A fundraiser for the

Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cove Cemetery

in Jersey City was stopped in its tracks Friday when city inspectors buried the event's "underground" chef with a slew of health violations.

A "beautiful event" with flickering candlelight at the Newark Avenue cemetery was ruined, according to Eileen Markenstein, president of the cemetery's board of trustees.

"I tried to explain (to city inspectors) this was to help our cemetery restoration," Markenstein said yesterday. "It was terribly embarrassing. We worked so hard."

Shortly before 7 p.m. Friday, H. James Boor, the city's chief inspector with the Division of Health, along with a fire inspector and a police officer arrived at the grounds and found chef Ramon Ruiz Delos Santos, 44, grilling food for the 45 paying guests.

Ruiz, who organizes culinary events under the name "The Underground Supper Club," was charged with selling food without a license and preparing food in a residential kitchen for sale, Boor said.

Boor said all food for sale must be prepared in commercial kitchens that have been inspected by state or municipal health inspectors.

The rice was prepared at the Ruiz's home and food cooked on grills was not being stored in proper containers for keeping the food above 135 degrees, he said.

With a risk the food was contaminated with bacteria, the dishes had to be destroyed, he said.

"If he had been a proper chef, he would have been more prepared, rather than let the food in pans at room temperature," said Boor. "The food wasn't properly handled."

Ruiz said yesterday the dishes he was preparing for the "Graveyard Barbecue Bash," including steak kabobs and organic chicken breasts, were perfectly fine. He had only finished grilling the meats and had checked them to make sure the internal temperatures were correct when the inspectors arrived.

"They (the city inspectors) descended on us like it was a drug bust," said Ruiz, who has held four previous events in Jersey City.

A former emergency worker at St. Vincent Hospital in New York City, Ruiz said he has been a personal chef since moving to Jersey City two years ago.

He said he went to the Division of Health on March 18 to find out how to obtain a food license but was told that until he had a permanent kitchen authorities could not help him.

The $40- a-ticket fundraiser was completely sold out after being promoted on the cemetery's website, Markenstein said, adding some of the guests booed as the food was being carted away in a wheel barrow.

"It was a huge drama," she said. "It was just unfortunate for a poor little cemetery that is trying so hard to survive."