Inside Food Safety Ep. 3 | A $20,000 Alert: How One Notification Saved a Restaurant

Today we're taking inside food safety out of the studio and into one of

Tampa's premier private clubs, the Tampa Club. We're sitting down inside the kitchen with executive chef Thomas Manzick, whose team serves hundreds of members and guests while balancing precision, consistency, hospitality, and food safety every single day. This isn't a conversation about inspections. It's a conversation about standards.

“What does food safety actually look like inside a professional kitchen?”

How do experience chefs build systems their teams can trust and why his technology become in a such a part of delivering safe, consistent food every service? Joining us is Chef Thomas Manzick alongside Eric Moore from Testo, North America. As we connect the science of food safety with the realities of running a busy, professional kitchen. This is inside food safety brought to you by Testo, North America.

Let's get into it. Gentlemen, Eric, chef, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. Was there ever be here, Carl, and Chef Thomas? So, on the last segment that we did, Eric, we had a great time and it was a terrific episode. You left off on monitoring, automated monitoring, and one of the reasons that we have Chef Thomas on the call today is literally this, software matters, and software can save you money.

It's a huge, huge gamble in today's day and age not to have automated monitoring systems inside of your restaurant, and I want to jump right into what happened because, and by the way, we are at Tampa Club. We are on the 41st floor. I'm staring out the window. It's a beautiful Tampa Day, and I'm just staring at a Tampa Bay, and it's a terrific, terrific place to be. Thomas, I need you to tell this story, man. Monday, I was off, and I'm hanging up the house,

and I get an alert that is notifying me that my cooler is not running properly upstairs. I call my chef, and I said, hey, you know, check the cooler real quick, and it doesn't seem

like it's running right, and okay, chef, give me a second. It goes in there. No, no, we're fine.

And I said, I said, I'm going to, you're going to have to give me about 20 minutes, and I'm going to call you back, but be ready because you're probably going to pull everything out because we are closed a half day. We don't do dinner. So I end up calling the, uh, the percussion company. They come out, and I said, I really need you to come and look at this. And then call back my chef and said, take everything out of there. I'm, I'm, I'm seeing numbers that I don't like on the on the

system that we just got installed from Testo a week before. They are changing the entire roof of stairs. So what they did unspinnings to us is they moved all of the cooler equipment, the wires, you know, the tubing and all that, all that got moved by a company overnight. Well, unfortunately, there was a small little appears to hold into the frion, and it started creating this micro leak as, you know, the technician told me. So we were able to react to that and save all the product

that was in there because we would have all left, or they would have all left at three o'clock, and he said by nine ten o'clock that night, this, this glue would have been dead. And just for

“giggles, what's an average dollar amount that's sitting inside of a, a walk in cooler any given time?”

Well, on average, you know, uh, you know, through an inventory or something like that, especially a place like this, like you see the beautiful view, you know, the space is limited. So from there, you know, our walk-in of stairs is, is, you know, Montana in terms of all the stuff that we need to bring up here and hold. So you're probably looking at fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars Eric, let me just, let me just set the picture a little bit. A week ago was our 200th episode

of Celebration Party here at Tampa Club. Aaron, congratulations by the way. Yes, thank you. It's pretty awesome. Sorry, and it's the party. I know you wanted to be here. I do know that, and you know, unfortunately, the timing wasn't there, but Aaron was here, and Aaron was setting up this system that morning. So like the timing on this is spectacular.

“But, I mean, so you being you, what do you have to say about this? Well, you know, I mean,”

first and foremost, that's like music for my years. That is one of the key messages, right?

That I, you know, the rest of our team, Aaron being included, you know, we try to weave into conversations is inventory loss avoidance, because the system when it's programmed and functioning properly provides you early warnings that something's a miss, right? Something's off as Chef Thomas indicated, like what he was seeing was different than what somebody was actually physically experiencing when

Because you get this alerts, you can respond and do exactly what his team did by relocating everything.

