Comments on: Next level rag type shit…

By: David Zilber

David Zilber — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:20:58 +0000

At mutherfuckin West, they had a food cost cutting bonanza about halfway through my tenure there, we went from unlocked linen cabinet to lock and key, 2 ragaday! By the end, you got very good at using one a day, and hoarding the rest in the cubby under your station. Turned into a market, basically. If the cook on garde manger got his fucked up, covered in beet juice or something, he’d come over to me on entremetier, and it would literally be an exchange for, chopped chives, tomate concasse, whatever. Always in good humour though. Learning to live off one towel a day is a skill. (Granted, we got leados for underneath our boards, so maybe that’s cheating.)

By: jchaput

jchaput — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:11:18 +0000

Keep a rubber ring from a snap top jar. The 1 lt size are great for this. Cut it into 4 x 1/4 circle pieces and put a piece under each corner of your cutting board. Now your board won’t slip, and you have an extra rag.

By: Neil Wyles

Neil Wyles — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:54:28 +0000

I go round and round with this as I own the restaurant and cook.

The last thing I want to do on a Sunday is run home and do a load of kitchen rags in my washer because there are none for service tonight.

We have had chaps that have blistered through a bundle of rags ( 50 )in a shift that should have lasted us days and it has swung the other way with people using table linen for pot holders.

There is a happy medium and that is probably 5 rags per shift per person.

You want to encourage safe practices and you certainly do not want to discourage cleaning. I fear this will always be an issue as long as there are restaurants.

My frustration is all of the usable counter space covered up with everyone’s rags!! It is like the are marking their space with rags and do not cross the lines.

By: chung

chung — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:21:33 +0000

I’m often more concerned with the wasteful nature of the front of house regarding cloths

By: Matt R.

Matt R. — Sun, 24 May 2009 08:19:36 +0000

Nothing makes me sicker in a kitchen than some dirty cook drying his or her hands on a dirty kitchen towel. Have some pride, keep yourself clean and don’t pick up this guys bad habits! Keep your dry rag dry (and clean), keep your wet wiping rag in some sanitizer, and for gods sake, dry your hands with paper towel!

By the way, it’s true. Rags are like chopped herbs – the more you have, the more you will use and waste. I think, in most situations, 3-5 towels per person per shift ought to be enough.

By: GQ

GQ — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:57:44 +0000

Every kitchen I’ve every worked in has had wet towels hanging from the salamander handle, but since living in the states the health department does not allow wet rags under cutting boards( a warm wet towel on a bacteria laden surface for hours). This is a very unhygienic practice your employer should purchase and issue a Board Mate (made of a rubber antibacterial material) for each cook, if you lose it you pay for its replacement.I did this in a major resort and it worked well.Cooks will always hide rags.Ive seen bags of hundreds a day used when no limit is in place.Even seen whole bags in the Garbage mistaken for rubbish in black bags.
GQ