‘Poor kitchen practice’ rap for celebrity chef’s eatery
AFOOD hygiene inspector criticised celebrity chef Andrew Nutter’s new restaurant for risking food contamination due to ‘poor practices in the kitchen’.
The Observer reported last month how The Bird at Birtle gastropub in Heywood was handed a onestar food hygiene rating following an inspection on December 16.
No reasons for the low rating were published at the time by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) but out sister paper the M.E.N. has used Freedom of Information legislation to obtain the full report.
It shows the restaurant was using a vacuum packer for both raw meat and ready-to-eat foods and there were no plastic aprons or gloves.
The day after the council’s visit, the restaurant purchased a second vac- uum packer and new cling film dispensers, as well as plastic aprons – worn over normal aprons – and plastic gloves.
The restaurant was handed a food hygiene rating of one - the second lowest score - following the inspection, which meant ‘major improvement’ was necessary. The inspector noted cleanliness in the kitchen was ‘reasonable could be better’ while food handling practices were criticised.
They wrote: “Risk of indirect and direct crosscontamination due to poor practices in the kitchen.”
The report noted there were ‘no real controls in place’ in the kitchen’s ‘dual function area’ and suggested staff needed guidance on e-coli, a stomach bug, which ‘needs to be addressed’.
It said there was inadequate procedure for cooling foods while notes at the end of the report again referred to ‘poor practices and controls’ in the use of the vacuum packing machine.
The restaurant was launched following a £1m transformation in June last year.
A statement from Mr Nutter and his head chef Carl Tait added: “Upon the council’s first visit to our establishment we were scored well below the high standards that we set ourselves.
“We were missing numerous forms of documentation, training logs and risk assessments. This has now been rectified, all other recommendations that were provided to us at the time - the majority of which related to paperwork - have also been actioned.
“The restaurant has also purchased additional kitchen equipment to exceed recommendations from the council.
“We have worked closely with the council who have since revisited and are more than satisfied with the changes we’ve implemented. We are now awaiting a reinspection.
“By law the council have to wait for three months before an official re-inspection can occur. They will then visit the establishment randomly to re-score.”