Chefs White Jacket

[lioness]

I'm looking for a way to clean my son's (culinary student and part time chef) white chef's jacket and apron. I've tried Shout, Spray and Wash, Spot Shot, Oxy Clean, lots of bleach and a combination of all with various results. Some stains (black streaky stains) seem to stay there despite my best efforts. Does anyone have a better solution?

[MarkIsCooking]

I'm not sure what the stains are but I had an accident with a Sharpie marker and I used Amodex and it worked fairly well.

Best of luck,

-mark-

[ChefJohnny]

My suggestion... get more coats and aprons. A chef can never have too many. A good helping of bleach usually does the trick for me.

-Chef Johnny

[Keith Orr]

Peroxide often works on organic stains

[chezcherie]

i used to have good luck with Zout. (now i wear black or burgundy coats.)

[alanamoana]

your son's jackets are probably a cotton/poly blend. if that is the case, then stains are much harder to get out than 100% cotton. pre-treating with shout or spray-n-wash with a healthy dose of bleach usually works for my 100% cotton jackets.

the black streaks you're talking about are from sheet pans or the bottoms of saute pans and the like and they won't come out regardless of what you do. the sheet pans are usually aluminum and they just give off this black stuff after being used a lot (grease, oven crud, etc.). there's no hope.

sorry!

[Marky Marc]

Some of the guys I work with swear by Tilex, the tile cleaner. Apparently it gets their whites done perfectly. Now that I think of it their jacket are usually pretty clean.

[K8memphis]

I'm looking for a way to clean my son's (culinary student and part time chef) white chef's jacket and apron.  I've tried Shout, Spray and Wash, Spot Shot, Oxy Clean, lots of bleach and a combination of all with various results.  Some stains (black streaky stains) seem to stay there despite my best efforts.  Does anyone have a better solution?

←

a) he can do his own laundry, and even learn to iron

"heavy on the starch"

Chef-boy-wonder himself in the days he was previously known as chef-wanna-be

(Bears striking resemblance to tomato boy there.)

b) hope that eventually he gets a gig with laundry privileges

But truly going all cotton helps wonders like Alana said. I've gotten that nasty grey stuff out before with some of the products already mentioned. And washing over and over and over.

Edited May 21, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[turkeybone]

I've had success with the grey sheet-pan stains by rubbing them liberally with ivory soap, and scraping them out with the back of a spoon.. granted, too much of this will just wear down the fabric, but it does a good job of getting out the grey.

[LB Howes]

your son's jackets are probably a cotton/poly blend.  if that is the case, then stains are much harder to get out than 100% cotton.  pre-treating with shout or spray-n-wash with a healthy dose of bleach usually works for my 100% cotton jackets.

the black streaks you're talking about are from sheet pans or the bottoms of saute pans and the like and they won't come out regardless of what you do.  the sheet pans are usually aluminum and they just give off this black stuff after being used a lot (grease, oven crud, etc.).  there's no hope.

sorry!

←

I agree with Alanamoana about poly/cotton jacket stains being harder to remove. Another drawback to poly/cotton is that it retains odors - cooking and body. And, also teach him to wash his own jackets. (I'm a mom of 2 sons.)

If budget allows, have him buy a jacket for every day so he won't be tempted to wear the same one two days in a row. Even if the jacket looks clean there's usually some spashes or splatters on it somewhere and wearing it another day on a hot line just cooks them right into the fabric. along with the previous days' food odors and sweat.

[GordonCooks]

Spray with Bleche-White (automotive white wall cleaner) and scrub the tough stains - works like a charm.

[Marigene]

I have found that M30 takes out all stains, grease, grass, chocolate, blood, etc. out of just about any fabric. I can find it in the local $store and some times in the grocery.

[BeetsandBlueCheese]

As a culinary student, I've had good luck with Cascade or comparable dish washing detergent used to scrub the jacket in particular trouble spots and then add some to the laundry detergent. "Sheet tray grease" is notoriously hard to get out, but I've had the best luck with the previous method. I also go through a gallon of bleach about every three weeks.