Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I met a DOH employee the other day and passed this post his way. His response:

"The Health Code says thou shalt not
store potentially hazardous food between the 41 and 140 degrees ("the
danger zone"), because in this range any nasty bugs can grow at a
truly alarming rate. What makes a food potentially hazardous? If a
food has too high a moisture content, too low a salt content, or an
acidity level that is too low, then it is potentially hazardous. In
other words, if the food is really dry, nothing can grow on it, or at
least not fast enough for the Health Department to worry about. Why is
it OK to store some slices at room temperature? There is enough salt
in the cheese and enough acidity in the tomato sauce to keep anything
from growing. Slices with peperoni? That's a cured meat, so it's not
potentially hazardous. However, cooked chicken is another matter. And,
if you think of it outside the context of pizza, you'd probably think,
yeah, I wouldn't want to eat a piece of chicken that has been left out
at room temperature for two hours. Would you definitely get sick? No,
but you might, and someone with a weak immune system could be in
trouble.

So what about those "for display only" signs? Pizzeria owners say that
people will only order a slice with toppings if they see the slices on
display. The theory is that the patron will see the slice with chicken
on it, order a slice with chicken, and magically a slice with chicken
that has been made from scratch or stored at a safe temperature is
what will be served. But not the slice that the patron sees on the
counter under the sign "for display only", which in theory must be
discarded. In reality, what is on display was probably left over from
the lunch or dinner rush, and the pizza man is hoping to sell it
without the DOH noticing. Since restaurants get inspected about once a
year, it's a pretty safe bet.

Do some rookie inspectors screw this one up? Sure. But do most pizza
makers know about this rule? Yes, or at least they should. Is it fair
to ding them for it? There are plenty of injustices in the system, but
this one of the less disturbing ones, in my opinion."

"When I was young and got drunk and stoned"

@redstone: so I take it that means last night :)

My local pizza man, Exclusive Pizza on 181, was re-inspected. He originally failed due to some crazy violation in the basement of the building next door (actually my building.) Somehow because his services are connected to the basement, a violation in the next door building became points on his inspection. (?)

THEN, when they came back to re-inspect, he passed but got dinged on the chicken rolls, slices, etc., he's got under the glass counter. It's nuts.

I'd like everyone to recall a couple of years ago the vendors in Chinatown getting an exemption on hanging room temperature meats in their windows for "cultural sensitivity" reasons. Councilman Lui, a true dumbass and a foul example of what's wrong with our elective officials, lead the charge to get health inspectors to back off on the room temp pigs hanging all over the place.

Why doesn't a slice of pizza fall under the same cultural exception?

I actually think unwritten culture-based enforcement exceptions to health laws (or any laws) are bullshit, but if you give one, how can you not give others?

There's so much salt in pizza between the cheese, sauce, and meat (if there's a meat topping), nothing could possibly be in there. Seriously, would there also be a reasonable amount of time they could be safely in the display case, say a couple hours? the good ones go quickly anyway.

um...ok.

nope. i'm saying that i would only be able to get a slice at the places in my brooklyn neighborhood during peak hours (maybe 12-2pm and 6-7pm, and definitely not late at night). that would suck.

MePa? Really? Am I the last person to find out that every neighborhood now has a two syllable nickname?

This is from Gaslight in MePa. Close them down, but leave the good pizzeria's alone.

I agree with cliffyb. That crust is burnt. Other than that, it looks unbelievably tasty.

Extra light olive oil is just that, not EVOO. It get to be extra light when they do a second pressing and add heat or chemicals for extraction. It's about price point and not quality for a lot of restaurants using EVOO. Without adhering to International Olive Oil Council standards some producers add nut oils and color to their products and sell them as EVOO.

Check the many fickr photos showing the can on the shelf. Even extra virgin Bertolli/Berio is at bare minimum average olive oil at best.

There are different grades of Bertoli/Berio from Light to Extra Virgin.