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Closed: the restaurant where chef swigged the cream and food was kept by lavatory
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard04.09.08
One of London's highly-regarded Italian restaurants has closed after undercover investigators filmed a catalogue of hygiene breaches.
They found food stored by a doorless lavatory and being dripped on by a water leak. A chef was caught swigging from a bottle of cream - transferring bacteria from her mouth onto diners' puddings. And the head chef failed to wash his hands between handling meat and chopping an avocado.
Council inspectors found inadequate pest control, staff smoking in food storage areas, and the same equipment used for raw and ready-to-eat foods.
A food hygiene consultant described conditions at the Chelsea establishment, where a typical three-course meal for two with wine is £120, as having "all the elements of devastation". L'Incontro in Pimlico Road is popular with stars such as Mick Jagger, Robert De Niro and England coach Fabio Capello.
Matt Allwright, a presenter of BBC1's Rogue Restaurants which airs tonight at 8pm, said: "We could knock out the top strata of society just from the hygiene practices in this one establishment."
Westminster council stripped the restaurant of its three hygiene stars and the owners have now shut it. It is due to reopen under new managers and a new kitchen team.
Mr Allwright, who posed as a kitchen hand, found the food storage area was a courtyard covered by a leaking roof. It was also next to a lavatory without a door. A hidden camera recorded a tub of washed spinach next to the lavatory where the head chef relieves himself.
Dr Lisa Ackerley, a hygiene expert, said the proximity meant "faecal matter could be sprayed all over the area". The investigators also saw lobster and chicken dropped on the floor and then served after a cursory rinse.
Dr Ackerley said: "Put all those together in a filthy premises where nobody cares and you have a food poisoning outbreak waiting to happen."
A lawyer for L'Incontro's proprietors Charlotte and Cristiano Chiarin said they would watch the show carefully. She added: "Problems were identified in June. The restaurant has been closed by the owners - it was not shut down - the site is being fully refurbished."
