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

Speaker A: Food safety doesn't begin with a thermometer. It begins with culture. 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 Manczik, 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 experienced chefs build systems their teams can trust? And why has technology become an essential part of delivering safe, consistent food every service? Joining us is Chef Thomas Manzik 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.

Speaker B: Gentlemen. Eric. Chef. Welcome to the program.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me.

Speaker D: Pleasure. Pleasure to be here. Carl and Chef Thomas.

Speaker B: So on the last segment that we did, Eric, we had a great time, and it was a terrific episode. You left off on, um, 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. And, uh, I'm just there in a Tampa Bay, man. It's a terrific, terrific place to be. Thomas, I need you to tell this story, man.

Speaker C: Um, Monday I was off, and, um, I'm hanging out at the house, and I get an alert that, uh, is notifying me that my cooler is not running properly upstairs. I call my chef, uh, and I said, hey, check the cooler real quick. And it doesn't seem like it's running right. And. Okay, Chef, give me a second. Goes in there. No, no, we're fine. And I said. I said, uh, I'm gonna. You're gonna have to give me about 20 minutes. And, uh, I'm gonna call you back, but be ready, because you're probably gonna have to pull everything out because we are closed a half day. We don't do dinner. So I end up calling the, uh, the air conditioning company. They come out, and I said, I really need you to come look at this. And I call back my Chef and said, take everything out of there because 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 upstairs. So what they did on spin dunks to us is they moved all of the cooler, uh, equipment, the wires, um, you know, the tubing and all that. All that got moved by a company overnight. Well, unfortunately, uh, there was a small little pierced uh, hole into the Freon and it started creating this micro, uh, 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 3 o'. Clock. And he said by 9, 10 o' clock that night, this, this cooler would have been dead.

Speaker B: And, and just for giggles, what's an average dollar, uh, amount that's sitting inside of a, a walk in cooler at any given time?

Speaker C: Well, on average, you know, um, you know, through an inventory or something like that, especially a place like this. Like, you see the beautiful view. Ah, you know, the space, uh, is limited. So from there, you know, our walk in upstairs 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 15 to $18,000.

Speaker B: Eric, let me just set the picture a little bit. A week ago was our 200th episode, uh, Celebration party here at Tampa Club.

Speaker D: And Aaron, congratulations, by the way.

Speaker B: Yes, thank you.

Speaker D: That's pretty awesome. Sorry I missed the party.

Speaker B: 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. Um, but I mean, so you being you, what do you have to say about this?

Speaker D: Well, you know, I mean, first and foremost, that played music my ears. 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 this system, when it's programmed and functioning properly, provides you early warnings that something's amiss, right? Something's off. As, as Chef Thomas indicated, like what he was seeing was different than what somebody was actually physically experiencing when they walked into the refrigerator. Like the data was telling you, like this isn't working right? Because you get this alert, 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 you know that it got put in there just before something like that happened.

Speaker C: Yeah, we definitely dodged a major bullet. But at the same time, the reward of being proactive and having the system in play, I'm 40 miles away sitting there watching, uh, Top Chef on Netflix, and I'm getting this alert. And I think the other part of that, too, is obviously, you want to trust your staff and have them on it, but having this system in there going, no, there is a problem, and not somebody just putting their hand in there and saying, man, 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.

Speaker B: 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, uh, Chef. But it wouldn't. Let's just say it wasn't going to be catastrophic. Let's just say that there was just a small enough leak where there was a, uh, slow degrading. When we're talking about guest experiences and you're looking at how a plate is supposed to last, meaning your, you know, arugula, filets, uh, 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.

Speaker C: Correct. You know, the biggest, uh, 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, and every restaurateur, 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 break down and the quality goes away. And having a cooler and having that as your main component, uh, of storage, it's very, very hyper important that it's always running at the extreme level that it's supposed to be. Now, the other part of that as well is that thermometers are supposed to be there programs. Uh, I'm constantly. Maybe I'm going to rant here, but I am constantly. Uh, before this system got put in, I was constantly running down my staff saying, hey, 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 where the little devil comes out and says, ah, just write whatever today. And this is a beautiful thing that this system, uh, 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.

