Did Cooking Demo at My Cluster Meeting.. :O(

[rennea]

BummerSorry this happened to you!! Try to find positive in it, everyone there should have said at least one nice thing but with that said now food safe is on the mind which is a GOOD THING. In my kitchen at work we would never use the same towel twice. (or at home) Maybe try to bring a sani gel to your shows and if you catch yourself touching your face use that to sani. Remember safety first!! At home I change my towel twice a day. One for drying hands, one for dishes and always have a spare towel if I'm cooking/baking. And I use paper towels all the time.
"Staff." infection is spreadable and easy to do so. When people get a food born illness this is usually the bacteria that makes them sick. This is something that I am always telling my chefs about. They scratch there nose, touch there hair etc...............

As for getting sued, interesting I think that she is a twit!! And for sure next meeting she should have to do the demo!! Keep your head up!!
Think of this as learning something very important

 

[rennea]

BummerSorry this happened to you!! Try to find positive in it, everyone there should have said at least one nice thing but with that said now food safe is on the mind which is a GOOD THING. In my kitchen at work we would never use the same towel twice. (or at home) Maybe try to bring a sani gel to your shows and if you catch yourself touching your face use that to sani. Remember safety first!! At home I change my towel twice a day. One for drying hands, one for dishes and always have a spare towel if I'm cooking/baking. And I use paper towels all the time.
"Staff." infection is spreadable and easy to do so. When people get a food born illness this is usually the bacteria that makes them sick. This is something that I am always telling my chefs about. They scratch there nose, touch there hair etc...............

As for getting sued, interesting I think that she is a twit!! And for sure next meeting she should have to do the demo!! Keep your head up!!
Think of this as learning something very important

 

[baychef]

Sorry that this happened to you. I bet everyone learned something good from your demo and learned how not to handle a situation that the director found in error. Doing a demo in front of everyone is a very intimidating experience. You feel like those that have been doing this longer may not learn something new or that you may make a mistake. That is really not the case, however! No matter where we are in our business, we can always learn something new
.
If I was in your director's shoes and felt the way she did, I would have handled it in a different manner. I went to a new consultant's first show and was horrified when she licked a spoon during her demo!!! How did I handle it?
I made up training sheet on proper food handling, sanitation, etc. taken from The Pampered Chef Recipe for Success. I did not point it out to the consultant because she was so nervous and I wanted her to not get discouraged in her business. There are ways of handling things that we may think inappropreate.
Not sure if wiping your knife on the clean towel was all that bad, but I have a 30 year Food Service career and have been a trainer for a 10 hour Restaurant Association Sanitation course.

Here are the facts:
Each state has their own health regulations and,yes, a customer that can prove that you served food that caused them to have food poisoning CAN sue the establishment that served them the food. Whether this applies to us as demonstrators, I am not sure.
The largest cause of food borne illness are humans. Many of us do not realize when we touch our faces, etc. To point this out in front of others is humiliating. If I notice that I have touched my face or touched the trash can, etc., I do stop my demo and wash my hands with soap and water before proceeding.
Am I germaphonbic...absolutely not! However, what we do in our own homes is our own business. When we are dealing with food on a professional basis, we must be very aware of everything we do.
Also, I have heard many hosts say: "I would never have that consultant back because she dropped a tool on the floor and just rinsed it off"...or I have heard of one that just picked it up off the floor and started using it in her demo again!
Also, I have heard that someone's tools were dirty and they will never have that person demo again.
We have all heard and maybe used the "5 second rule" in our homes...I can guarentee that when you are handling food to serve to others...there is a different perspective taken.

If you have ever had or known someone who has experienced a food borne illness, they will tell you that no matter how much they like the food, they probably aren't going to eat there again. Are we a restaurant? No, but you probably will lose business if something ever did happen.

All of this is a matter of training but not public criticism like what you have experienced. Just as the last post said, think of this as learning something very important...not just on food handling but on how to handle people! Sanitation is a very boring subject...especially the microbiology of food borne illness. But learning how bacteria, viruses, etc. can spread and make people ill is a real eye opener.

 

[Evelynt]

I was watching a "Kitchen Show Live" video once, and the consultant was Ferile Yan (sp?). She is one of PC's top consultants. Well, she wiped her nose with her towel! I laughed so hard. We are all human. Things like this certainly make us aware of everything we do at our cooking shows.
I say move on and keep having fun!
PS my in laws are from Glasgow Scotland. The name is Thackaberry.