Friendly Bacteria?

This morning’s Saturday Kitchen has only just started, and a major cross-contamination incident has already been perpetrated by guest chef Paul Rankin.

Chef Rankin is preparing a guinea fowl dish, which he recommends as a christmas dinner for two – such a tempting idea. Having prepared the raw bird on a wooden chopping board, stuffing crushed garlic and sprigs of thyme loosely into the cavity, he throws it enthusiastically into a heavy-based pan of sizzling butter, and then transfers it to a hot oven.

He then proceeds to wipe down the board with a tea-towel, and then wipes his hands on it for good measure. The next shot is of him and AWT poking a bowl of wild mushrooms with those self-same raw poultry contaminated fingers.

But it’s not too late! After all, the mushrooms are going to be thoroughly cooked, and he may yet switch that wooden chopping board for a clean one… And here’s one he prepared earlier: a succulent little guinea fowl, fresh from the oven… and straight on to the chopping board. Cooked poultry is now being handled with the raw poultry hands. Chef Rankin tops up his unfriendly bacteria by wiping his hands on the evil tea-towel, and starts to dismember the cooked bird.

I have two recommendations:

• Colour-coded chopping boards. This is not a new concept; where has Chef Rankin been for the last 20 years, that he has managed not to learn a thing about cross-contamination? And AWT should know better, since his faithful and adoring viewers call into the show every time this happens. His chunky wooden chopping boards give a lovely homely cooking-is-simple feel to the show, but still don’t convey the importance of good food hygiene practices.
• Paper towels: wipe once and dispose. This is one area in which I do not advocate reuse and recycle.

I should not have to be lecturing such people about food hygiene; won’t somebody please think of the children?