Dennis Luc says he wants his chefs, most of whom speak little English, to know the importance of food handling.
The Somerset Street Chinatown Business Improvement Area will be hosting Ottawa’s first food-handling course taught in Chinese next month.
In conjunction with Ottawa Public Health, it arranged a pilot program offering a course about the proper and safe handling of food in Chinese. Up to 25 restaurants can attend the Nov. 10 session at the Dalhousie Community Centre.
Grace Xin, executive director of the Chinatown BIA, says the course is only offered in English and French in Ottawa, and English is not the first language of many chefs in Chinatown. Certification is mandatory for restaurants in Toronto, and while it is still optional in Ottawa, Xin says all restaurants should get trained.
“At least one of the staff should get the certificate,” she says. “In the long run, it’s going to benefit the customers.”
Grace says 10 restaurants have already signed up for the course, including Mekong restaurant on Somerset Street. Owner Dennis Luc says it’s a good opportunity for his chefs.
“My chefs speak very little English,” he says, “but it’s important for my whole kitchen to know about the safety of handling food.”
Alison Girroir, a public health inspector for Ottawa who is working closely with Xin on the project, says it is just the start and could lead to more multi-language programs.
“We want to get into a multitude of languages,” she says. “Often we go in to do inspections and if English isn’t their first language, it can become a problem.”
Girroir says the city has done individual training in different languages in the past if requested, but this is the first time they have held a course in another language.
The program comes at a time when consumer faith in restaurants and food companies is waning after the listeria crisis and the melamine contaminations.
Xin says another goal of the program is to clean up Chinatown’s image.
“A priority for our BIA is getting our restaurants ready for consumer’s confidence” she says.
At the end of August, City Council voted to hire seven additional public health inspectors to increase the frequency that restaurants are inspected. Xin adds that results of the inspections will also soon be publicly available almost immediately after the inspection.
“It’s a very serious situation,” she says. “Under the new regulation, as soon as the city finds a problem it’s going to be available for all the consumers.”
She says the Chinatown BIA published several articles in the Chinese media discussing the course.
As a result, even restaurants outside the Chinatown area have registered.
The course will cover topics including safe food handling, sanitation, pest control, and food-borne illnesses. The Chinatown BIA recommends the course not just for restaurant employees, but for anyone who is working with high-risk groups like children or the elderly.