AOk so I may be a little OCD but I get really grossed out watching cake shows on tv, especially Cake Boss. No one wears gloves and they over handle everything. The guys in the kitchen look sweaty and dirty. The women all go hang out in the kitchen hovering over the cakes with their hair hanging over them. I don't like to see all these ungloved hands touching the fondant and cake. Buddy took his bare hands to press chocolate shavings onto the side of a chocolate ganache cake too. I understand baking can get your clothes dirty from flour and icing etc, but it just bugs me that they can't at least create the illusion of a clean environment for the sake of television. I saw another cake show where the guy took his bare ( hairy too) hand and scraped out the buttercream from the bowl like a spatula. I've seen Duff walk an uncovered cake thru a dusty horse stable for a delivery and so much more! It is hard for me to watch. Am I being unreasonable? I can't be the only one that feels this way. :-(
Completely agree with you! It is driving me crazy too! I don't even talk while I am working on the cake as I read that while a person talks there are tons of tiny saliva bubbles come out. Gross! Can you imagine when a bunch of people talk and laugh around a cake? :-(
AI have to agree and thought I was alone on this. I watched a cake show where a guy with HAIRY arms stuck his bare arm in a deep bucket of icing and "stirred" it with his hands. I couldn't believe it! I can't explain why it disappoints me when I see these shows not exactly practicing clean habits for these expensive masterpieces.
I have to agree and thought I was alone on this. I watched a cake show where a guy with HAIRY arms stuck his bare arm in a deep bucket of icing and "stirred" it with his hands. I couldn't believe it! I can't explain why it disappoints me when I see these shows not exactly practicing clean habits for these expensive masterpieces.
Wow, that is horrible!
I get sickened when I see them touch on their faces and then touch on the cakes, and the hair going everywhere... UGH!
AI watch them touch their hair, their face, even touch phones and other germ playgrounds and then go right to putting their greasy sausage fingers all over the cake. I imagine when the camera is not on , they wipe their noses, scratch themselves, maybe even sneeze and cough on the cake. I really appreciate when cooking/ baking shows edit and stage scenes to create a more visually pleasing show. I mean, isn't that what food stylists and set people do? Whenever I go into a bakery I watch for these things. If i see a decorator using bare hands and then answering phones and handling money I do not patronize that shop at all!
AI can't remember what show it was but I saw a guy walk on a plywood support board to build the internal support system. Next thing I see, they are slapping on sheets of cake and frosting it on the bare plywood. Blech! I highly doubt they cleaned or covered the plywood.
I was watching Cake Boss the other night and was thinking the same thing! They are not very sanitary at all...they had a spinning cake and it was scraping the cake it sat on...raw plywood...so splinters too? Never seen gloves on any of them. They do look sweaty and dirty! lol...
I agree, they are just gross. I have seen them on Cake Boss leaning over cakes and dripping sweat on the cake because they were working in what looked like a wood shop!
So I SHOULD NOT be scratching my bum and popping zits while baking?
FWIW washed hands can actually be cleaner than gloves. When people wear gloves their hands don't feel dirty, so they don't always change their gloves as often as they should.
Absolutely. I posted earlier about seeing someone wearing gloves for making sandwiches, and also sweeping and running the register. Same gloves.
Oh gross!
AAgree. Most of them have internet business. And if I see you on a cupcake show with your flowing hair and slutty apron and tank top I will not be visiting you.
AWhere I used to work one of the managers tried to convince me that gloves where too expensive so we had to wash them. I only made minimum wage but you better believe that I started buying my own gloves. That was one "rule" that I would not be following. If you are having trouble making money Inyour business and ccleanliness is where you wanna cut costs then you don't deserve to be in business.
The disregard of basic sanitation on these shows just boggles my mind sometimes, although in a way I can understand it: You're on TV. TV does not equal your shop. Obviously FN gives them a lot of leeway in that regard...?
The corollary, though, is that if any of them dressed and/or did what they do on, say, Chopped, you'd better believe those judges would be jumping down their throats. Plus I've never seen a cheftestant on that show with long flowing hair. If they have that kind of hair, it's either pulled back or clipped out of the way, which is how it's supposed to be.