“It's awesome. It really, really is fantastic and super fortunate. I think that it got put in the”

just before something like that happened. Yeah, we, we definitely dodged a major bullet, but at the same time, the reward of being proactive in having the system in play, I'm 40 miles away, sitting there, you know, watching top chef on Netflix and getting this alert. And I think, you know, the other part of that too is, you know, obviously you want to trust your staff and, you know, have them on it. But having this system in there going, no, there is a problem. And not

something, just put their hand in there and say, man, I, I think it's okay. You know, that takes all that equation out of it. And it really does have the true data to say, we need to react to this now. Let me say this. The modern kitchen is so entirely different than it was just a few years ago. And let's just say, for example, that this happened, Chef, but it wouldn't, let's you say, it wasn't going to be catastrophic. Let's you say that there was just a small enough leak where

there was a, a slow degrading. And when we're talking about guest experiences and you're looking at how a plate is supposed to last, meaning you're, you know, a rugola, uh, phase, whatever. If there's a challenge inside your cooler that you barely detect, you're going to have product that isn't at its optimum. And that means your guest is going to have product cooked on a plate that's not at its best, meaning it's going to reflect on your review. It's going to reflect on how

people perceive you as a chef and the establishment at large. Correct. You know, the biggest thing here in the name of the game is quality and very, very high standards and expectations in terms of our product. So if it's below any type of level, every restaurant tour, every chef knows this,

it's a ticking time bomb, the second that things walk into your door. And, you know, from there,

you know, we have to be really, really mindful that these things do eventually right down and the quality goes away. And having a cooler and having that as your main, you know, component of storage,

“it's very, very hyper important that it's always running at the extreme level of, that it's supposed”

to be now. The other part of that as well is, you know, the monitors supposed to be there, you know, programs of, you know, I'm constantly, maybe I'm going to ran here, but I am constantly before, you know, this system got put in. I was constantly running down my staff saying, hey, I noticed that you put 38.2 yesterday and you put 38.2 today. Like, come on, I really need you, this is important. And then it's, and then in turn, understanding that,

everybody's got, everybody's got those little moments with the little devil comes out and says, I just write whatever today. And this is a beautiful thing that this system doesn't allow that. And then, you know, it's, it's just one more thing that we don't have to rely on that it's,

it's, it's an actual number. It's an actual data. So, first and foremost, right? The, the

degradative aspect of food is, that is an absolute reality, whether it's Carl, as you're indicated, like, a regula, the minute it's harvested, it, it is degrading. That's just the nature of nature. Chef Thomas, you obviously, completely understand and comprehend the value of temperature control, right? And the importance of it all the way through supply chain and most importantly, in, in a, in a restaurant or in an establishment, the refrigeration

concludes, it delays the degradation of that product. And you're buying these high value items,

“you need to maximize, you know, their value by optimizing your, you know, your food costs and”

everything. You count on your refrigerators to help you do that. And when you count on something that is so vital to, um, to operating your business, if it starts to degrade, that can be a really, really, really big problem, both from, from the business perspective, but also, like, as you both had indicated, from a customer quality perspective, they're paying top dollar in this establishment for the food you're serving them. They want super high quality stuff.

All the chefs that are part of this program that have been on, on walk-and-talk, right? They're all, you know, they're all top tier level individuals that are executing at a really high level. In their customers, expect that level of execution in, in the right level of product to come with them. Whether it's refrigeration or just, like, checking temperatures that are things are properly cooked, you know, the right way. Those are both very, very big factors.

And that, that leads to, like, the second point, which is the human factor, you know, with

historically looking at refrigeration temperature logs, what, at least the way I hear that is, you look at, you look at some documentation and you're like, uh, that looks a little, looks a little wonky, maybe I need to go in, like, reinforce the importance of actually taking the time to do what you're, what is the expected of you, which is billing inside a refrigerator, you know, whether it's using an infrared thermometer or penetration probe to, to figure out what the actual

air temperature surface temperature or product temperature is, it's actually doing it. The human

factor is always, you know, the, to use an analogy, continue and always be the weakest link in

the chain as long as it's there. What the system is able to do is make that human factor out of the loop. It enables a, um, a reliance on better quality, more consistent, uh, you know,

“information that your fingertips whenever you want. Eric, I think when you're talking about”

professional chefs today with the precision equipment and the software that's available, which I don't think existed, you know, that many years ago, it's silly not to have this stuff. And, you know, when you look at chefs like Thomas, who, he's kind of up on the top of the game with this, he's a tech forward guy. He's studying what's happening today. When you install the equipment like this, and I, and I hate, I almost hate to talk about this like this today, because

it feels like a commercial, but it's really not. This actually happened. And the reality is,

it's saved 15 to 20,000 dollars. Yeah. worth of product. Who the hell wouldn't want to have that in, at their disposal? That's, and listen, I, that is immediate ROI. In, immediate. And here's the thing. You can have a terrific staff, but then you also can have staff that, uh, you know, maybe

“they are budget numbers a little bit, right? And, and, and, and, and it's happened to everybody,”

but this takes all the guess workout. And it takes some of that bonus off of them to continue putting their efforts into other areas that are going to improve, uh, guest experiences and, and whatnot at the establishment. Yeah. Hey, listen, I, I know it's probably going to be a shocker,

but, you know, it's not like we're setting up recruitment, tents at MIT or NASA, you know,

these are chefs and hospitality. You know, it's not really our bread and butter. Some of us understand the importance of making sure that there's a discipline to this, with this product, you know, without trying to make this sound like it's an informational, you know, this product does save, and it does have a reason to invest in, because the, the amount of money that we saved that Monday, I mean, we could, we could, we could, we're paying for a test out for the next five years.

