have such a grill brush at the restaurant.

[food mom]

What validates the $1M in punitive damages?

[IndyRob]

21 minutes ago, marktfrau said:

What validates the $1M in punitive damages?

 

IANAL, but it appears that the compensatory damages were  $300K, so $1M would not be much outside the standard punitive standard of 3X (treble?) damages,  This would seem to indicate that the jury found that beyond just being responsible, that they knew (or should have known) that they were doing a big no-no.  Not many details in the story though.

[food mom]

Thank-you. True, not many Details, but that's typical media today. It will probably end up like the McDonald's coffee case, where the punitive damages awarded were found to be excessive, and so reduced by a judge,

[Yiannos]

6 minutes ago, marktfrau said:

Thank-you. True, not many Details, but that's typical media today. It will probably end up like the McDonald's coffee case, where the punitive damages awarded were found to be excessive, and so reduced by a judge,

 

I'm no fan of our sue-happy society by any stretch, but I too thought the McDonald's case was a bit of a sham... Until I learned a bit about it and saw the injury, this woman did suffer an incredible amount due to the extreme temperature of the coffee.

[food mom]

Agreed, but if you were sold a beverage that was scalding hot, would you really put it between your legs and start to drive off?

Hard to say, but if the grill Station used wire brushes that continuously shed wires, I'd bet that Chef (or an appointed person) laid into the supplier so that this Kind of Thing wouldn't happen.

 

[pastrygirl]

How does grill brush end up in a braised dish?

[food mom]

Fusion cuisine.

[Anna N]

Cross-contamination.