The new health inspector in Great Barrington, Massachusetts is a former chef with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America and decades of experience in both New York City and the Berkshires. Stephen Browning has spent the last decade running the kitchen of farm-to-table restaurant the Prairie Whale, now one of over 130 establishments he’ll be charged with inspecting for the town. Browning will be tasked with making sure that anyone serving food in the Southern Berkshire community is up to state and local standards for cleanliness. He spoke with WAMC.
BROWNING: I think I know all the secrets, and I think inspectors do a good job and they always have. A lot of times they don't come from a background like I have. So, I think, sometimes people think they're- They enforce the law, which is what the job is. But I think sometimes chefs might feel like, or cooks may feel like they're being picked on, it's a little unfair, like, oh, they don't know what they're talking about. I think it's nice just to kind of have that understanding of what they're going through, and I think I see things that other people might not, or the things that might be like, oh, that's a red flag, or maybe an inspector might not see it as red flag or- I just think sometimes when you're going by the book, you don't see the gray areas or anything like that.
WAMC: What are some areas that maybe some folks are able to coast by on that, hopefully, you'll be able to bring more scrutiny to?
I think Great Barrington does a really good job and they do, and always have done, two or three inspections a year, so the restaurants are ready for it. I'm not really sure if I'm going to see much that they weren't seeing. But I think it's just easier for me to kind of relate or see, like, oh, that is wrong, like that fish should be not there.
What are some misconceptions about kitchen cleanliness that maybe you can address in the community with your expertise in that realm?
I always like to work in a, I was raised in a professional environment and cleanliness was always a big part of it. A lot of times if it's like, not someone's professional, if it's not their professional job, or they didn't go through the right training, or- That's why Great Barrington is really good with, or the state is really good with making sure people have ServSafe and allergy awareness, because the more people that are better aware with those certification just brings up the overall education of the people working in the kitchens. But I think if you come to it from not that background, where it's what you want to do for a living, or I want to be a chef, these are my goals, and it's just a job, I think like a lot of that can get lost. Overall, I think, the more people are getting those certifications, even if that's the bare minimum, I think that's better for overall kitchen cleanliness, and just knowledge of how things should be. I don’t think everybody goes into cooking jobs knowing all of the cross-contamination aspects and things like that. So a lot of times, you know, when you hire somebody in a kitchen, you have to train them on all these things, it doesn't just come- You don't just know all these things innately. Temperatures, storing things correctly, and you know, how to do everything correctly. And I think, to do everything correctly, it takes someone in charge to really monitor the kitchen and have pride in it being that way. I perceive this job as a lot of education, and helping people instead of smacking their hand and telling them they're doing everything wrong.
What do you think is likely to be one of the most common things you'll encounter inspecting the kitchens of Great Barrington?
I just think it's like little things a lot of times, I think. You go into a kitchen, there's no hand soap at the sink, or there's no paper towels, or maybe they don't have their ServSafe manager. I think it's like mostly little things like that. I think, from my perspective and people before me, I can read all the inspection sheets, seems like everybody does a pretty good job, and just kind of the just normal monitoring, and a lot of times kitchens, maybe they have food on the floor in the walk-in because they ran out of space because it's the middle of the summer and they just don't have space to store everything. And, things like that I imagine would be more- Refrigerators on the line being a little warm, you know, stuff like that. I imagine just kind of the day-to-day things that you kind of can't help when you're a busy restaurant would be the things that I would have to cite on and things like that, which I understand because it happens everybody. What I find too is, the more you prepare food yourself, or a from-scratch restaurant, the easier it is to have some violations, because you're handling things more, it's coming in and out of the walk-in more. So, a restaurant that might have everything coming from freezer, they won't have any violations. It might not be the food you want to eat, but, you know, the restaurant where they're making everything themselves, then they might have a little more trouble keeping everything at temp and things like that in the hot months. I think it's kind of funny, because the people in my eyes that would be doing it right, sometimes by the law would have violations because of maybe time and temperature stuff.
If you were to sum up the approach you're trying to bring to the health inspector job, how would you describe that approach?
I think my approach would be understanding and just trying to educate people. It's about being safe and having people educated to have safe environments. And my main idea would be that people could work cleaner and keep their spaces cleaner and more organized and just to do everything right and professional, I think is the best, what I would look for, and I would hope to bring education and just kind of, I hope I could bring understanding or at least people when I'm inspecting them could say like, oh yeah, this this guy did run restaurants and he does really know and can relate to us and I know that's easier said than done because once I leave, I left to the evil side, but you know, I just think it's a good opportunity to kind of be a good face for the town and just enforce, but be a fair person for the town and just make sure the restaurants are keeping up and staying great.