Chef, the whole idea of this, and you got, you kind of brought it up, it also hopes with the fact that there are staffing shortages in general. So why would it, you want to have that, that sort of, that safety net? Chef Thomas, you're, you obviously, you know, or, or kitchen every single day, or almost every single day, you know, Carl, you have, you've had industry experience as well. Did either, do you ever like filling out temperature logs for walking refrigerators or, like,

upgrade refrigerators? I hated it when I did it, because it was, it was nothing but a pain in my

“butt, right? I, and I would spend hours, hours and hours doing that in convention centers, right?”

And in arenas in sporting venues, it was like a major part of my day, being able to eliminate that, that activity, and having, you know, a system, be able to monitor those, those areas, you know, it's an enabling tool to allow those same employees that were doing that activity, to do higher value activities, right? To actually, you know, do better job, maybe, you know, do in their mise en place, right? Or, you know, just fill on the blank, you know, because no

way he'll like doing that, like it's, it's kind of tedious. As I get older, nothing really turns me on more than things that can help me do things easier. I, you know, I would, my goodness, under my purview at one time in my life, and I was part of the hasept team, the amount of time it takes to log and make sure people are logging, and oh my goodness, it's, it's unfathomable for people who don't have to deal with it. And it's something that that

is happening while you're not at the location. So these things have to occur and be done when you're not even there. And that's the scary part. And that, and that kind of circles back to having the right staff that goes back to their not being enough staff or staff that cares enough to do it properly. There's a whole thought process behind, you know, just using the equipment

everything would be automated. You know, not, not, you know, people on the line and cooking,

but I'm talking about like all of this, all of these measures, everything would be automated. There are places in the world where even the cooking process is, is getting automated. But I, I'd review, I, I think that needs to remain very human-centric. And that's the, well, well, someone who needs to press that button one day, and if it's going to be me, it's going to be me. But, you know, I will say this. And, and in it with this is, you know, you either,

you either really do care about food safety, or you don't. And, you know, that, but that doesn't

“mean everybody else in the room is doing the same thing. And that's what the inspectors look at.”

They look to see if you're actually creating a program, if you're actually following something.

And the more systems that you have that that are connected to this is less stuff that, you know, the inspector is going to worry about because they have nine other places that they have the inspector that are not doing any type of, you know, systems. And don't care. So they're going to spend way less time with you. And in turn, because of the fact that you have, you know, a system like testo and the data to prove that all this is actually being maintained. So it doesn't matter,

you know, if it is a, you know, AI or it doesn't matter if it's, you know, that as much as the fact that, you know, it needs to be done. And if it's one less thing that we're not great at, then we should really take that time and effort to do it.

“Think of it from a gas perspective. What happens to food safety when a place is busy?”

You know, the thing is maybe 15 years ago or longer, you didn't think too much about food safety. People were smoking in the dining room like it was a whole different life. Today, it's on everybody's mind because you're talking and, you know, from farming practices, you know, with chemicals to, you know, who's cooking your food and the kitchen, all of that stuff. So when you're thinking about it from a, the average guest that goes into a restaurant,

they're looking, like they're, they're, they're looking around. They want to know what's up. So chef, how do you, how do you, um, how do you enter that? With our clientele and, you know, the expectations of every day for all chefs. We have a very, very big, important responsibility of protecting all guests that walk in that door because this food is consumed. It's going inside.

