Why I don’t worry about bad hygiene at Michelin restaurants

There would have been some long and pale faces recently at the excellent Sportsman pub in Seasalter after Canterbury City Council gave it a damning two-star hygiene rating.

This much-loved Michelin star pub recently wowed some friends of mine with skate wings and caviar-rimmed oysters. It’s hard to square their delicious meal with the descriptions of mouldy surfaces in the refrigerators, stained food storage containers, and chefs wearing leather bracelets while cooking. 

I’ve never visited the restaurant myself, but it’s still firmly on my bucket list. Probably even more so now that it’ll likely be easier to get a booking. I spent most of my twenties cooking in restaurants like these, and now, mercifully, I spend as much time as possible eating in them instead.

I read Canterbury council’s hygiene review, but nothing in it made me worried about eating at the Sportsman. I was hoping to find a real clanger in the inspector’s notes, like a dead rat in the soup, but he just went on to talk about some missing entries from the fridge temperature logs, an outdated allergen review, and a gap in the cellar door.