Food Code Violations at Mara-a-Lago
Palm Beach, Florida
April 15, 2017
By Sean Overpeck (CFE)
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| Picture courtesy of Fortune Magazine |
The national landmark estate built in 1927 known as Mara-a-Lago just outside Palm Beach is a place of prestige, a private member club envisioned by its creator the heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. She saw the house as a future winter retreat for American Presidents and foreign dignitaries however, successive presidents declined to use the mansion after her death in 1973. That is until 2017 with the inauguration of the 45th President Donald Trump, who back in 1985 purchased the 126 room estate and golf club, that he now calls The Southern White House, versus going to Camp David for his retreats. The private house for the Trump family is separate from the club and guest rooms that is more like a private hotel than it is a club. With all that prestige the last thing you would think about is thirteen food code violations in the kitchen restaurant.
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Being in the food service industry for the past twenty years, I have prided myself on cleanliness. After all you're handling food that other people are going to eat, and the last thing you want is to be fired, fined, or imprisoned because you poisoned someone with food, or worse like Mohammed Khalique Zaman owner of the Indian Garden restaurant in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom who killed a patron who had a nut allergy. So when I came across the article from the UK Telegraph, I was shocked, but not surprised. It seems daily now that another restaurant is in the news or a product is being recalled because of some sort of illness. You can almost call it a war.
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| Picture courtesy of AOL.com |
My training in food service started at Fort Lee, Virginia at the Army Food Service Quartermaster Corps Joint Culinary Training Center. Before this I worked odd jobs while still in school at fast food places, but didn’t really know anything about food safety. Day one at the Army school before you picked up a recipe or began scrambling eggs, you washed your hands. Then you were introduced to the Tri-Services directorate Army Technical Bulletin Medical 530 (TB MED 530 for short). This is a very strict doctrine that goes into great details about food safety, what to do, and what not to do. It works hand in hand with the US food and Drug Administrations (FDA) Food Code, which makes updates every four years with the most recent edition published in 2013.
Through the Army school, my time in the military, and later on working as a contractor you were taught the importance of food safety and the dangers of spreading foodbourne illnesses. The main things to remember were to keep your area properly cleaned, keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Those three basics would keep you out of trouble most of the time. The TB MED like the US Food Code and other publications like ServSafe from the National Restaurant Association are designed as training and reference guides to keeping the food and your customers safe. Yet according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), every year in the United States alone there are 48 million cases of foodbourne illness every year resulting in 120,000+ hospitalizations, and over 3000 deaths. 48 million out of a population of 324 million. That number is extremely staggering.
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| Picture courtesy of NBC News |
This number at the same time does not surprise me. When I worked at small restaurants in Georgia outside of Atlanta, and up in Canton, Ohio I saw the level of how filthily some of these restaurants were, and wondered ho they ever past a health inspection. One of the restaurants I worked at in Ohio that I thought was disgustingly sick is on the TripAdvisor top 10 best restaurants in the city list, that is scary.
At the same time, another reason why these numbers are no surprise is the industry itself. People think of a wonderful restaurant experience and expect miracles of creation like they see on the Food Network, yet never look behind the doors of reality. The industry is a very low wage one, where many people hired are immigrants, who lack the knowledge of personal hygiene, and barely understand a word of English, making training next to impossible. Can it be done, yes, but you need lots of help to do it, while trying to maintain your operation. When I contracted for several companies in Afghanistan from 2009-13 in food service, they hired third country nationals mainly from India, Nepal, and the Philippines. They were also required under contract to hire local nationals.
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| 1987 at Mara-a-Lago - picture courtesy of Vanity Fair |
Getting these people to wash there hands and take a shower was challenging enough. Then once you found a way to tach them, or use an interpreter to pass on the instruction, giving them on the job training, they just went back to the way they wanted to do things when you turned your back. Teach them to properly dice a vegetable, then on your day off, or when your in the dining room, they massacre and chop the crap out of it. Teach an Iraqi how to properly use a broom to sweep, then mop the floor with the proper ratio of soap and water, then you walk away and there mopping and sweeping at the same time with the mop, and little cleaner in the bucket. There are thousands of examples. Most them also knew that by contract we had to hire them, so they could get away with it, without hardly any repercussions. The Indian work force knew that it took months to bring in a replacement and get them medically and security vetted, so they had the same attitude.
Well, why not hire an American for the job? It is an american contract using american tax payers money right? In Antarctica the contract under the National Science Foundation required American workers only. So why not the Afghanistan or Iraq? The operation is bigger, feeding more people, but why? Simple - money. An American worker costs high five figures for salary in overseas contracting plus a large fee for medical and security screening. An Indian or other third country national gets paid under 20,000 a year. You can hire five of them for the cost of one American. The contracts don’t specify to hire only people from certain countries like the National Science Foundation contract stated. It just says in shorter words to get the job done. How many cases of illness are there from Afghanistan during the war years? Who knows, but over 100 got sick from turkey cooked incorrectly in Kandahar in 2012, and at the Bagram Air Base, the nickname “The Bagram Bug” went around when you were feeling ill, and most of the time it was food related. Not from bad quality food, just under-trained people who cut corners.
So, what were some of the health code violations found among the thirteen at Mar-a-Lago inspection on January 26, 2017? Meats not stored at the right temperature, raw fish that had not undergone proper parasite destruction, and two kitchen coolers that were "not maintained in good repair”. Meaning that they weren’t holding proper temperature levels to maintain cold food under 41°f. Violations also include fish intended to be served raw that had not had the right parasite destruction.
