Michael Jarrell

Sunni: [laughs] Yes it does! And I'd love to be your dessert supplier! That'd give me a good excuse to learn how to make baklava. Love that stuff ...

Michael: There ya go! Baklava and caramels as my dessert items!

Sunni: Since we're on the subject, did you see this article in the San Francisco Chronicle a while back, about unlicensed restaurants? That sure sounds like fun to me! [laughs]

Michael: Me, too! A couple of things really stood out for me in that piece, too. Most of the people running these places were chefs who just couldn't get the necessaries together for an officially sanctioned restaurant. That is telling. Sixty percent of all restaurants fail in the first year, many of them in the first six months. In order to make it as an officially sanctioned diner you need operating capital for at least one year. These folks run successful businesses without sanction and without these enormous overheads that are necessary for mainstream eateries. The other thing was the mention by the authorities that their rules were there to ensure the peace of mind of the consumer. Not really for any safety issues, just for peace of mind. Would your mind be at peace if you were invited to a dinner party for 20 at Mario Batali's home? That's what these places are essentially. Ptomaine happens. Even in the best restaurants there's going to come a day when a bad piece of duck slips by and whammo! I would love to eat in one of these places; I'd trust them a lot more than most places. I think I'd love to run one even more.

Sunni: I would think that anyone who reads that article would be able to see the blatant hypocrisy in food regulations. After all, home cooks have safely cooked for the people they love—and therefore are highly invested in keeping healthy—for thousands of years without state-approved equipment and procedures. The wholesale bad-mouthing of home kitchens in that piece is just ludicrous.

Michael: It is and it really does point up the problems with the way restaurants are treated by government. It's just graft more than anything. If they were going to enact anything—not that they should—a simple request that businesses have liability insurance should be the extent of it.

Sunni: Disliking the insurance racket as I do, I'd be okay with a proprietor who simply said, If you get sick from eating here I'll cover your medical costs, and not really care how he'd accomplish that. Having an escrow fund for that purpose would probably be a lot cheaper than ongoing insurance premiums.

Michael: An escrow account would work, too. The smart proprieter is going to have some way to cover his butt, because accidents do happen—just look at the recent spinach debacle. All it takes is one airborne germ to ruin a single piece of food. It's not necessarily a reflection on the kitchen or anything, it's just a fact that accidents happen.

Sunni: [laughs] Hey, did you get a copy of my interview notes or something? The recent mess with the E. coli outbreak tied to fresh spinach seems to me to be a very good example of the problem inherent in food regulations—they tend to make people lazy, or careless. It used to be that people knew that no matter how clean fresh vegetables looked, it was a good idea to wash them. Now, with mandates for everything from hand-washing to acceptable levels of bacteria and other kinds of contamination in food products, many people seem to think that because a bag of greens says it's clean, they shouldn't check for freshness or rinse them. Or worse, if someone has their hair pulled back and gloves on their hands, they're good for doing food service cleanly. It's just crazy.

Michael: You're back to a matter of trust here. Do you trust Mega Veggie Corp to provide you with sanitary produce? Sure, I do. But an extra rinse, to rehydrate and restore your produce, doesn't hurt. Hair nets and gloves do not translate to sanitary practices or good food. Shoot, look at your average cafeteria ... Yick!