Sometimes a person can learn something in the strangest places. While sitting in traffic in my neighborhood, I came across a bumper sticker on the vehicle ahead of me which claimed membership in something called the International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association. The what?
You better believe I looked it up. It’s an entity founded in 1989 to provide professional and safety code quality professionals who can clean and maintain restaurant kitchen exhaust equipment. According to the information on their website (ikeca.org), many eatery kitchen fires that could get out of control can be prevented by having a clean exhaust system. The organization trains and certifies technicians to do this job.
This is a country full of clubs, organizations and groups (I don’t even have to mention politics, religion or Lady Gaga), but in our world of micro-tasking is it so unusual to separate the kitchen exhaust from the appliances it supports? When a repair technician arrives at a restaurant, would (s)he go the extra step to check the exhaust, or would it be ignored because an organization like IKECA exists and it’s “their job, not mine” to do that?
It’s good to have specialists, but throw in too many and it can look like the Monty Python “Gas Cooker Sketch,” with umpteen people in your kitchen discussing your exhaust while your risotto burns.
As in the world of medicine, it’s good to have general practioners and specialists in many other fields. A stove repair technician should have some knowledge of a kitchen exhaust, and a direct dial to somebody from IKECA in case of emergency.
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