Massachusetts First

I re-upped my ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification for St. Michael’s church kitchen a few weeks ago. I have been a member of the historic St. Michaels Episcopal Church in Marblehead, MA, for some 20-odd years. When I’m there, you can usually find me in the kitchen. I cut my restaurant teeth as a kid at my mother’s steakhouse during the 50s and 60s (Get a fun snapshot of my youth as a restaurant kid here: laura-tamagno.medium.com ) and careened through a haphazard cooking career during the wild and wooly 70s and 80s. I still gravitate toward kitchens, particularly professional ones. I love them; it’s in my blood.

All kitchens serving the public, be it a plate of cookies after Sunday service or the continuous flow of diners at the all-you-can-eat trough, er buffet, are required by the state to be certified. Eight hours plus of class instruction, this time virtual, and the live proctor-monitored exam was a real pain. It was about 20 hours of immersion in the origins of food-borne illness, lots of it quite gross. If I ever choose to up my game and work at an airline commissary, I’m good to go. But I digress.

The point of my story is less about the increased chance of suffering severe illness or death from eating fruit salad than the overregulation imposed on small organizations. Overregulation kills the spirit. The spirit of entrepreneurship and community. Very sad. For example, St. Michaels used to rent their kitchen to small vendors needing a kitchen for limited hours. A little extra income for the church and a modest outlay for the vendor served both parties well. 

Because of the opportunity to rent St. Michaels’s kitchen, a fledgling artisan granola business grew enough to move on to permanent digs. The next entrepreneur’s inspiration may never wow the public’s palette because most small community kitchens cannot afford the floor drain or three-sink washing station required by the MA Board of Health. What a shame. How many artisan bakeries, small restaurants, and community meal programs have been shuttered or never launched because of the one-size-fits-all BOH regulations? 

Soon we will all dine at Applebee’s and shop at big box stores. Booooring! No color, flavor, or thoughtfully curated clothing boutiques or neighborhood bodegas. Over-regulating is crushing small businesses and community services. Stay involved, get involved. If we shrug our shoulders and slink away, what remains of what America once was will evaporate. One caveat, don’t be the dope that volunteers for ServSafe certification. Unless, like me, you’re looking for a hall pass straight to Heaven!

by Laura Tamagno