# Being a clean line cook



## bert (Jul 24, 2010)

Hello,

 What are some of the less obvious, but important things to do in order to be a clean line cook?

I know the basics of how to handle food, and that I should keep my work area clean. But I've been wondering about the towels: how dirty do they get before you switch them out? Do you have to wash your hands often at work, or are you able to work extremely cleanly? Also, where do you keep the towel- on the shoulder? In the side pocket?

 Right now I just try and leave a clean one by every station, because I have to move up and down the line a lot. I've only been a cook for a few months, and it's a small kitchen (1-2 cooks) with pretty slow business - mostly it's a bar. It's also extremely grimy. I'm not sure if I'm really learning the appropriate habits for the more serious kitchens that I aspire to eventually work in. Sometimes I just wipe my hands on my apron (not with raw chicken!) - is this bad?


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## chefboy2160 (Oct 13, 2001)

I would purchase the book "The New Professional Chef" which is one of the school books for the CIA . It has a great section on sanitation in it as well as all of the basics of food preparation . The Chapter on Mise en Place is especially helpful to new cooks but really the best thing you can do is find a kitchen with some experienced cooks and a good chef and go to school on it. You can only learn so much at a bar and grill type operation where you are the main man with most of your learning coming from trial and error.

For your question yes hands do hit aprons a lot depending on where you are at and what you are doing but a towel is much better. You should keep a bucket by the line and in the prep area filled with sanitizer (quat preferably but bleach works) solution and change your wet towels as needed and sanitizer as needed also. I do a dry towel on my shoulder for use as a pot holder when handling hot pans and such and oh if you are slow,now is a good time to learn how to clean up that grimy area. Hope this helps...............


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## culinuthiast (May 4, 2010)

it's called the professional chef, in the 8th edition, i'm pretty sure.

2 towel system ftw?


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## cheesenbacon (Jul 19, 2010)

DRY towel on shoulder, or in my case..... left side of apron.  (wiping, emergency pot holder, clean up, anything).  I change that constantly.

BLEACH towel.  On station.  Depends on how you fold it and use it.  I can get 16 uses out of every towel with a clean side.  Method = fold in half the long way.  Fold wide.  Then again.  You can back-fold as the sides get used. 
 

HOT-HANDLE towel - always wrapped around my tongs, which is ALWAYS in my left hand or on the stainless. 

This are just my personal habits.  It works though, and I am OCD about being clean and sanitary. 

My first suggestion would be to get out of a grimy kitchen, or clean it.  Just my $.02


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

I'm with cheese on this one.. either get yourself into a better place or clean the one you're working in.  Grimy kitchen=sketchy food in my book and you can't risk selling that kind of food. 

For me.. bucket of quat sanitizer filled with rags on the line, and whenever I have down time I wipe down my station.  As it was once said to me back when I baked at Tim Horton's... if you have time to lean you have time to clean...  and that is so true.


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## semperfemme (Jul 25, 2010)

I pretty much do what Culinathusiast said. I keep two towels on me at all times. We went through so many towels that, at one point, our HC started putting us on towel rations. We were only allowed to have TWO towels for our entire shift- with shifts going for 5-9 hours a piece.

Needless to say, that proved futile and unsanitary. I INSIST on keeping a clean station and kitchen,  which requires wet towels and sanitizer for cleaning. At one point, I took initiative and cleaned the slicer at it looked as it hadn't been cleaned IN DAYS.

We have two kinds of people who work in our kitchen, those who just see it as a job and do the bare minimum to get in and get out (they barely clean, don't wrap or cover food properly, etc) and those of us who actually give two squats and try to keep things spotless. *sigh* Often the latter has to clean up behind the former.


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## chefboyarg (Oct 28, 2008)

It was either Ramsay or Keller who commented on wiping down after service, saying that the surface should gleam, as your reflection is the first thing that will greet you the next morning. One place I work at rations out 2 towels per shift, so I keep one on my station for wiping dishes and one in my apron strings for hot pans.


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## grasshoppa (Jul 7, 2010)

Im rationed towels at my place too... one stack of usually six-seven towels for the whole kitchen, per shift (3 people, 8 hours) and I think its a joke sanitation-wise... I try to keep a clean one on me whenever possible, but damn sometimes its hard.... any ideas on trying to keep the few towels I have as clean as possible?


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Have a couple of friends call the manager to say they saw cooks using filthy towels in the kitchen and it looked "gross" or "disgusting." Then have them call the County Board of Health to complain that your kitchen is using filthy towels. Add your own complaint to the B of H, anonymously, as well. Make sure everyone keeps calling until hilarity eventually ensues.

It's typical of people who have very little actual power, are wasting a great deal of money and resources elsewhere, or both, to try and look good by nickel and diming something important that only costs pennies anyway. It's a way of showing they have everything under control, which to anyone who actually knows anything at all only shows they couldn't find their own behinds in the dark. Unfortunately for us, the people to whom they report are usually more clueless yet.

Show biz provides some really great examples when line producers save $1200 on two juicers and two extra-hammers at scale, but ends up costing the company $40,000 in meal penalties and golden hours that can be blamed on someone else. Forgive me if I still sound bitter; it's only because I _still_ am.

