Safety and the movies: Ratatouille

by Matt King

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

If you’ve read some of my weekly news wrap–ups, you may have noticed that I am a bit of a movie geek. So, instead of talking about movies in the wrap-up (though that’s not stopping), I’m going to dedicate an entire post to figuring out the relationship between safety and the movies. If this goes well, maybe we’ll keep it going next month.

Today’s Safety and the movies is focused on Brad Bird’s second outing with Pixar, Ratatouille (2007). If you’ve not seen Ratatouille, then first, let me recommend you go out and do so, but second, let me break it down for you. The movie follows a rat named Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who is talented in the kitchen and goes to secretly work at a famous Parisian restaurant called “Gusteau’s”.

So what, you ask, can be gleaned from Ratatouille, safety wise? Well, mostly it teaches things you should NOT do, such as…

1.      Workplace violence is NOT okay.

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

 At one point in the movie, Colette (voiced by Janeane Garofalo) starts to train Linguini in the ways of fine gourmet cooking. When she first starts though, she shoves a sharp kitchen knife through Linguini’s shirt, nailing him to the table, then brandishes another knife in a threatening manner. This is not cool, at all. While the film simply shoves it aside as one of Colette’s more intense characteristics, it’s something that shouldn’t be done in the workplace.

2.      When working in a kitchen, keep things organized and clean—do NOT leave things lying around.

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

While Colette may have been terrifying a moment before, she does teach Linguini a valuable and important lesson a bit later. At one point, as he cooks soup or pasta or something, Linguini simply puts his dishes to the side. Colette storms in (again, not the greatest tactic) and tells him to always keep a clean, organized kitchen, making sure to put the dishes away so that they aren’t in the way.

3.      Rats, while cute in the movie, are NOT a good idea in the kitchen.

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

While here in Alberta, we don’t have rats, it is good to keep in mind that rodents should probably not be in kitchens. There’s a reason the health inspector in the movie freaks out when he walks in on the massive group of rats in the kitchen. While not all rats carry diseases with them, many of them may carry a number of pathogens, which can then turn into diseases, from Weil’s disease, to rat bite fever, Q fever to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, rats are simply too dangerous to keep in the kitchen and endanger not only your co-workers, but also yourself and your customers.

And those are your three safety tips. Can you think of any other ones in Ratatouille? What about another movie? Feel free to leave your answers in the comments.