Mario Batali’s Food Safety Director Disavows Any Talk Of A Health Inspector Alarm System

 

Health inspector alarm system secretly installed in all of Mario Batali’s restaurants? What health inspector alarm system secretly installed in all of Mario Batali’s restaurants? Anyone who believes that, according to Elizabeth Meltz of the Batali-Bastianich Hospitality Group, is a nincompoop or a Page Six propagandist (in so many words.)

Meltz, who is BBHG’s Director of Food Safety and Sustainability, posted a note on the company’s Facebook page in response to a New York Post article claiming that Batali installed an alarm to warn his cooks that they were about to receive a visit from the New York City Department of Health, and that they should probably go on break and throw out all their food, you know, just ’cause. This is not cool to Meltz, who would like you to know that her job, which might be the only such job that exists in NYC restaurants, is totally real, “unlike the phantom alarm system”:

Mario and Joe tasked me with developing HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) plans, which make us (NYC Department of Health, correct me if I am wrong here) the only restaurant group certified in the preparation of cured meats in the entire city. They enlisted me to create and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), conduct internal mock health inspections, renew restaurant and food handling permits, and go to scheduled meetings and appearances with the DOH if and when the occasion arises. I am responsible for making sure all of our chefs, sous chefs and managers are certified food handlers and on top of that, I teach quarterly food safety classes in each restaurant. In short, our team works together to do everything required to comply with all of the DOH rules and regulations and to maintain transparency at all of our restaurants.

Well, then! It looks like there’s ample proof here that a secret alarm system doesn’t exist, the company performs due diligence in maintaining their health standards, and that Elizabeth Meltz is in charge of making sure that all of the Batali-Bastianich restaurants pass muster, with “100% compliance, 100% of the time.”

That is, unless “Elizabeth Meltz” is the robot name of the computerized alarm system installed in all the Batali-Bastianich restaurants.

[Facebook via GrubStreet]

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