_*Moral of the Story: *_ When you'll only hurt yourself trying to go over someone's head, you must go around.

Anonyomous ex-grip


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Some places use all disposable. Except for hot pots


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Frankly, the places that ration towels have to be filthy by definition.

I use more than two just cooking at home, supplemented by paper towels. How can you keep a professional work station clean that way?

BDL, you get no sympathy from me. Hollywood has always taken advantage of the folks who do the work.

Ya wanna talk about how they used to screw extras by using historical reenactors? Used to be that they'd pay reenactors ten bucks a day plus lunch. These are people who brought their own "costumes," their own weapons, and who often were combat-trained (for those not in the know, each of those things carries a premium payment over scale---especially those certified for combat).

Great for the producers. For professional screen extras, not so much!


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## semperfemme (Jul 25, 2010)

KYHeirloomer said:


> Frankly, the places that ration towels have to be filthy by definition.
> 
> I use more than two just cooking at home, supplemented by paper towels. How can you keep a professional work station clean that way?


You CAN'T. Eventually (after about 3-4 days) our HC had to relax that policy as the owners of the restaurant were LIVID when they saw cooks using filthy towels to wipe down surfaces.


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## kvonnj (Aug 3, 2010)

How about in a place that is just replete with grease? I'm in a BBQ joint, and with all the grease in the steam and coming off the food and whatnot, it's really, really difficult to keep clean. God knows I try, but it's really tough. Suggestions?


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

KY,

What makes you think I'm the ex-grip?  He was, after all, anonymous. 

Besides, I have it on good authority that the ex-grip -- whoever he is -- would prefer a large, well aged whiskey to sympathy.  Elijah Craig is fine.  I understand you can get it nice and fresh in Kentucky where it grows wild.

BDL

PS.  Whiskey with a "e" dammit.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_.....where it grows wild._

Only near Bardstown.

And why would that any nee mous grip be drinking that acrid stuff when there's Woodford Reserve to be had? True, the Woodford is farm raised rather than wild, but still.......


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Craig 12 is very smooth.  If anything it's a little too light.  Craig 20, in spades.

Funny you should mention it, Woodford Reserve is one of the anonymous grip's two favorite everyday whiskeys.  The other is Bulleit.  Trader Joe's carries both.  How great is that?

BDL


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## cheesenbacon (Jul 19, 2010)

Two towels is just retarded. 

I'm with boar_d on this one.  It's not even frickin' expensive.

I'm a bit biased though, because I go through towels like crazy.  I am a CLEAN cook though.  I don't over-use them at all.  My method works.  I don't think 6-9 is unreasonable.

A clean kitchen is worth MUCH more than a linen service invoice.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_Craig 12 is very smooth......_

Not to hijack this thread, but a little background you might find interesting.

Elijah Craig was a Baptist minister in what is now Georgetown, KY, who is credited with the "invention" of bourbon. The whole secret, of course, is the aging in charred white oak barrels, and he was the first to do that.

The folks at Wild Turkey make a series of single-barrel special blends, one of which is as close to Craig's original forumula as it's possible to be. By today's standards it's the antithesis of mellow. After tasting it, I shudder to think what they'd been drinking before that.

Woodford Reserve's claim to fame (other than it's smooth taste, of course) is that it's produced using pot stills, same as single-malt Scotch. If you're ever out this way I'll take you to the distillery, and you can watch the process.

Now back to our regularly sceduled programming.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Should I have guilt over putting bourbon over towels?

With all respect to the good rev., I'm not talking 'bout the original recipe but the stuff them Beam boys are stuffing into bottles.



Yum-O.

But nothing's better than Woodford Reserve after the second sip. Well maybe some nice, ancient, not even bourbon Dickel.

I'll take you up on the tour,

Anonymous Ex-Grip


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_.....but the stuff them Beam boys are stuffing into bottles. _

I'm thinking Ol' Any Knee Mous has been sucking on bourbon soaked side towels so long his eyes is getting dim and he caint see the labels clearly.

Elijah Craig (which, btw, comes in 12 YO and 18 YO, but not 20) is a Heaven Hill brand, not Jim Beam. That's a nuther place altogether. Heaven Hill is in Bardstown; the last operating distillery in what had, at one time, been the bourbon capital of the world.

Woodford Reserve is produced in the old Labrot & Graham distillery, in Versailles (pronounced Ver Sales, not Ver Sigh), and is the oldest still-in-operation distillery in the state. The buildings date from 1812, and the place is gorgeous. Makers Mark is also a wonderful place to visit, btw. Beautiful, park-like grounds.

Fact is, my friend, I don't know a heck of a lot about that spoiled grape juice you guys make out there. But when it comes to the golden elixer, I do know a little sumpin.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

The Beam brothers, Parker and Craig, are the "master distillers" at Heaven Hill. 

I was wrong on the 20 y.o, thing I posted, but figured I'd come clean by posting a picture of the 18 y.o. bottle. 

