I frequently watch Kenji’s videos cuz his recipes are good and I’m shocked that he’ll touch raw meat, not wash his hands, and then touch like every other thing in his kitchen. For example, in [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHDNtxvrhHc) video, he grabs the pork chops multiple times with both hands and then touches the stove, the pepper grinder, the lighter, his phone, the rag, the oil bottles, etc.
I am pretty obsessive about washing my hands after touching any raw meat to prevent cross-contamination as I thought that’s what you were supposed to do. Is it less dangerous than I thought? Isn’t it some sort of bacterial hazard to be touching so many things in your kitchen when your hands are covered in raw meat juices?
by MASHED_POTATOES_MF
20 Comments
I’ve seen Rick Bayless do it too, also usually just wiping his hands with a dish towel before touching other stuff, so I figure it’s just a chef thing. The only time I really cringed was one ep where Kenji touched raw meat and then stuck that hand into the salt box. I know bacteria is almost certainly insta-lysed by all that salt but boy did it make my heart race
What kind of meat? There’s a big difference between touching a steak vs raw chicken
It’s only really a hazard if the finished food is somehow touched by something that touched the raw meat. Or alternatively you’re prepping something that’s going to stay raw like a salad, generally you’d keep that separate in terms of utensils/surfaces. Line cooks aren’t stopping to wash their hands every two seconds, and everything will get sanitized before it’d be a problem.
Ask him. He answers questions.
It’s his kitchen. You don’t have to eat it, so you don’t have to worry about it.
OMG, phone directly on the cutting board? Barf. I’m with you OP, it drives me crazy when I see people touch raw meat and then immediately handle spice containers, oil bottles, etc. or grab a utensil out of a holder but they touch half of what’s in there. Nasty.
Do we not think Kenji knows what he’s doing and is just ignoring all of this?
It is scary in the video but home cooking isn’t as dangerous as commercial kitchens. You can kinda relax at home
I’m going to be blunt. You’re overthinking it. Food hazards, especially in US FDA recommdations, are supremely conservative.
It has to consider commercial kitchens, but at home, you can be a lot more relaxed.
If your meat is fresh, what is is doing is very very low risk. Where you will cause issues is if you place uncooked meat with something you are eating for a period of time.
It’s hard to over come as a thought process though.
I found that he’s reasonably clean/safe.
While I won’t say that he (or any other chef that posts videos) is 100% cross-contamination free, I will say that most of these types of videos are pretty heavily edited. Even when it doesn’t look like it. For someone well regarded like Kenji, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s just not including all the cleaning on camera.
Maybe send it to these guys. I love this podcast. https://www.riskyornot.co
Yeah his salt is always getting contaminated lol but it’s his kitchen
Let the man cook!!
People have the same issue with Jacques Pepin videos. I think they don’t bother on these videos to keep things moving along and don’t intend for the end product to be consumed. BUT— I saw Chef Pepin cut raw pork tenderloin, then use the same knife to snag a hunk of butter for the pan. Hope nobody uses that end of the butter!
Most pathogens can’t survive on contact surfaces for more than a few hours, at least at the quantities that would exist from hand touching. In that video the meat is heavily salted which kills bacteria as well. There is some risk but pretty negligible
In Germany we eat raw ground pork and don’t get sick🙈
Every time I see you I’m happy
It’s his own house, let him live. You clean how to clean, other people do it how they want to do it.
I think, being a commercial chef, he probably knows more about food safety than you do.