The wood-fired oven at DeFazio’s Pizzeria in Troy burns at about 900 degrees.
Peering into it in normal circumstance can induce at least a wince. When working under COVID-19 restrictions, “Sometimes you think the mask is going to catch on fire,” said owner Rocco DeFazio.
Restaurant kitchens in summer are hot places anyway. Even newer buildings with large, air-conditioned kitchens can stay around 85 to 90 degrees during service, with regular ovens running beyond 500 degrees, pizza ovens hotter, 30,000-BTU burners on commercial stoves and meat broilers at 1,500 degrees, not to mention commercial dish machines belching hot, humid clouds every few minutes. In older buildings, many not designed as restaurants, with kitchen equipment and staff crammed into small spaces, ambient temperatures can push toward 130 degrees, according to readings collected by the Times Union during past summer heatwaves.
Now add to that a government-mandated face mask, and you get a staff of stifled, sweaty, overheated people making food for a surge in customers eager to dine out again.
“It’s pretty terrible on days when it’s hot outside,” said Jasper Alexander, who owns Hattie’s Restaurant in Saratoga Springs, located in a building from the beginning of the 20th century.
Last weekend, between Hattie’s indoor and outside seating, Alexander and his team fed 200 Father’s Day diners, he said. Doing a level of businesses Hattie’s hasn’t seen in more than three months, combined with 90-plus-degree weather and a sweat-soaked fabric mask clinging to his face and impeding breathing, Alexander drank several gallons of water, he estimated.
“The next day I was pretty shot,” said Alexander, speaking Wednesday from a relatively cool, calm area of his kitchen while making Key lime pies before dinner service started.
Kitchen staff said multiple factors govern whether a summer shift in a mask is merely aggravating or wholly unpleasant. Prep duties or working the station for salads and other cold fare is tolerable, staff said. Reaching into an oven, standing over a stove with multiple burners cranking, flipping meat on the grill, opening a dishwasher door to billows of steam: All are varying levels of bad. Retreat is necessary.
“The best place is the walk-in” cooler, said Krista Espinal, chef de cuisine of Yono’s and dp: An American Brasserie in Albany. “You’re pretty happy to be in there.”
“I’ll say, ‘Where’s so-and-so?’ and we’ll find him in the cooler, sitting on one of the cases of cheese,” said DeFazio. Like other restaurateurs interviewed, DeFazio said he mandates breaks more often and reminds staff to drink plenty of water.
“Having a mask on raises your body temperature, so we try to make sure they get out of the kitchen, go outside to take it off for a few minutes,” DeFazio said.
“We’ve been rotating people out of (hot stations) after an hour or so,” said Jon Pang, head chef of The Brook Tavern in Saratoga. After a break outside, or in the cooler downstairs, the cook comes back for a stint at a cold station, Pang said.
Kitchen work in a COVID-19 summer is more challenging for staff who wear eyeglasses, which when a mask is worn get foggy even worse than normal.
“A couple of my guys (have glasses), and they hate how much they fog up from a mask,” Pang said.
One of the line cooks at Garden Bistro 24 in Slingerlands recently switched from glasses to contact lenses, said Pat Bulman, who has worked for the company for eight of the 10 years he’s been in professional kitchens. GB24’s building, the second opened by owner John Grizzaffi, is just 7 years old, and the air-conditioned kitchen is comparatively spacious.
“On the worst days it’s still only in the low to mid-80s,” said Bulman, who described wearing a mask as, most of the time, “only mildly annoying.” He added, “But I sweat a lot. That makes it worse.”
For Elliott Vogel, who became executive chef of Savoy Taproom in Albany soon before the coronavirus shutdown of restaurant dining rooms happened in mid-March, mask-related communication difficulties are worse than extra heat and slightly restricted breathing. A head chef often expedites plates during busy periods, calling out orders to the various stations as they are printed, asking for updates on food coming from different cooks for the same table and conferring with servers.
“All of that is much harder,” said Vogel.
“With a mask on, I find myself yelling when I don’t want to be yelling, just to make sure I’m heard,” said Pang, who worked at The Brook Tavern for five years, left, and returned in January to take over the kitchen.
Said Vogel, “It’s just something we have to put up with, so we try to make sure to stay nice to each other.”
Head chefs and restaurateurs said they and staff tend to have a resigned attitude about masks: They’re required at the moment by state regulations, the thinking seems to be, so it’s not worth getting upset about.
“It’s hot, stuffy and often hard to breathe,” said Kevin Hsu, chef-owner of Pebbles Asian Fusion in Latham. But, he added, “Now that wearing a mask has become a habit, I’m used to it. I think it's an act of responsibility."
A large majority of customers seem to agree, restaurant representative said, and some express thanks for the obvious extra steps businesses are taking to try to ensure their safety with masked staff, cleaning regimens, frequent sanitizing and more.
A few patrons, however, have been less sanguine. Current state mandates stipulate that restaurant customers are to wear masks except when seated. Some view the requirement as an infringement on personal liberty or freedom of choice, and they register objections.
“We’ve for sure had some real a--holes,” said Alexander, who, with his wife, Beth, owns Hattie’s in Saratoga and its fast-casual sibling, Hattie’s Chicken Shack in Wilton.
“We just politely kick them out,” said Alexander. “I’m not putting up with it. If you want to go out to eat, these are what the requirements are now. And believe me, our conditions are much tougher than what (customers) have to deal with. We basically tell them, ‘If you don’t like it, you can always try somewhere else up the street.’ We’re nicer about it than that, but that’s the message.”
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June 26, 2020 at 12:06AM
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Think masks are a pain? Try wearing one in a restaurant kitchen - Times Union
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