FWIW (okay, not much), I prefer Woodford Reserve and Dickel 12 (even though it's not bourbon), with Bulleit just a skosh behind, to just about anything else.  I like a lot of whiskeys a lot.  Those are just the top of my "usually buy for myself" list (at least when Dickel may be had).  Anything more subtle, lighter, more nuanced, or whatever other benefits age confers either leaves me behind or is too much of a good thing; 18 y.o. Craig and Pappy Van Winkle's Special Reserve to name just two.

Craig 12 y.o. is a real bargain for a anything that well aged.  It's on the light side for my tastes, but a VGT nonetheless. 

Yours in Rebel Yell hell,

The Anonymous Ex-Grip


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Sorry. When you said "Beam" I just assumed Frere James.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Beam works too.  Someone just gave me a 1.5L bottle of white label.  Grab your bendy straw and mosey on over.     

The Anonymous Ex-Grip


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Can anyone spell "HIJACK"! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif


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## chefontherun (Aug 3, 2010)

You should have three side towels per shift. Two are for hot pan and handles and one for cleaning your station, In New York you must keep it in Sanitation Solution for the Health Department and the two dry one's need to be worn on your side's. Really you should keep them out of sight. If it is slightly dirty replace. A clean line cook is a pro.


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## coup-de-feu (Aug 4, 2010)

I work with a long side towel, about 2.5 or 3 feet long. The advantage is you can use it to grab hot things while it is still tucked in your apron (saves a lot of time and you don't loose it), and if you need to grab something with two handles it is long enough to get booth of them so you only need one side towel. Also its got enough surface area so you can dry your hands on it a couple of times if you need to. Its never used to wipe anything other than just washed hands.

each station should have its own bucket, color coded spongy rags for each post. and really, each post should have its own sink, but....

One place I worked gave us *one* apron and *one* side towel per* week*. at the end of an open to close day the apron and towel were washed in a bucket and hung to dry above the french top. From the point of view of the cook it is excessive - after a long day the last thing you want to do is laundry by hand! From the point of view of the chef it saved a lot of money and we were able to stay competitive.

Here is one thing that a lot of cooks seem to overlook: when a container is wrapped and put away the sides of it half to be clean - say you got a 600 6th that's half full of sauce, it can't have sauce up and down the inside of it sticking to the sides. That part drys out and can contaminate the rest of the container, even if its not contaminated the quality is ruined.

The real trick to being clean is not making a mess in the first place. Big cutting boards, the right sized containers, don't wipe stuff onto the floor...


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

_From the point of view of the chef it saved a lot of money and we were able to stay competitive_.

I don't see it. If the pennies spent on good sanitation are all that stands between your place and the competition there's something really wrong. Maybe the food and/or labor costs are out of line? Or some other problem?

Certainly you're right that working clean goes a long way towards staying clean. But, really...there's a reason why penny wise and pound foolish remains a saying.


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## coup-de-feu (Aug 4, 2010)

I should clarify:  This above mentioned gastronomic bistro was was run by an extraordinary chef who had the balls to go into direct competition with Paul Bocuse (there in Lyon).  Most chefs of his caliber run teams of 20 or more, he had a team of 4.  We got two days off a week instead of the usual one, and he payed better than anyone else.  He expected more out of us, but he always took time to teach and coach.  I'd go the extra mile for him any day, but these are not typical circumstances.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2010)

The method I use to stay clean is pretty simple.

I set my station up with a trash can really close, my french knife, a cutting board, two towels, and three plates for my raw proteins.

Okay, 1 towel is your wipe towel, after you get all your pans on, have seasoned everything and put it on the pan, wipe down everything, minus your protein plates, as that will contaminate your towel. Try and keep your saute pans as close to everything you add as possible, that way, if you accidently drop some excess, you can grab it again, and it falls in a decent place/easy to clean place if it's a sauce.

When your wipe towel gets wet, put it on the oven door. It'll dry out. Your other towel is your dry towel, and IT SHOULDN'T GET DIRTY.

The hardest thing I have a problem with is pasta, especially long pastas. The best advice I can offer is get a firm grip, and avoid excess.

Just remember your ABC's. Always be cleaning. Check your tickets, make sure your station is clean. Do you need the dishwasher to come sweep your area/bring you any plates/pans? You just turned everything off to wait for the fire, is your station clean? Is there stuff on your burners? Wipe it off!

Just be conscious about it for a while, and then it will become second nature.


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## rocktrns (Mar 14, 2010)

I still have to work on that. When ever its really busy its hard for me to keep my station clean.


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## chefgord (Sep 28, 2009)

I keep a bleach bucket online & in the back prep area as well as a soap bucket. I also have hot temp check sheets that are constantly filled out & cooler temp checks as well.

It's always a good habit to clean & sanitize as much as possible as you go. I don't keep extra cloths/rags online to get dirty. Everybody carries a hot cloth or two for grabbing hot pans & such, & besides that it's just the bleach &soap cloths.

Nothing worse than walking onto a line & seeing dirty cloths sitting on prep areas/cutting boards. Or somebody's station where there's ten dirty rags in front of them.


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