Chef Tweet of the Week: If You Can't Beat Em....

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jan 11, 2012 4:20PM

There's been a lot of silliness in the media lately about health inspections, ever since the city made the inspection database public. Even Alinea failed an inspection, but there's no need to panic - a "failure" can be just a minor infraction, which can include almost anything. As long as problems are corrected, no one is in much danger. In this new atmosphere of transparency and possible hysteria, it's nice to see a chef who can make fun of the rules while still following them. Chef Shin Thompson of Bonsoiree decided to play with the inspectors a little bit last night, and tweeted it to the world for all to see.

We've all seen those little warnings at the bottom of menus warning of the dangers of uncooked food. Our favorite twist on them is the menu at The Bristol - we've seen variations like "The Cook County Department of Health would like to inform you that consuming raw or uncooked foods may, in fact…put a damper on your day" or "The Cook County Department of Health would like to inform you that consuming raw or uncooked foods may, in fact…make you want to dance!"

Thompson did them one better. He tweeted last night: "Inspector said I need to post a consumer advisory on menu for raw fish. I don't have a menu so I opted to put on plate." The tweet included a picture of the setup - a dish he calls a "Sashimi of escolar, tuna, and salmon checkerboard." He told us later that he had the warning etched between two pieces of heavy glass and melted them together. The best part? They invited the inspector for dinner.