Some Row house staff are facing a different kind of midterm in the coming weeks — every quarter, the state of California sends a health inspector to check up on the kitchens at all Row houses.

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Masaru Oka

Row houses are gearing up this week for their winter health inspection. Residential kitchens get a quarterly check-up from a Santa Clara County inspector, and unsanitary facilities can be shut down.

“Our main job as kitchen managers is to make sure the house kitchen is clean, safe and sanitary,” said Niko Malkovich ‘08, a kitchen manager at Casa Italiana. “But sometimes, even if what we were doing before was perfectly sanitary, we still have to jump through some hoops to meet state regulation.”

Kerry Ann Hamilton, a health inspector for Santa Clara Environmental Health, makes the rounds to all Stanford residential houses every quarter. After marking any kitchen violations during the fall quarter visit, Hamilton projects a ballpark date when she will visit the kitchens again during Winter Quarter. Malkovich said Hamilton’s projected date was Feb. 25, so he expects Casa Italiana will be inspected this week.

Terra also expects its kitchen to be inspected soon. Kitchen manager Michael Peterson ‘07 said that usually when inspectors report violations, their complaints deal more with the state of equipment in the kitchen than kitchen management.

“Bob had its inspection in the fall,” said Lane Barrasso ‘08, the Row house’s kitchen manager. “And the results were fine; the big thing that she really wanted us to get was sneeze guards, which are for when someone has to cough or sneeze while in the food line.”

Terra kitchen manager Mariel Bailey ‘08 said Terra had to tidy up after its kitchen’s inspection. “They told us we had too much trash outside the back door,” she said.

Other kitchen managers said that while most inspections are fairly routine, inspectors have shut down kitchens in the past if they did not meet state regulations.

“I heard that they really don’t like to close down kitchens,” said Nisha Vasavada ‘09, ZAP kitchen manager. “Kerry was a pretty nice and cooperative inspector. I imagine a kitchen would have to be really bad for her to close it down.”

Peterson remembers that the EBF kitchen was closed in the past.

“It was in the 2004-2005 school year,” Peterson said. “The health inspector then came in multiple times, and each time the kitchen was too messy, so she decided to close the kitchen.”

Asked what alternatives exist for a house without a kitchen, Peterson said, “I’d think that their only other option is to get take-out, and that’s very expensive.”