ORLANDO, Fla. – Only Local 6 has tried multiple times to talk to Susan Kocay, the the owner of Kitchen Divas, which catered a holiday luncheon at a Maitland office building where several dozen people fell ill.
[MORE: Read inspection report from Thursday | Friday's report ]
The party was held Wednesday for hundreds of employees of various companies at the Maitland Colonnade office building. About two hours after the party, multiple people complained of food poisoning symptoms. Paramedics treated 55 people, 25 of whom had to be taken to a hospital.
The heath department and Department of Business Professional Regulation is now investigating Kitchen Divas.
A state inspector spent 6 hours with Kocay on Thursday at the only place she is licensed to prepare food, a commercial kitchen in Winter Springs where multiple caterers are licensed.
DBPR on Friday released its latest inspections of the kitchen, which found violations that required attention like residue on the handwash sink, dead roaches on premises and food storage in a private home.
Officials said the violations require a follow up inspection, but are not an immediate threat to the public.
Another caterer, who has been at the commissary all week preparing food, told Local 6 that Kocay hadn't been there and they haven't seen her there in years. The caterer's work was interrupted for several hours on Thursday while inspectors investigated Kitchen Divas.
Kocay told inspectors that she made most of the meal at her home, according to the other caterer. The DBPR says it's still looking into that allegation.
Kocay returned to the commissary Friday morning and still refused to answer Local 6's questions about where she prepared the food or what possibly happened at the party. She spent another two hours with a state inspector, who shut the kitchen down due to standing water in one of the sinks.
Meanwhile, health department epidemiologists are interviewing the people who got sick and testing samples of the food to find out what caused the illness.