OLYMPICS / Spotlight

Story of an Olympic chef
By Yang Jie
Chinadaily.com.cn Staff Writer
Updated: 2008-08-12 16:17

 

Mizhi Niuzaigu, another signature dish of China People's Palace Hotel, is ready to be served. Mizhi Niuzaigu is made by braising beef and beef bones with honey juice made following recipes exclusively owned by China People's Palace Hotel. [On the Courtesy of China People's Palace Hotel]

Where do you get your food ingredients? Are they organic?

We chefs put forward a list of the materials we need and then we have the Material Purchase Department help us buy the ingredients.

We have long term suppliers and all our food material is organic. I think this is a basic requirement for restaurants which want to produce healthy dishes.

When we get the food material from the Material Purchase Department, we chefs will double check the material to make sure that they are not rotten.

If we don't use up all materials in one day, we will store these materials properly. And the second day we will use these materials first. Of course before using them, we will check them to make sure they are still in a good condition.

How do you keep the kitchen clean?

We have an A rating from the Beijing Health Bureau, indicating that we are doing a pretty good job in hygiene.

For the kitchen area specifically, we have all-round cleanings each day both before we start working in the kitchen in the morning and after we finish all work in the kitchen in the afternoon. Besides, we also have large-scale thorough cleanings of the whole kitchen once a week.

Our kitchen is 400 square meters, equipped with sophisticated sanitation hardware. We have a whole set of steam sterilization facilities. All dishware will be stored in high temperature sterile cabinet after being washed and disinfected.

For the food, we put different labels on raw, half cooked and fully cooked food, and store them separately.

How do you keep the dining hall clean?

Apart from routine daily cleaning, we have special pest control every month in summer. So our restaurant is absolutely totally free from any rats or cockroaches. The Dining Hall Department is especially responsible for the cleaning of dining hall.

Do you have special regulations regarding the health of staff working here?

Only those who are able to present a Beijing Health Permit can work in our restaurant. We also give our employees annual health checks.

Besides, each morning we check all our chefs on job and keep record of their health conditions.

If we have a chef catching flu or cutting his finger, we will either ask him to go home to rest or move him to other suitable position based on his condition.

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