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| Picture courtesy of mypalmbeachcoast.com |
Inspectors said the fish be fully cooked or discarded. Come on Chef, put more lemon juice on that damn thing. There was ham at 57°f, beef at 50°f, duck at 50°f, and chicken at 49°f. According to the report a Mar-a-Lago technician said the cooler was on defrost and he had "corrected the problem”. Other violations included an employee hand wash sink where water was not hot enough. The standard is a temperature of 110°f for hand washing. Three of the violations were classed as "high priority" meaning they "could contribute directly to a foodbourne illness”. According to the report,those found on the Jan 26 inspection were "corrected on site" at the time.
President Trump is according to the article a self-described germaphobe, and he was once quoted as saying: "One bad hamburger and you can destroy McDonald’s.” What about thirteen violations at the winter home where dignitaries such as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Chinese President XI Jinping have visited? That would have been one hell of public relations disaster, trying to explain why we poisoned a foreign head of state because the cooks could not follow the simple and basic protocols of food safety. The moral of the story is that no matter what country you are from, your level of education, what you're being paid by the hour, when you have a job as important as a food handler, be safe. Learn the correct way and do the right thing. In any restaurant, cafe, or dining facility either in the private business world, hotel, or government contract, food safety in everyones responsibility. If you have to raise your prices or increase the fees of your contract to hire more people, or more qualified people, then in the beginning the client may shrug and look down on you, but in the end it will save you more than you can imagine.
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| President Donald Trump withPresident XI Jinping, picture courtesy of The Hive |
Take the time, do the right thing, train your people, and be safe. This was at the President of the United States winter home, so don’t think that it can’t happen where you are as well.
Keep up to date with food Safety News here. I uses this sight for many trainings, and to keep up with the latests bugs and violations.
****
The worlds best, based on my list of restaurants reviewed and rated at 4 or more stars. From the 300 published reviews as of March 2017, less than 15% hold that prestigious ranking of 4 or 5 stars, meaning that the visit was an outstanding or extraordinary experience. I have dined at restaurants on five continents from cafes, chains, and fine dining best of the world Michelin rated locations. Not all of the worlds best ratings are the same as mine.
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American-Global Molecular Menu
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Quintessential Modern Australian Cuisine
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High Rise Fine Global Dining, Highest Restaurant In The World
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Posh French + A Culinary Experimentalism
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Inspired Farm-to-Table Dining
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So many great wines in this world, here are a few boutiques, cult wines, and favorites:
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A 1756 Estate Famed Rubicon Blend
Stellenbosch, South Africa
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Big, Bold, Cult Cabernets
Oakville, California, USA
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Screaming Eagles Sister
Santa Barbara, California, USA
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Agincourt, Waterloo, Salamanca
Yarra Valley, Australia
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Boutique Producers of Pinot Noir
Willamette, Oregon
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Old Huguenot Style Shiraz & Cabernets
Franschhoek, South Africa
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A Cru Bourgeois Supérieur
Cussac-Fort-Médoc, Bordeaux, France
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World Class Oregon Pinot Noir
Willamette, Oregon
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20+ Blue Ridge Handcrafted Wines
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
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Domaine Bertagna
13th Century Cistercian -1er Cru Les Cras
Vougeot, Burgundy, France
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Exceptional Cult Sauvignon Blanc & Cabernets
Yountville, California
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Not Kehlsteinhaus, Exceptional Shiraz
Constantia, South Africa
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Reviewed by:
Sean Overpeck (CFE)
Executive Chef
Father, Husband, Wine Drinker
Restaurant nut, History and
Star Trek lover
Picture below was taken in 2010
At Bagram Air Base with actor
James Gandolfini 1961-2013
About Sean:
I am based out of St. Petersburg, Florida working in the food service industry for over twenty years, and am currently with the American Embassy as the Executive Chef. Formally I have worked with groups contracting in Afghanistan, and Antarctica, also working in restaurants in and around Atlanta, Georgia prior to the wars. I have also owned a catering company and served proudly in the United States Army Food Service Program. The idea for Wine, Dine, and Play started in late 2012 after a trip to Jordan, when I was asked by friends to write down the experiences from a few restaurants, wine from the region that I tasted, and locations of interest such as Petra. Since that time, over 300 articles have been written, including fifteen restaurants from the worlds top 100 lists of San Pellegrino and the Elite Travelers Guide. There are articles on exotic world locations such as Victoria Falls, and South African Safari’s; food recipes & Grand Food Dictionaries; ethnic country cuisines such as Afghan, and Peruvian; tasting tours of world cities like Charleston, Cape Town, and Dubai; and of course wine from vineyards in California, Oregon, the Carolina’s, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, with much more to see and write about.
Who is John Galt?
“Culinary perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things,
But in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
-Angelique Arnauld (1591-1661)
Other articles of interest on Wine, Dine, and Play:
Shark Cage Diving in Gansbaai, South Africa
The Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, UAE
(Articles coming soon)
Petra, Jordan
A Taste of Dubai
A Taste of South Africa vol 1 & 2
Wine, Dine, And Play’s “best of” List
FOB Shank - Cooking with Incoming
My Favorite Restaurants and Wine
TTFN