Speaker D: So first and foremost, right, the, the degradative aspect of food is re. That is an absolute reality. Whether it's Carl, as you had indicated, like arugula, 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 and importantly in, in, in a restaurant or in an establishment, the refrigeration components, it delays the degradation of that product. You're buying these high value items, you need to maximize, you know, their value by optimizing your, you know, your food costs and, and everything. You count on your refrigerators to help you do that. And when you count on something that is so vital to, um, operating your business, if it starts to degrade, that can be a really, really, really big problem. Both from a business perspective, but also like as you both have 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 Walk and Talk, right, they're all, you know, they're all top tier level individuals that are executing at a really high level and their customers expect that level of execution and the right level of product to come with them. Whether it's refrigeration or just like checking temperatures that uh, things are properly cooked, you know, the right way. Those are both very, very big factors. And that, that leads to, to like the second point, which is it the human factor. You know, with Chef Thomas, you kind of just indicated, right, like you have in the past historically looking at, 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, ah, uh, that looks a little, looks a little wonky. Maybe I need to go and like reinforce the importance of actually taking the time to do what Your what is expected of you, which is going inside a refrigerator, you know, whether it's using a, an infrared thermometer or penetration probe to figure out what the actual air temperature, surface temperature or product temperature is, it's actually doing it. The human factor is always it. 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 take that human factor out of the loop. It enables a, um, a reliance on better quality, more consistent, um, you know, information at your fingertips whenever you want.

Speaker B: 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, uh, on the top of the game with this. He's a tech forward guy, he's studying what's happening today when you install equipment like this. And I, and I hate, I almost hate to, 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 saved 15 to $20,000 worth of product. Who the hell wouldn't want to have that at their disposal? And listen, that is immediate roi, immediate. And here's the thing. You can have a terrific staff, but then you also can have staff that, uh, you know, uh, maybe they are fudging the numbers a little bit, right? And it's happened to everybody. But this takes all the guesswork out, and it takes some of that onus off of them to continue putting their efforts into other areas that are going to improve, uh, guest experiences and whatnot at the establishment.

Speaker C: Listen, I know it's probably going to be a shocker, but it's not like we're setting up recruitment tents at MIT or NASA. These are chefs in hospitality. It's not really our bread and butter. Some of us, um, 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 infomercial. 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, we could pay. We're paying for Testo for the next five years.

Speaker B: Jeff, the whole idea of this, and you got, you kind of brought it up. It also helps with the fact that there are staffing Shortages in general. So why wouldn't you want to have that, that sort of, um, um, that safety net?

Speaker D: Chef Thomas, you're, you obviously, you know, are kitchen every single day or almost every single day. You know, Carl, you've had industry experience as well. Did either of you ever like filling out temperature logs for walk in refrigerators or like upright 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 and hours doing that in convention centers, right. And in arenas, in sporting venues. It, 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 in it. 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 a better job maybe, you know, doing their mise en place right, or you know, just fill in the blank, you know, because nobody likes doing that. Like it's, it's kind of tedious.

Speaker B: As I get older, nothing really turns me on more than things that can help me do things easier. I, uh, would prefer, oh, uh, my goodness, under my purview at one time in my life and uh, I was part of the HACCP team, the amount of time it takes to log and make sure people are logging and oh my goodness, it's unfathomable for people who don't have to deal with it. Um, and it's something 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 kind of circles back to having the right staff that goes back to there not being enough staff or staff that cares enough to do it properly. There's a whole thought, uh, process behind, you know, just using the equipment and softwares that are available today. It's amazing. If it were me, I would have the whole place. 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.

Speaker D: There are places in the world where even the cooking process is getting automated. Um, but I agree with you. I think that needs to remain very human centric. That's my personal.

