howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i think i will take the guide seriously, i know i am being picky but i like to know for sure if the "special fried mice" on the menu is an error made by the printers.
The worse place I ever worked was a very well known London restaurant , I remeber one night a waitress tripped and dropped a freshly cooked steak into a swill bin , the chef swore roundly at her , fished it out rinsed it under the hot tap and sent it out . I can also remember the kitchen staff soaking rotten salad in steralizing fluid and rinsing them off to remove the taste
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
My son who did a course in car mechanics at South Kent Tech was inexplicably sent for his first job interview to a restaurant near the Market Square by the Careers Service!!
Like all male teenagers he wasn't particularly fussy about cleanliness but was appalled at the state of the kitchen.
I hope it's improved.
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
My wife used to work in the environmental health department at DDC, we went to the restaurants the inspectors ate in by choice.
Howard's joke about special fried mice isn't an urban myth

Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
Just a quickie on this. The list is far from exhaustive. There are a number of omissions so is it just provisional? There are a large number of pubs that serve food that aren't there for example.
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i noticed a lot were missed, difficult to wade through with any establishment with "dove or dover" included.
I used the postcode search option Howard that narrows it down
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
I put in a central area postcode. Some take-aways were there but no pubs.
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I used all 3 CT15, CT16, CT17 , I dont remember loads of pubs but there where a few , The Albert got 5 stars
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
The fact that this pub scored 5/5 highlights the box-ticking nature of the scheme.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/della-callagher-husbands-grief-over-1517756I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
I don't read anything in that story Peter that brings the rating system into question. A broader menu and a higher rate of bookings might have had more to do with it, along with the hiring of temporary kitchen staff.
It's hard to see what the Hospital could have done differently in the circumstances.
Of course given the terrible cost of hiring staff...let alone affording them the time to be trained in any particular preferred methods of operation...does tend to encourage some to squeeze a quart into a pint pot.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Just like the driving test Tom. You can pass with flying colours one day then kill someone the next.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Testing does that...all the time. Alas any chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.
I thought the rating scheme was to encourage outlets to improve, though attempting to turn working kitchens into surgical theatres is no guarantee of food safety, getting the basics right gives the best chance.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
............"Our kitchens are monitored regularly through internal checks and independent external audits. In fact the pub holds a five-star hygiene rating under the Food Standards Association (FSA) National Rating Scheme, the highest rating that can be awarded by the FSA.".........
What Peter says in #50 is true especially if you happen to know an inspection is due to take place. Something went very wrong in the preparation, the cooking or the storing for so many to be struck down by food poisoning.
Tom, the very things you mention with regards to the kitchen should make no difference.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
C. perfringens is often found in turkeys. Proper cooking destroys it but to be sure, you should never:
1. Cook a large turkey at a low oven temperature overnight, the internal temperature may rise so slowly that the bugs multiply and produce toxins before being killed off.
2. Stuff the main cavity, except with flavouring ingredients which you aren't going to eat. Raw stuffing in a large bird will never be fully cooked until the bird itself is thoroughly overdone.
3. Put the cooked bird back in the fridge without removing all stuffing. The time it takes to chill through to the centre will get a lovely bacteria farm going.
4. Cook a frozen turkey without ensuring it is fully thawed.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i know precious little about food hygiene but even i knew that about turkeys. back in the 70's the firm i worked for used to give the staff a massive turkey at christmas to complement our profit share bonus.
the farmer who delivered stapled a piece of paper with items 1, 2 and 3 on the carrier bag of each turkey, no.4 did not apply.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Howard, you should watch out - Reg, Tom and Keef will put a contract out on you. Profit? Bonus? What an admission!

I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
actually peter it was more like a privatised workers co-operative if there was such a thing. the people who owned cared little about punctuality, dress code and any other red tape just in how much dosh you made. the premises were a disused ww2 raf nissan hut so costs were kept low. who bothers about working conditions when they are young and money is to be made.
i remember one christmas my bonus was just over half my annual salary and it was a laugh a minute working there too, not like some of the strait laced politically correct offices of today.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Privatised? You better look out for that little red dot on your chest when you go out in future.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Bindi? Done that, got the album?
On the other hand anyone who get in the sights of the Right needs a friend...to tell him when the red dot shows up on his back.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.