“I’m shocked and appalled.”
For many people, cooking is a gray area. Most people have personal preferences, specifications and personal preferences when dining out that can often make or break the experience. Chefs also have their own methods, which are often as unique as their customers’ tastes.
When it comes to food safety, however, cooking is more black and white. Allie Hagerty (@thealliehagerty), a Massachusetts food blogger and content creator who developed the digital publication Seasoned & Salted, took to TikTok to explain a huge food mistake she saw a chef make. No, it’s not just forgetting an ingredient or accidentally adding too much salt. According to her and many of her viewers, this mistake could have been fatal.
As of this writing, her post has received over 468,000 views.
What is a “fatal” error?
Hagerty explained that when an executive chef was making “pasta with clams, mussels, [and] Shrimp,” he made a grave mistake.
Initially, the chef’s only mistake was putting various seafood items into the dish “in the wrong order.” Generally, chefs cook shrimp, scallops and soft shellfish in separate pots or at the beginning of the cooking process. Then they set it aside. Add the clams and mussels to the final pasta before adding back the cooked shrimp.
Then she noticed another problem.
“He added the pasta to the pot and mixed it up, but the clams didn’t open, so he took the knife,” Hagerty said. “He thought… like, he obviously thought it was a good move. He took the knife and stuck it in the clam and opened it up and served it.”
Why is this error fatal?
Hagerty explains why this mistake isn’t just personal preference.
“If the clam doesn’t open when it’s steamed, it’s a dead clam. So, you can get a waterborne disease from eating it. Well, it’s dangerous, and anybody who’s ever cooked seafood, like, that’s the first thing I tell people, people should know,” Hagerty said.
The content creator then expressed some doubts about the chef’s cooking skills. “Especially people who have a culinary license, like… who are executive chefs and have been doing this for twenty years or so should know that,” she added.
Hagerty is right. The FDA recommends that people who cook clams discard any clams that are not opened during cooking. “During the cooking process, the shells will open – throw away those that have not opened,” the government said.
Takeout adds, “Healthy, live clams typically have their shells tightly closed by contracting muscles. During the cooking process, the clams die, and as the muscles relax, the clams’ shells naturally open. If the clams do not open during the cooking process, it is a sign that they may be contaminated and are risky to eat.”
Is this mistake common knowledge?
Viewers of Hagerty’s post appeared to be divided over whether her food safety advice was common sense.
One commenter commented: “My grandpa always said, ‘Don’t boil it and don’t open it!'”
Another said, “Everyone says it’s common sense but I don’t know…but I’m not an executive chef and I didn’t grow up eating mussels.”
While this isn’t necessarily common to customers, most chefs learn basic food safety practices through culinary school or while actively working. According to viewers, not opening dead clams is pretty basic food safety practice.
“Honestly, everything outside of food safety is preference, the only part of being a chef that is 100% necessary is the food safety part haha,” one viewer commented.
AllHipHop reached out to Hagerty via TikTok DMs and comments for more information. This story will be updated if she responds.
@thealliehagerty
I was shocked and appalled that the chef at the restaurant did not have this basic seafood knowledge.
♬ Original Sound – thealliehagerty
