The single most important tool in a professional kitchen...

[sir pball]

As 31-year industry veteran, this is one of the most gospel truths about commercial kitchens that I've ever read.

https://www.foodandwine.com/the-most-important-tool-in-a-restaurant-11874731

[usonian]

1. In the galaxy.

[sir pball]

2. Oh MAN

As a lifelong DNA fan (I first read H2G2 at like…12) that connection never even occurred to me.

NEVER forget your towel(s)!!!

[TexasTowelie]

3. I've been saying that for decades.

Don't forget to bring a towel. You don't know where hotel towels have been.

[3catwoman3]

9. Or even home towels. It took me years to get my husband to cooperate...

...with my preference for not washing dishtowels with underwear and bath towels that you've dried your butt with in the same load. He'd usually try to justify doing so by assuring me he was using hot water. "We're not an industrial laundry, so it's not hot enough," would be my answer.

He mostly doesn't do that anymore, and when he forgets, I just rewash them.

[Turbineguy]

4. That's right!

[usonian]

6. I first heard it on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with Rula Lenska

Left a "dent" in my psyche

And a pain in all the diodes down my right side.

[Kali]

5. a towel is to an oven mitt

as a real cook is to someone who very rarely cooks.

[sir pball]

7. Oh, I like that.

I'm not sure I've used an oven mitt since I was 16…

Just make sure that towel is DRY!

[Kali]

8. I will use quilted oven mAts

but I find grabbing a towel is just easier. not much that is more useless and clumsy than a big puffy one-thumb mitten. have you tried the silicon mat/trivets as a pot holder? they work even wet, but personally I don't like the texture, prefer a towel.

[sir pball]

10. The mats do work, but they're stiffer and more uncomfortable, plus you can't keep them on your person.

Towels are still the single best "oven mitt" I've used.

I take two towels for an entire workweek and keep them tucked behind the front of my apron (I learned that from Mugartiz); I religiously keep them dry and grease-free and stash them in my locker every night.

In a commercial kitchen it's more important to have a "potholder" on your body, immediately accessible, rather than anything else. Having a towel in a quickdraw is better than any silicone potholder on the shelf.

[tishaLA]

11. One of the first things in the great Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques"

is about the towel. How to attach a towel to your apron. (loop it around the apron string once by the tail end so it's not obstructive but there when you need it). Not even Bourdain argued with Pepin, so who am I to challenge him? (video of much of Complete Techniques is on youtube but when I link, it directs you back to youtube, so why bother)

Sorry. It's "Essential Pepin." My apologies. La Technique was his book in the 70s. From "American Masters" on PBS....

?si=9JJU8QSVb3b1HOL-

[Nittersing]

13. And at 90, he's still producing videos!

I run across his posts on FB. Just short little 2/3 minute videos on techniques or a quick dish. I almost always stop and watch them.

[tishaLA]

14. After his wife Gloria died a couple years ago, I worried we'd lose him too

Because you often see close couples who've spent many years together follow each other in death. I'm so glad to see him still practicing his craft, perhaps more slowly and economically, from his lovely CT kitchen. He's an absolute treasure.

[Nittersing]

12. Think I started using towels after reading an article in Serious Eats.

I bought a pack of 12 for under $20 back in 2020. Mostly, I use them as pot holders... haven't really used them as dish rags so no worry about using a wet rag to grab something hot... I would probably use them as trivets if I didn't already have a few from Thermoworks.

[Phentex]

15. and they don't say how to clean them

I LOVE A KITCHEN TOWEL!

But I am kinda picky about them. I like thin cotton towels and I like fluffy towels too. I like basket weave for some things. I use dark patterns when I'm drying the oven grates. I'm sure I have too many.

But I hate a gross one with stains that don't come out no matter how I wash. So there I am, buying them on sale whenever I see something I like.

My neighbor gave me a six pack of holiday towels for Christmas. I thought oh boy that's odd. But they were soft and fluffy and dried things like a dream. I USED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! I am still using them even with Easter upon us.

[sir pball]

16. Well, my towels are cleaned professionally...

But for the ones I've nicked to use at home, I just use triple bleach and it mostly gets the stains out.

Then again, there's a reason we use white towels, and wear white jackets…