[Sca-cooks] Safety

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

From: "Kirsten Houseknecht" <kirsten at fabricdragon.com>
>yeah.. i have only rarely seen gloves in use in a non commercial kitchen....
>i dont think EVER in a SCA kitchen....... but most of them made us wash
>really good.

I bring boxes of 2 sizes of gloves (the plastic replacement for
latex, i think, since many folks have or develop latex allergies) to
my kitchens and offer them to my workers - i got them at a local
commercial cooking supply place.

I have never *made* anyone wear them. Only a couple people have ever
used them. Should i be being more forceful? I don't wear them, but
i'm always washing my hands.

>i am afraid that many people are starting to use the hand goo as a
>substitute for washing *and it isnt*.

So, if all of this is true, then i should be having my workers (and
myself, of course) first do the hand goo thing, then wash, then put
on gloves? I'm just trying to get clear on the best safety
precautions.

I also try to watch over my workers to make sure they're not cross
contaminating stuff, but i can't see what everyone is doing all the
time, because i'm in there cooking too - and checking the progress of
the other dishes - and overseeing dishing and a bit of the serving. I
have stopped a number of people from putting a spoon used to stir one
pot into another - and i make sure we have enough spoons, so no one
needs to be used twice.

I suspect we don't have enough cutting boards (which i don't use for
the meat, just the fruit and vegetable stuff). The kitchens i've been
cooking in have had stainless steel counters, which are relatively
easy to clean. We aren't doing much meat cutting - cutting on steel
would be bad for knives, i assume. And i rinse off the boards after
cutting stuff for one dish, but i don't know if this is good enough...

I put lists of dishes and their ingredients on each table, to warn
those with allergies.

So far, no one has gotten sick from my cooking and food handling, but
i don't want there to be a first time, if i can help it.

Anahita