Where do you want to eat? Check out this list

• Stewarding Department
• Ideally, every kitchen in KC would look like this.

Most of the kitchens in Kansas City aren’t open, unless you’re carrying a health inspector’s badge. But this is the time of year when Kansas Citians can actually get a peek behind the swinging door, courtesy of the health department’s annual Grade A Food Excellence Awards.

“This award is designed to recognize those facilities that take the initiative to go above and beyond health code requirements to excel in sanitation and food safety,” says Naser Jouhari, the city’s code enforcement manager who oversees the program.

Food-service establishments (from restaurants to gas-station convenience stores) must have fewer than a set number of critical violations (from zero to three) and noncritical violations (from three to nine) within a calendar year to make the list. So the 2012 list is compiled based on the results of 2011 health inspections.