Sales Marketability of Canoe - Essay Example

The LA County restaurant grading ordinance will be the primary means used to measure how food handling, storage, and preparation are carried out at the Canoe premises, although some other general observations will be made.

When I arrived at the Canoe location, I observed how busy the kitchen was when preparing for the lunch service. This tends to suggest that demand in the local area is high and Aqua can adequately keep up with high demand.  Furthermore, all of the kitchen staff were dressed in bright, clean uniforms. Appearance is everything when it comes to making food, even if many of the cooks are never seen by the patrons.

Unfortunately, this is where the successful practices stopped. I felt a little warm while in the kitchen, so took off my coat only to realize that the kitchen thermometer read 73 degrees F. What I witnessed next shocked me completely; a large frozen turkey was defrosting in a dish on the counter. This violates two components of the LA County restaurant grading ordinance. The first is that the temperature should have been no higher than 70 degrees F. The second is that the ordinance only allows frozen food to be thawed under running water at no higher than the previously mentioned temperature. This is in gross violation of the ordinance and could result in severe penalties if an inspector witnessed this event.

Apart from the issue with the turkey defrosting on the counter, the assistant head chef was preparing a chicken casserole and beef vegetable soup when I noticed that the woman did not wash an instrument when switching from the preparation of one type of meat to the other. Once again, this violates the ordinance in two instances; equipment must be cleaned between uses and the temperature should not be in the danger zone (40 degrees F to 140 degrees F). One positive action that I witnessed was that the chef and all his assistants were wearing gloves, yet none of them were wearing hair nets. The ordinance requires safety hair nets, gloves, and clean uniforms at all times; the Canoe premises only adheres to two of these and does not employ safety hair nets.

Despite these violations, there were some instances that I witnessed the ordinance being upheld, such as the items in the refrigerator, freezer, and dry storage room being stored in sealed containers, the temperature of the dry storage room was well within the guidelines of 50 degrees F to 70 degrees F (at 66 degrees F), humidity in the room was between 50-60% (at 55%). However, the sealed containers in the refrigerator and freezer were not labeled or dated, both of which are required by the ordinance. Also, there were no individual thermometers in either the refrigerator or freezer. Again, this is something required by the ordinance.

Overall, I would say that the Canoe premises will not be ready to be sold for at least another three weeks. This time is required to make sure that the restaurant complies with the LA County restaurant grading ordinance. Once these changes are made, then I feel confident that a buyer would be interested in purchasing the store.