Letter to the Health Department

Here is my letter to the Health Department stating the changes I would make to my pastry stand in order to meet health codes. Its entertaining, in retrospect, to see how nitpicky and exacting I had to be to meet their standards.

Revisions: Mochis

To: Patricia Ryan

From: DF

Date: June 20^th 2006

The following are responses to the topics you listed in your memorandum:

My commissary is a permitted facility with the Seattle King County Health Department.

1. There is no mop sink at the commissary. The dishwashing sink provides water for a mop and bucket, which is used to clean the floors.
2. There are two public bathrooms nearby. One is approximately 175 feet away from the cart (when I am operating) and the other is approximately 325 feet away.
3. There are two drain boards for the three compartment sink: one on the left side and one on the right side of the sink.
4. I will ensure that the Mochi is kept below 41 degrees.
5. I will keep a bleach bucket by the cart.
6. There is no water system in my cart.

 

The following are small items I neglected to update on my original health plan:

1. Instead of packaging my Mochi in Saran wrap, I am packaging it in wax paper, which, according to the Dixie Corporation, is microwave safe.

2. The top of my Mochis will have a bit of powdered sugar sprinkled on them.

3. Instead of refrigerating my Mochi after I am done preparing it, I will freeze it.

4. I stated on my menu that I will serve “Mochi with Cherry”, but on my operational procedures I said I will fill the Mochi with either chocolate or strawberries. I meant to say on my menu “Mochi with Strawberry” not “Mochi with Cherry.”

5. I said my drinks will be: Tropicana OJ: $1.35 (Costco: 24 packs)

Tree Top Apple Juice: $1.35 (Costco: 24 packs)

Kirkland bottled water: $1.00 (Costco: 35 packs)

Rather my drinks will be:

Crystal Geyser bottled water: $1.00 (Cash and Carry: 35 packs)

Minute Maid Lemonade: $1.15 (Cash and Carry: 12 packs)

Thomas Kemper Root Beer and Vanilla Cream Soda: $1.35 (Cash and Carry: 24 packs)

 

Thank you,

 

DF

D.b.a. Mochis

Mochi Land

Entrepreneurship

It’s funny how you can spin such a minor accomplishment into an epic. The Mochi business while consuming my life for a five month period really only amounted to a blip on the Seattle business community radar. A stand at the Seattle center and a couple of grocery stores saw “Mochis” rise and fall. Yet, my business can sound like a big deal when explained as such: “a five month period where I marketed, produced and sold a food product. In this time, I obtained State and City, health department and business licenses. I entered into contracts with a city agency, grocery stores, and hardware producers.”… The fancy cars, the women and the caviar: I’m a mover and shaker, baby.

 

I’ve explained my business in both plain terms and epic and both yield an excited/ impressed response from the listener. This is because, in America, we value entrepreneurship to a beautiful degree. Nowhere else is there such an understanding of the difficulty and importance of founding businesses.

 

Successful entrepreneurs often reach celebrity status in our country. They deserve it. For everything to fall into place requires ungodly amounts of skill and luck. In fact, approximately seven in every million business that start ever have an initial public offering. Mochis never had an IPO. Of course I’m disappointed (less so though after knowing the previous statistic), but had it made me millions of dollars I probably wouldn’t be analyzing entrepreneurship. I’d probably analyze pool life or just let my brain rest… How excellent that my failure should breed analysis and, hopefully, insight.