Management nightmare of the week: A piggy in the alley
One of the wows for today’s trend-sensitive restaurant enthusiast is dining on pork from a pig the chef has butchered his or herself to shorten the distance from sty to plate. So when an opportunity arose to break down a whole hog for the customers of Tose Steak & Sushi in Pearland, Texas, proprietor Jimmy Chi seized it. But where do you perform a feat like that in a conventionally sized kitchen?
Chi decided to butcher the pig outside, in an alley behind the restaurant. The setting might have been obscured, but it fell within camera phone range, as one customer proved by snapping a photo and posting it to social media.
The image found its way to local health authorities, since outdoor butchering in a setting more often used for storing garbage is generally frowned upon. Although the hog had been wild and was shot by one of Chi’s associates, the inspectors said Tose hadn’t endangered customers.
Still, the attention wasn’t the sort Chi wanted. He publicly apologized, explaining that he’d acted rashly in the flush of his enthusiasm over having a whole hog for the first time.