LONDON RESTAURANT KITCHENS

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8090, 7 January 1903, Page 4

LONDON RESTAURANT KITCHENS

As a very, considerable proportion of the population of 'London eats at least one meal a day in restaurants the investigations which several medical officers of health have recently been making regarding restaurant kitchens are matters of widespread interest, writes the Hospital. It is only lately that it lias now decided that they are under the operation of the Public Health Act, not so •much because customers' food is prepared in them as because cooks and scullions work in them. In the City of London Dr Collingridge reports that there are 279 restaurant kitchens, of which 211 are underground. In these work 553 men and 3041 women. Inspections have been made also in other districts, but these are the most important. It is to be regretted that the conditions of these kitchens left in many cases much to be desired. Many were dirty, some were ill-ventilated, and in some sanitary conveniences were either lacking or defective. Dr Dudfield noted that as a rule the workmen's dining-rooms had cleaner kitchens than those of higher pretensions, whic his good news for the working men, but.not for other pe&ple. Perhaps the fact that there is less variety of food to be prepared in them makes cleanliness easier. Moreover, in these restaurants the demand on tne attention of cooks and kit-chen-maids is not so continuous. The business comes with a rush, but it is soon over, and there is more to clear away before the next influx than in places where luncheon goes on almost until it is time for tea, and the demand for that does not cease until the preparations for dinner are in full swing. This, however, although an explanation, is no excuse for any lack of' cleanliness in biffher-priced restaurants. The charges made in them are surely sufficient to make it possible for the proprietors to engage a sufficient staff to keep their kitchens clean,, and also to pay for the necessary periodic renovations. Now that medical officers have the'right to enter and report on restaurant kitchens, we may hope that public opinion will support them in raising the standard of cleanliness therein. Proprietors know how the exposure of a dirty kitchen would affect their trade.