Kitchen cleanliness (Clemens)

In this blog post, i will be focusing more on the cleanliness of the kitchen environment,not only in terms of hygiene, but also safety . From the floors to the kitchen top and the stove, our kitchen has to be clean at all times! Imagine a kitchen where utensils and knives lay haphazardly around the table tops, sauces spilled all over the floor, expectant of an unwary person to slip and fall and maybe even rusted greasy griddles that are still in use! I will first talk about the hygiene aspect. A dirty kitchen is an open invitation to pests such as roaches or rats.These pests can come from anywhere like garbage bins and as they walk over or nibble on food, cross contamination happens. These pests carry all sorts of diseases and germs, that could infect our diners. After a busy dinner , food should not be left out on table tops ,but instead, be kept in the chiller or in air tight containers in a pest free dry store. Anything that has been spilt should be wiped up immediately as well. This greatly reduces the chances of cross contamination from occuring. To keep the kitchen pest free, It is important to have a scrub down of the kitchen every night and even more important to have pest control come in every month to do routine checks of the place.Cooking tops should be cleaned and sanitized as often as possible top keep it clean and safe for use. One poor example would be in the picture below of where the griddle pan is not properly maintained and allowed to rust.

The next point that i will be talking about is kitchen safety. Knives are the pride and joy of chefs however leaving them on the kitchen tops is not the way to showcase their beauty. Knives must always be kept in a knife block or placed neatly on white towels after usage. This would minimize any unfortunate accidents from occuring. another thing, kitchen utensils should not be allowed to pile up in kitchen sinks even in a container of soapy water. Many people would think that by putting their kitchen utensils and knives in hot soapy water, they are so top speak "washing them" and can reuse them when needed. The water would soon turn from clear to a murky colour. This is one of the most common ways that cuts can occur as an unwary person could stick their hand into the water trying to find a tasting spoon, and end up getting cut by sharp objects.