Speaker C: Well, somebody needs to press that button one day and if it's going to be me, it's going to be me. But I will say this and end it with this is, um, 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. 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 to inspect that are not doing any type of, you know, uh, systems and, 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 a system like Testo and the data to prove that all this is actually being maintained. So it doesn't matter if it is AI, um, um. And it doesn't matter if it's that as much as the fact that 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.

Speaker B: Think of it from a guest 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

Speaker A: like it was a whole different life.

Speaker B: Um, today it's on everybody's mind because you're talking and, you know, from farming practices, you know, with chemicals to, you

Speaker A: know, who's cooking your food in the

Speaker B: kitchen, all of that stuff. So when you're thinking about it from, uh, the average guest that goes into a restaurant, they're looking like they're looking around. They want to know what's up. So, chef, um, how do you answer that?

Speaker C: With our clientele and the expectations of every day for all chefs, we have, um, a very, very big, important responsibility of protecting all guests that walk in that door. And 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 their. And their right foot up at, 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 form, four or five minutes, you guys need to wash your hands, having hand wash sinks and close, uh, enough that they can actually go to the sinks in the middle of touching this, touching that changing their gloves is highly, highly important.

Speaker B: And it's something to say because physically it's easier for your staff to check each other on hand washing and glove changes than it is for tamp up, uh, on a piece of meat or temp in 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 uh, AI software, stuff like that. It 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% of the things that happen inside of a building can be managed with, with the right equipment and software.

Speaker C: Correct?

Speaker D: When kitchens get busy, you know, I, I, I think that's where training, education, reinforcement and leadership really, really begin to, to, to shine their brightest. That's where leaders lead. They bring their people through, um, through those 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 Chef Thomas brought up, right. Like every four or five minutes, right. Like we're gonna take, we're gonna take 35 seconds and wash our hands. We're gonna, we're gonna have people like take, take a step away and go and wash their hands, change their gloves, whatever, whatever that, that kind of action may be. And you know, being able to communicate that is an expectation, right? But huge, huge leadership, um, impact on how you influence people's behaviors and actions. I would also add that we're what, five years post pandemic, and the consumer expectations and perceptions around cleanliness and sanitation have not come gotten any lower. They haven't reduced, you know, so what the p, what the pandemic kind of did is it, you know, related to personal consumers perception is it just raised the bar.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker D: Um, and again, Shep Thomas brought up like, you know, the impact that, that some of these tools can have on um, maybe helping improve or reduce a uh, you know, a, a regulatory inspection. I think there's val. There's, there's a lot of value in that. Um, 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, into the dining room occasionally during lunch and, or dinner and in com. In converses with people, be like, you know, what the coolest thing, like, happened? We installed this system, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right. That instills and fosters more trust.

Speaker B: 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, uh, you know, it's really great.

Speaker D: 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 you could change around the perception within the industry around food safety, what would that be for you?

Speaker C: 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, uh, 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? Quick, uh, story, and I'll run out that I was working with an inspector and, you know, all these little issues were happening, and I was getting, you know, upset, like, oh, I can't wait. And, you know, telling the staff, like, you know, there's the inspector right there. And, you know, and the inspector looked at me. His name 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.

Speaker D: Being proactive is ideal, especially for somebody like me, because that leads to prevention and prevent, is how you lower risk. And, you know, in. 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. In what your establishment is doing and how you're executing the. The repetition in the routine that leads to behavior change, which leads to habit, which leads to, you know, positive outcomes.

Speaker B: And I think you said it right, Eric and Thomas, I think you did, too. Uh, in the end, one of the main things we learned is if, uh, the Mongolians are coming, be prepared first. Uh, Chef, how do people find you?

Speaker C: Uh, look me up on Black, uh, lamb. Chef79.

Speaker B: Eric, how are people finding you?

Speaker D: Uh, uh, M. LinkedIn is ericmoor0, uh,01. And you can find Testo, uh, on online just testo.com.

Speaker B: awesome. I feel like this is another banger. Uh, I appreciate you having us out at the club, Chef Eric, as always, man. Uh, the next one's gonna be, uh, terrific as well. Uh, people, wash your hands. We are out.

Speaker D: Sam.