As you know, the Health Department failed Far East on Fatherland back on April 21st, with a Health score of 53! Last week they had a re-inspection, which they also failed. Finally on a 3rd inspection, they have emerged with a 93 as their new updated score.
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Open in new tab Huy Vo, co owner of Far East, had this exceptionally long explanation of why his restaurant failed re-inspection:
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Here’s his text:
To all wonderful East Nashville residents that had been supportive to Far East, I am the co-owner and supposed-to-be the person-in-charge at both of the inspections; I would like to clarify how things happened in our kitchen when both inspections took place. This will be a long one.
The initial inspection: there was no excuse on how our 2 new trainee staffs did not demonstrate proper techniques to washing and handling food, as well as I was not there on the time that inspector showed up. However, the raw chicken was on top of our sealed packages of pho/rice noodle in our proper temperature reach-in cooler. Any of the items involved in violations had been disposed on the spot. On my end, I was out to file and pay tax for the restaurant (please excuse my tardiness since it was a one man show for me). All and all, as someone that worked in this industry long enough, I agreed with this score and signed the report even though I got back before the inspector left and demonstrate my knowledge on food safety and she turned me down and proceeded to ask my server as her designated person-in-charge(?) about cooking temperature(??); yet, she still asked for my signature as person-in-charge and advised that she will be back in 10 Days.
Now, here is the interest part. On our re-inspection, which happened last Thursday, she refused to update our score, and here is the timeline of things happened:
- Inspector showed up around 11:30am to 11:45am, and yes, I happened to step out for supply run at restaurant depot.
- Inspector checked on our coolers and food; everything checked out, no violations!
- Inspector went on and asked our staff to demonstrate setting up our 3-compartment sink and dish washing techniques; he executed everything flawlessly(I was on our kitchen camera while rushing my way back)
- Inspector went to check the washing machine and found it was low on sanitizer, also, found a bottle of unused glass cleaner in the chemical bin unlabeled.
- Inspector proceeded to ask her designated person-in-charge (?) our server to demonstrate dish washing techniques; he failed(!)
- Inspector was ready to leave with the report signed by our server. I got back.
- I questioned the inspector about updating the score. Answer is no, wait until her re-inspection.
- I went for her explanation, and she pointed out the low sanitizer washing machine, unlabeled bottle of glass cleaner, the server’s dishwashing skills(?), and of course, my absence.
- I questioned the inspector why the server had to demonstrate dishwashing skills when my kitchen staff executed correctly and the kitchen staff is in charge of washing dishes himself. Then, she pointed to the washing machine and sad it was low on sanitizer. I disagreed because the staff set up a proper 3-compartment sink with sanitizing sink in place already.
- Inspector went to a point that I was not the person-in-charge when she arrived, so my comments were irrelevant at this point
- Inspector also stated that I was jumpy and sounded frustrated while talking to her; she also felt offended because I called and left a message asking her to do the re-inspection and felt like I was trying to tell her how to do her job.
- My explanation to the inspector: my frustration is real! This is my restaurant, and there are more than half dozen of people depending on it to make ends meet. We have never had a score like this since we’ve been opened for business from 2009. And, refusing to update the score just because of unused machine and unused bottle of unlabeled glass cleaner is very frustrating! (Not to mention asking a server about kitchen knowledge or even demonstrating it!)
- I personally did apologize to the inspector about the call and stated that I never meant to offend her in anyway.
So there you go folks, this is how it all went down in our little tiny kitchen, where supply and food has to be restock every single day due to lack of storage, where people are working hard to prep and make the food, where people take pride in what they do. Please keep supporting and trusting us like you always have been.
Thanks for reading,
Team Far East
Here’s the original failing score report, and our previous post about it.
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