Michelin chef turns up heat in row over pink chicken livers
TV cook defends cooking practice after council inspectors slash hygiene rating at his restaurant
A MICHELIN-STARRED chef has become embroiled in a row with food safety inspectors over how to cook chicken livers.
Mark Sargeant, who has appeared on TV shows including Saturday Cookbook, Saturday Kitchen and This Morning, lost the top food hygiene rating at one of his restaurants after inspectors criticised a chef for leaving livers “pink”.
A report, by Shepway council, found that the practices at Rocksalt restaurant in Folkestone, could lead to an “unsafe product”.
Mr Sargeant told The Daily Telegraph that a chef had told the inspector the “wrong thing” but he felt the decision to cut the rating from five to two was “very harsh”.
He said: “The skill of a very good kitchen – you get a beautiful set chicken liver pâté with a beautiful flush going through it which obviously comes about from cooking it at a certain temperature. But it’s cooked, it’s completely safe. The guidelines that environmental health officers set out, it’s like saying you can’t have a rare burger. Every chef in the country would question certain things. Obviously there are guidelines you need to stick by without a doubt. We’re completely over the safety of our customers and staff.”
Mr Sargeant added that a “well done chicken liver is like eating rancid, crumbly paste”. He also criticised the rules for dictating how steak tartare should be cooked.
“We know that food guidelines are there to help us, but in any professional kitchen such as ours they are a normal part of our job,” he said. “We also know that you’re no longer allowed to serve burgers rare and indeed the law has now deemed that we can’t enjoy a steak tartare without searing the outside first and then scraping it off before chopping it up! Now it appears that we are no longer allowed to cook chicken livers pink. Something I have grown up with and learnt since college.”
The council report makes clear that the chicken livers were the reason for the change in rating. A chicken liver pâté appears on the restaurant’s menu, priced at £8.25 and served alongside wild garlic capers, pickled shallots and sherry vinegar caramel.
The report stated: “Time/temperature combinations for cooking of chicken livers/chicken liver pâté were not followed. Core temperatures of some products were not routinely monitored using a probe (e.g. chicken livers).” It added the restaurant was failing to follow its own food safety plan: the “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point” (HACCP) procedures.
Mr Sargeant said the restaurant had asked for another inspection to restore the rating, which was due to take place within three months.
He added: “A shame mainly for my staff, who work so very, very hard to maintain the best standards. Let’s hope we get our surprise inspection soon and get back up to 5 again.”
On Scores on the Doors, a website which catalogues food hygiene ratings for restaurants, a response alongside the rating says: “We have requested a revisit and have addressed the single cooking technique deemed incorrect. We have urgently retrained all staff to our correct HACCP procedure”.
Rocksalt opened in 2011 and has been awarded two AA Rosettes. Mr Sargeant trained under Gordon Ramsay in London before opening the restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, earning a Michelin star in 2002.