Remember that BLD salmonella story from last month? There was an outbreak from a bad batch of hollandaise sauce, we got a slew of emails about it, the numbers were rising, and so we spoke with owner Amy Knoll Fraser to get the scoop before it got out of control. Turns out the number of people stricken rose to 40, including LAT reporter Joel Rubin who gave a detailed account of getting sick only to learn that one of his favorite restaurants was the culprit.
After his investigation, Rubin found that the kitchen and the eggs were equally responsible: Chef Neal Fraser didn't cook eggs to 145 degrees for his hollandaise sauce becuase the end result was not as good, couple that with a contaminated egg (where this particular strain of salmonella came from) and it was a recipe for disaster. The most disturbing fact to us, still, is not that Fraser made hollandaise the good old-fashioned way. It's that while all of these organic eggs come from vaccinated birds, there's no way of individually testing all of the eggs, so it's really luck of the draw. At least at BLD, all future crises will be averted---the Frasers now use pasteurized egg yolks for the hollandaise and Caesar dressings. And Rubin still has faith: Not only did he go back to BLD, but he ordered a plate of eggs Benedict to boot.
· Making the right sick call [LAT]
· Rumor Control: BLDs Hollandaise Hell [~ELA~]
