Using a dirty-water vessel for kitchen tools

[Annie_H]

I totally get the commercial use of hot water containers at the back of a flat top. I sometimes use a simmering sauce pan, back burner, when making soups or stews that need stirring or stocks. Usually a sauce pan that steamed eggs or cooked potatoes or blanched something. 

But this baffles me. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I like RickBayless fine enough. A good teacher for maybe a younger following.  I was unaware that he also, like so many, started a home cooking channel during lockdown. 

A fellow designer sent me this video a few months ago. We were discussing the ceiling lamps behind him with the sound off. (looks like LouisPoulsen) but commercial. Maybe inspired by.

Anywho, if interested, zip to minute 26. He has a container 'spoon rest' that he dips in and out for the whole hour.  He earlier cleaned shrimp, canned tomatoes, chipotles, has two soups on the stove, using box stocks. Stirring dipping, stirring again and again. It is a commercial sanitizer in the container he brought home from his restaurant. I'm guessing like what is used behind a bar for glassware---spinning brushes, then a rinse in a second sink of fresh water, then onto a drying rack. Or dried with a clean towel if needed right away. 

Chipotles are oily so lots of the soup stirring ingredients will rise to the top of the sanitizer liquid. I realize it is food grade and won't kill you but seems an odd thing to do. At minute 26 he is making a small blender dressing and grabs a silicone spatula dripping with the sanitizer to push down the ingredients. I could see in a commercial kitchen to have a sanitizer handy for counters, near the sink even, after a quick clean of a knife, dip in sanitizer, then wipe off. 

RB seafood soup and creamy garlic dressing

 

[AlaMoi]

that looks more like a film set than a home kitchen . . .

keep in mind - he does/did his thing in commercial kitchens - the regulations for commercial kitchen procedures will baffle and befuddle any home cook.  stuff 'just don't make sense' etc. - results of 'inspectors' interpreting 'laws' - but if commercial operations don't follow the rules as their local inspector decides they are . . . they'll get shut down.  if a line cook used a typical 'spoon rest' they'll get nailed to the wall for 'possible cross contamination' and 'work surface not maintained in a clean and orderly manner.'

same as super high end chefs wandering around (on TV...) the kitchen with a pocketful of 'tasting spoons' - does that happen in real life?  you don't wanna know . . . we've booked 'the chef's table in the kitchen' - you can see what happens 'off camera'

 

I have a veddy nice stainless steel aka heavy aka stays put spoon rest.  more often than not, I use a small plate, the lid of an expended jar/empty pyrex bowl, used mise-en place little bowl, or my favorite . . . the wood cutting board, which is right behind me and in easy reach . . . it's going to get cleaned up anyway, right?

[Annie_H]

No, not a film set. That would be too expensive. A few dozen, maybe more, on-line y-tube chefs, did start home content when lock-down happened. Pre-vaccination. No patience to watch many but some were good. Jacque Pepin's daughter has kept him active after his wife passed. He did a basic cooking 101 I sent to friends/co-workers just learning. In his own kitchen. 

That is Rick Bayless home kitchen he has had for 25 years. RickBayless home kitchen

Nice kitchen set-up and works for him. 

I was just curious about the 'dirty water' vessel. I've been in many high end kitchens and worked in restaurants since I was 15 through university. Mostly wait staff. Just have not seen a vessel of commercial grade sanitizer at home or commercial. Rinse it, wipe it on a damp cloth. I. think it is bleach based but dilute. 

No biggy. Nobody seems to care. 

 

[pastrygirl]

Kinda nasty.  Definitely an opportunity for cross-contamination of allergens, and do you really want to add a few drops of sanitizer to your food every time?

 

Rick is looking sharp, though.

[catdaddy]

I think the liquid in that container is plain water. It gets changed periodically as needed and would never pass inspection by a health dept....Or did Rick say there were chemicals in the water?

[Annie_H]

No, not water. It is commercial sanitizer he brought home from his restaurant. Someone asked in the comment section and he responded. 

(I would not make that up). And it was not changed during the cooking session. The tools are in the exact same position the entire time. 

Eater and BonAppetite have well produced follow-the-chef shows in high end restaurants. I always see a container of tasting spoons, spoon ends  up and a container next to it for used ones--spoon ends down. Stations separate for produce and proteins. 

My kitchen is small but with a very efficient tight cooking triangle. Main prep next to the stovetop is produce only. Spin, next to the sink, is prep #2 for proteins with a separate designated cutting board. We are slobs everywhere else but with a small kitchen we are 'team clean' about countertops and sink. The floor can wait. 

 

 

[paulraphael]

Dipping dirty cookware in sanitizer is strange behavior. You can't sanitize dirty stuff, for one thing. Organic matter competes with the sanitizing chemicals (whether it's bleach, quaternary ammonium, or whatever). And you'd be stirring sanitizer, drop by drop, into your sauce. 

 

For a spoon rest I use a pot lid, a quarter-sheet pan, or just the countertop. No need for a special doodad. There's no risk of cross contamination, because whatever I'm using I'll wash and sanitize or replace over the course of cooking. Sometimes more than once.

 

People should talk about this more. Just tonight I sautéed some chicken thighs. For the first half of cooking I set utensils on the sheet pan that I'd used to prep the thighs. After they were browned on both sides, the sheet pan and all the utensils went to the sink for washing and sanitizing. Otherwise, I'd have just kept recontaminating the surface of the chicken. That pan and those utensils didn't get used for anything else until after the chicken was browned and the tools and surface sanitized.