I think most of us agree that food safety and sanitation is very important. When we choose to dine out rather than cook our own meals, we are entrusting another person with our food. For the most part we don’t know what goes on in a restaurant kitchen but we expect the cooks to follow proper sanitary procedures, just as we would. Perhaps this is why California has passed a law which prohibits chefs from handling food with their bare hands. To a lot of people this would seem like a good idea. The though of someone handling our food makes us all a bit uneasy. We don’t know if our cook is as clean as us, if they happen to be sick the day we visit their restaurant, or even if they follow the “employees must wash hands” sign in the bathroom. Aside from putting our minds at ease, the point of the law is to make sure there is no contamination in our food which can make us sick.
Not everyone is happy about this new law which will begin to be enforced this summer. The primary critics are the chefs themselves; Many say forcing them to wear gloves will restrict them. It slows them down, wastes resources, and in general doesn’t feel natural. In my opinion they have a point; most of us don’t wear gloves when we cook our food. The chefs point out the law should only apply to fast food type places. I agree with them, i don’t really trust the average burger king teenage employee to be the cleanest person in handling my food. But if i go to a nice restaurant with professional chefs who went to culinary school i hold them to a different standard, and i trust them to be clean.