nwasianweekly.com
Jan. 5, 2008

Photo by Assunta Ng

Wild Ginger proprietor Rick Yoder (right), with chef Tan Hao Ming, invited the Northwest Asian Weekly into their kitchen Dec. 16, the same day the Seattle P-I printed the Health Department’s 10-most cited restaurants.

The worst mistakes are the ones you don’t learn from

Recently, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an article about the 10 most-cited restaurants in Seattle. Prominently mentioned was the Wild Ginger, a fine-dining establishment that serves pan-Asian food. While this is rather surprising, it is hardly outright shocking. Even the most expensive restaurants can make mistakes. Wild Ginger will surely take the appropriate steps to ensure its status as one of Seattle’s preeminent restaurants, just as other restaurants that have been cited in the past have done. Wild Ginger was one of the only two restaurants on the list to issue a statement to the media. Rick Yoder, the proprietor of Wild Ginger, even invited the Northwest Asian Weekly back into his kitchen, demonstrating confidence in his kitchen practices and a willingness to let the public scrutinize his business. His transparency and willingness to cooperate should be applauded.

In fact, the Health Department’s list should be seen not as condemnation, but as a guideline for improvement. Once a restaurant has been on the list (unless it is a severe violator and shut down, of course), it can only improve.

This may sound overly Pollyanna-ish, but, as the P-I pointed out, it’s worth noting that not a single International District/Chinatown restaurant made the 10 most-cited list. Just a few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. ID restaurants were notorious for lax standards, a reputation partly deserved and partly fueled by cultural stigma. In the past, this very paper accused the Health Department of overly targeting such establishments. Now, however, in part because of such citations, ID restaurants have an increased awareness of hospitality standards. The Health Department got their message across, and now there isn’t a single appearance of an ID restaurant on the list.

Similarly, a performance audit of the Port of Seattle found several areas where management was unsatisfactory. CEO Tay Yoshitani, rather than reacting defensively, responded that the port will use those findings to improve. “I welcome the recommendations from this audit, and believe they reflect genuine opportunities to improve,” Yoshitani said in a press release. What a refreshing attitude Yoshitani demonstrates, the welcoming of criticism and suggestions.

With the herald of the new year, may we suggest the adoption of such an attitude for everyone? Mistakes are not occasions for shame and embarrassment; rather, they should be seen as a marker of current standings, and an invitation for improvement.

Likewise, once an organization, or a person, has been singled out for sub-par performance, the public should not simply write them off, but realize that the organization has only that much more incentive to improve.

Let’s strive to welcome feedback, to genuinely be grateful when our mistakes are pointed out, and to feel resolve and commitment to improve, not shame and rationalizations.

Happy New Year!

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Northwest Asian Weekly • P.O. Box 3468 • Seattle • WA  98114
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