“And, you know, I think the biggest thing that we can do is create systems and put practices that”

are maintained that everybody can manage. You know, not something where it's like, all right, everybody needs to have their left hand up and they're, and they're right foot up, but, you know, every 15 minutes, that's impossible. But if you make sure that you're watching and that you're maintaining that in every four, five minutes, you guys need to wash your hands, having, having hand wash things and, uh, close enough that they can actually go to the sinks, you know, in the middle

of touching this, touching that, changing their gloves is highly, highly important. You know, and it's something to say, because physically, it's easier for your staff to check each other on hand washing and gloves, glove changes than it is for tampon, uh, on a piece of meat or tampon a cooler stuff like that. Those things can happen and slip by, you don't notice it, and that's where some of the software comes in handy. You're not going to fix everything. The

AI software stuff like that, it's just, you can't. It has to be done on a, on a physical basis,

but I'll tell you what, I mean, probably 80 percent of the things that happen inside of a building

can be managed with, with the right equipment, it's software. Correct. When Kitchens get busy, you know, I, I think that's where training, education, reinforcement and leadership really, really begin to, to shine their brightest. That's where leaders lead. They bring their people through, through there's challenging, super, you know, those rush, rush periods, right? And, you know, a lot of times, you begin to create, you know, positive habits or, you know, that can be easily

replicated and continued, just like some of the examples that the shift Thomas brought up, right? Like every four or five minutes, right? Like we're going to take 35 seconds and wash our hands. We're going to, we're going to have people like take, take a step away and go and wash their hands, change their gloves, whatever, whatever that kind of action they be, and, you know, being able to, to communicate that as an expectation, right? Huge, huge leadership, you know, impact on how you

influence people's behaviors and actions. I would also add that, you know, coming, we're what five years post-pandemic and, you know, the consumer expectations and perceptions around

what the, what the pandemic kind of did is it, you know, related to personal consumer's perception is it just raised the bar, right? And again, shift Thomas brought up like, you know, the impact that some of these tools can have on maybe helping improve or reduce a, you know, a regulatory

“inspection. I think there's about, there's a, there's a lot of value in that. There's also benefit”

to the ability to, um, share information with, with your customers. Great story, like, for some of your, like, super, some of the customers that, that maybe Chef Thomas has, like, a great relationship. I, I would almost guarantee, I would assume, you know, he probably goes out in, in the dining room, occasionally, during lunch and dinner, and, and, and conversations with people, be like, you know, what, the coolest thing, like, happened, we installed this system, you know,

it's dinner, it's dinner, it's dinner, right? That instills in Foster's more trust, what's interesting is places like Tampa Club, right? They're going to hire a certain type of Chef, and they're going to hire a certain type of personnel. And those people are going to have their eyes open, their ears open, and they're going to be looking for ways to improve the overall experience of the establishment. One of the reasons that I love this place is not just for Thomas,

obviously he's one of the big reasons, but the whole culture here is pretty amazing when it comes

to that. So, you know, it's, it's, it's really great. I want to ask, you know, Chef Thomas, it's a challenging environment in the restaurant, the restaurant world today. If there's one thing that, that you could change around the perception within the, within the industry, around food safety, what would that be for you? That's a great question. I think the biggest thing that our industry is missing about food safety is being more proactive and having a clear understanding

that we should be setting up systems and expectations from day one instead of waiting until, you know, waiting until there's an issue. You know, there's an old saying, it's like,

“you know, never build the wall after the Mongolians attack. Like, you should be working on it”

for that, right? A quick story and I wanted that I was working with an inspector and, you know, all these little issues were happening and I was getting upset and like, oh, okay, and, you know, telling the staff like, you know, there's the inspector right there and, you know, and the inspector looked at me as they was Steve and he goes, "Man, you know, if you were training every day, they wouldn't be doing this." And it really kind of, the coconut hit me on the head, like, yeah,

you're right. There needs to be systems and expectations every day and practices. So I'm not running around or they're running around, not having a clue of what the temperature danger zone is, like, those things, you know, and I think that that's the biggest thing is that we're just not proactively planning and training and holding expectations until there is a problem.

Being proactive is ideal, basically for somebody, you know, like me, because that needs to

prevention and prevention is how you lower risk and, you know, in a lot of conversations, we tried to correlate risk reduction with being able to serve better product, potentially make more money. It's another way to build greater brand trust in what your establishment is doing and how you're executing. The repetition and the routine, that leads to behavior change, which leads to

“habit, which leads to, you know, positive outcomes. And I think you said it right, Eric, and Thomas,”

I think you did too. In the end, one of the main things we learned is if the Mongolians are coming, be prepared first. Chef, how do people find you? Look me up on Black Lamb, Chef 79. Eric, how are people finding you? Blake Dean is Eric Moore, 001, and you can find Testo online just Testo.com. Awesome. I feel like this is another banger. I appreciate you having a sound at the club.

Chef Eric is always man. The next one's going to be terrific as well. People wash your hands.

We are out.

something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You

seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the

“bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention?”

You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from libson ads. Choose from

hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one.

“Across thousands of shows to reach your target audience and their favorite podcasts with libson ads.”

Go to libson ads.com. That's l_ibs_y_n_ ads.com today.