My name is Salvatore from the USA and I have been living in Butuan City for approximately 6 years now. I was born into the restaurant business in New York as my dad owned it when I was born a long time ago.
It is required per New York State health department law that everyone that handles food in the kitchen must take a health department course and get certified and produce the certification on the wall for the inspectors to view when they decide to surprise you once in a while to make sure your up to code as far as handling of food, cleanliness of the kitchen, check all food ingredients on shelves in the kitchen for example the 50 pound bags of flour for anything “crawling” around in there (which means it was not handled properly until we received the order or we kept it past the expiration date), checking all refrigerators to make sure your organizing and dating your foods properly to prevent cross-contamination and most importantly nothing is “ALIVE” in the kitchen except human beings. I’m sure you guessed I’m talking about any type of ants, roaches, etc., they check for everything. If your in violation of any code you have a brief time to resolve the issue or they simply put a lock on your businesses front door and your officially shut down, simple as that.
So I just wanted everyone to know I also adhere to these same strict codes here in Butuan City. I am very organized, clean and will only use the highest quality ingredients available to me. I will not compromise my reputation on cheap or low quality ingredients.
Now a long story short (sorry about that), I have been here for 6 years and I have been around most restaurants and bakeries. I am always amazed at what I see crawling around these places and I even know the biggest manufacturer of flour in Butuan city which I’m sure they all purchase from as it is in large quantities and obviously much cheaper than buying small expensive named brand bags from Gaisano grocery. I purchased one of those large bags of flour (once) and when I got it home and opened it up I could not believe how many small white things I saw crawling around alive in there. I brought it back and shocked to hear that most of their customers simply sift the flour and discard anything that was crawling in there. I don’t know about you but I would never eat food baked with that flour and I will not sell anything to my customers that I don’t eat myself.
So rest assured my kitchen is spotless at all times and I buy those expensive small bags of flour from Gaisano as they are always bug-free and clean. In case you thought my prices were slightly higher than the competition the answer is I purchase very expensive ingredients to make sure it taste the best and most importantly is fresh. Just wanted you all to know the truth about what I have learned. Sorry to have written so much but I have to educate my future and present customers about this disturbing information.
