When chef Ray Kattan worked in Las Vegas, the city required food handlers to watch a two-hour training video. Topics included proper hygiene, safe food temperatures and ways to prevent spreading disease. Kansas City should do the same, he says. It's a matter of life and death. In the early 1990s, a request for mandatory training never made it through the City Council, Health Department officials say.
Independence requires training.
Leavenworth, Wichita and New York do, too. Denver inspectors quiz chefs on food-safety knowledge. St. Louis, Boston and Chicago require restaurant managers to pass a certification course. Restaurant report cards DiGregorio's deli in the Hill neighborhood of St. Louis has a sticker near the front door showing its grade on the latest Health Department inspection. That's big here in St. Louis.