Education by Katherine Emery

My first job after being a “stay at home” mom for thirteen years, was working for the Dorchester County Health Department. My job title was Health Educator, my college transcripts were heavily weighted in the psychology, biology, sociology, and anthropology subjects so I met the State of Maryland criteria for that position. I attended every training regarding health and grant writing. It turns out that those trainings came in handy for properly running a healthy restaurant.

Years ago, Cece and I were shopping at the Annapolis Mall and stopped at the food court for lunch. I had just completed a blood borne pathogen (infection prevention in the workplace) training earlier that month. I watched the woman who was wearing plastic gloves while making the sandwiches. She paused and “rang up” the customer ahead of us, wearing her gloves. The man gave her cash and some change, which she put in the cash register, still wearing the gloves. At the end of that transaction, she walked back to her sandwich station with the intention of resuming our sandwiches. I quickly said, “excuse me, do you mind switching to a pair of clean gloves, please?” Cece was mortified, the woman was annoyed but did as I had asked. The staff at that restaurant had clearly not had any glove/hand washing classes, the proper procedure is to remove the dirty gloves, wash hands, then put on a new pair. This woman also incorrectly removed her gloves by the fingers not the cuff.

I was shocked to see the state of the kitchen when we bought our restaurant, I knew the rigorous health requirements set by the health department and naively thought that to be in business you must comply. As a family, we had eaten pizza there often. Matt used a shovel to scrape the three inch layer of grease from under the mats on the floor in front of the fryer. Some of the food in the walk-in was rotting in its original can. The ice machine was covered in mold. The dish machine probably dated to the 1960’s, it lacked a sanitation cycle and never reached the required temperature. Needless to say, we gutted the entire place, replacing every fixture and appliance.

Food handling is a huge undertaking and responsibility. We trained our staff using the latest guidelines and bought every food prep tool available to ensure that we achieved all of the rules of food safety. We had a great working relationship with the health department.

General Tanuki’s was a beautiful, creative job for twelve years. It was the hardest job I’ve ever had. We put our heart and soul into every aspect of that business. Coming from California where sushi restaurants were everywhere, we decided to cook the food that we loved and we did that, everyday. Now we mostly eat at home, sometimes cooking some old Tanuki’s favorites. Matt makes Tanuki’s fish taco for “Taco Tuesday” and we have the curry monthly. We make pizza with our grandchildren, they haven’t experienced the “Cuban pizza,” though. Friday is burger night and the French burger with Brie and mushrooms is a favorite.

We miss our wonderful customers, so many regulars became great friends. We miss buying amazing products from our food purveyors. We miss the weekly wine tastings and getting to meet new winemakers. I miss Matt’s delicious margaritas made with fresh, handmade ingredients, the best tasting drink, well deserved at the end of a long shift. I miss the camaraderie of “being in the trenches,” making delicious food and drinks on a busy night with people I enjoyed working with. I miss working with my family, most of all, trusting them, knowing that their hearts were in the best place.

I had an epiphany during one of our health department visits, the inspector and I were talking about the weather. I was lamenting the many cold February days and her response was; “I’m grateful for any weather, I’m a cancer survivor.” I think about that conversation everyday when I’m outside, on cold, hot, and gorgeous days. The double entrendre of “the weather” and its irony is always striking to me. We weather many hardships and happy times throughout our lives, it’s a gift of life. We “weathered” the highs and lows of life as restaurant owners and the weather is fine looking forward.