CMC inspection of city restaurants

kolkata: business was as usual in the park street restaurants on wednesday afternoon. the sudden visit of mayor-in-counil javed khan to three popular restaurants have left them unperturbed and has conveniently been ruled off as a routine check up. the visit revealed much about the unhygienic conditions in restaurant kitchens. the stipulated guidelines in the maintenance of hygiene and sanitation laid down by calcutta municipal corporation have been grossly violated by the restaurants.however most restaurants denied having dirty kitchens and said that they are always ready for such annual check ups. manager, bar-b-q, steven chow says, "we have to work on certain parts of the guidelines like vaccinating the kitchen staff but otherwise we do maintain basic hygiene factors. the we also have to take care of the quality of water used and sanitary conditions." certainly the five star hotel kitchens are better off with their larger deep freezers which help better preservation of stocked food. says chow, who himself had been in taj bengal, "new food joints red hot chilli peppers and mainland china have kitchens as good as the five star ones. but now even we are concentrating the basic guidelines given to us by cmc because customers have become more particular about the quality of the food. besides five star kitchens have a certain atmosphere which is possible because of the trained diploma holders who maintain a hugh standard of hygiene and work and also the advanced equipment used." peter cat, another restaurant on park street also had a sudden cmc isit last year. the manager says, "there was absolutely no problem in cmc's visit last year because they do conduct such visits every year. we have the biggest ktichen and it is absolutely hygienic in all respects." director, amber restaurant, said, "foreigners often make it a point to check the kitchen for which we have to be cautious. a regular check by the authorities is a good measure to maintain basic hygiene. the park street restaurants mostly are on rent so they cannot do up their kitchen as the landlords create problems. lack of space is a problem due to whcih the kitch gets clutters and dirty." he also added, "washing areas and refrigeration have to checked regularly." a relatively new joint like mainland china adheres to standards which are their own. manager, jayanta chatterjee says, "we see to it that the chefs wear caps, cut their nails and that attendants are clean shaven. raw materials used are fresh and that the oil used is hygienic."