Basic sanitation (besides the obvious) which I've learned through the years:
No nail polish
Nails cut short
Hair tied or clipped back -- nothing hanging around your face except for bangs
No rings nor bracelets if you're working with dough
If you cough, cover your mouth with your forearm or crook of your elbow
Always wash your hands before and after doing something
Always wash your hands between switching tasks
If you feel a sneeze coming on, for god's sake get away from whatever you're working on and turn your head (I had a boss who was big on this one)
No makeup -- it's going to smear in the heat
Wear gloves if you're handling something in front of a customer
Keep your work area as spotless as possible while you're working (I had another boss who was big on this)
I dunno...all of those are no-brainers for me :shrug:
The corollary, though, is that if any of them dressed and/or did what they do on, say, Chopped, you'd better believe those judges would be jumping down their throats. Plus I've never seen a cheftestant on that show with long flowing hair.
I saw one episode of Chopped where a contestant did not have terribly long hair (looked like 4-5 inches), but he kept running both hands through it. Scott Connant got a dish with a hair on it and refused to touch it. The contestant had to do something to hold his hair back before the next round. I don't think he won.
AAlso a lot of people don't know to wash there hands before you go to the bathroom, in the bathroom and again when you return to the kitchen. And all jewelry is a safety hazard in the kitchen.
The disregard of basic sanitation on these shows just boggles my mind sometimes, although in a way I can understand it: You're on TV. TV does not equal your shop. Obviously FN gives them a lot of leeway in that regard...?
The corollary, though, is that if any of them dressed and/or did what they do on, say, Chopped, you'd better believe those judges would be jumping down their throats. Plus I've never seen a cheftestant on that show with long flowing hair. If they have that kind of hair, it's either pulled back or clipped out of the way, which is how it's supposed to be.
Basic sanitation (besides the obvious) which I've learned through the years:
No nail polish
Nails cut short
Hair tied or clipped back -- nothing hanging around your face except for bangs
No rings nor bracelets if you're working with dough
If you cough, cover your mouth with your forearm or crook of your elbow
Always wash your hands before and after doing something
Always wash your hands between switching tasks
If you feel a sneeze coming on, for god's sake get away from whatever you're working on and turn your head (I had a boss who was big on this one)
No makeup -- it's going to smear in the heat
Wear gloves if you're handling something in front of a customer
Keep your work area as spotless as possible while you're working (I had another boss who was big on this)
I dunno...all of those are no-brainers for me :shrug:
I think that the coughing on your arm is old thinking. It is a lot harder to wash your whole arm, than it is just to cough on your hands, then wash them twice, and scrub your nails. And if you are wearing gloves, anyways, by all means, cough on them, then go throw them away and wash your hands! Much better than dragging your germy arm around the bakery, bumping germs all over.
And make-up? I don't touch my face, so there is not a problem with make-up, and it it is an issue of heat and sweat, I would much rather have make-up in my food than someone's sweat, yuck.
I saw one episode of Chopped where a contestant did not have terribly long hair (looked like 4-5 inches), but he kept running both hands through it. Scott Connant got a dish with a hair on it and refused to touch it. The contestant had to do something to hold his hair back before the next round. I don't think he won.
ICK! He needed a hat!
AThe thing is, is that your hand is not that effective at catching the sneeze. Which allows you to contaminate more area even though you can just go clean your hands.
In the medical center where I work, there are signs that tell you to cough or sneeze in your elbow (as long as you're wearing sleeves, which you usually are since you can freeze your appendages in the air conditioning even if it's 85 outside). The moisture expelled is absorbed by the fabric and the germs don't fall of to contaminate anything. (For the non-sleeve-wearing, there are free paper masks.)
Of course if you wear lipstick, you get some weird stains on your sleeves.
Ask me how I know. 
AIn the bakery where I used to work (a long, long time ago) all the women had to wear hair nets, but the men didn't. How dumb is that? I pointed this out once and for some reason the baker couldn't understand that his hair, which was falling out of his balding head at a regular rate, was every bit as likely to fall into food as all of the women's hair was. Of course, this is the same bakery where I watched a baker come bake from cigarette breaks and not wash his hands, and also where I saw a baker sneeze right on the dough he was kneading. Needless to say, I never ate the products there!
Wearing gloves while handling ready-to-eat food in my county will get you a HD violation. They do not ever want to see anyone wearing gloves unless you have a really good reason (like not wanting to dye your hands while coloring fondant). I regularly see people freak about lack of gloves and I don't really get it. Gloves have been proven to be a billion times more nasty then bare hands. Every county/state has it's own regulations about this - I know that many require gloves, but you should know that there are just as many require that you do not!
I agree about the arm hair and sweat though. Ug. But seriously, if you want to make sure you never deal with that then I suggest you never eat out - ever. :) I have seen some stuff, kids, since I started working in communal kitchens. Stuff I wish I didn't know.
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