Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 19


     
     1        well have fixed that problem so that when they did go, the
     2        whole lot went, but I distinctly remember when the RCD was
     3        first installed, the real problem of it was I was in the
     4        kitchen on the first day it was installed and the grills
     5        tripped out twice and we did not have any indication of it,
     6        because the heat lights came on at the bottom of the grills
     7        and that was the only real indication there was any
     8        problem.  They were normally on anyway when you were busy
     9        because you were laying 12 pieces of meat instead of nine
    10        so the grills were finding it very difficult to recover.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause.  When you talk about the heat
    13        lights, you mean just the same as a domestic oven when it
    14        is heating up the light is on, when the oven goes off
    15        because the thermostat is -- it has affected the
    16        thermostat; then if you open the oven to baste your
    17        joint  ---
    18        A.  It will come back on.
    19
    20   Q.   -- if you ever eat a joint or meat of any kind, the
    21        temperature drops and the light comes on again and then it
    22        goes off later when the oven is up to temperature?
    23        A.  Yes.
    24
    25   Q.   Is that what you are talking about?
    26        A.  Yes.  There were three probes to it.  It was not just
    27        one probe.  There were three lights for each separate
    28        platen, and that was -- I think they were a probe for the
    29        front, the middle and the back of the grill, and they would
    30        show that these areas were heating up.  Like you say, the
    31        thermostat would say it is heating, but the thing is it
    32        would show it was heating and there was no power coming in,
    33        so the temperature was permanently dropping so the
    34        thermostat would just say it was heating all the time.
    35
    36        I remember that problem with it.  It was a nuisance anyway
    37        when they tripped out afterwards, especially with the HVAC,
    38        because you had to reset everything.  But the problem with
    39        the RCDs initially was that you could not see the fact that
    40        the food was coming up more and more uncooked.  It was a
    41        gradual thing; it took three or four runs to notice it; and
    42        it was happening because the pneumatic still worked.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  I will read on:  "A more significant problem with
    45        the grills in the Bath store was that the clam shells were
    46        smaller than normal, I assume due to lack of space.
    47        Officially, we were never expected to cook more than nine
    48        pieces of regular meat under one clam (grills) (normally 12
    49        pieces were cooked), as it directly contravened the
    50        Company's policies on beef integrity.  During busy periods, 
    51        especially Saturdays, it was common practice to lay 12 
    52        pieces of meat under the clams, as nine pieces were simply 
    53        not adequate for the volume of business.  The lack of space
    54        on the clam gave little room for error, causing more
    55        overlapping of meat under the clam and more displacing of
    56        meat outside the clam.  These errors occasionally seriously
    57        affected the quality of products being served.  It was
    58        generally accepted by Managers in the store that laying 12
    59        pieces of meat was often essential to keep up with volume.
    60        I had, myself, witnessed a Supervisor in charge of many

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