Here's How Restaurant Kitchens Stay So Damn Clean

Because chefs are cleaning wizards.

We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share their best cleaning tricks they learned working in restaurants.

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Here are 13 of the best you can use at home:

1. Use lemons to clean a greasy stovetop.

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"Messy/greasy stovetop? Use fresh lemons — it acts as a degreaser. Just place a halved lemon between a washcloth (lemon facing down) and use it as a scrubber."

—d48f1b19f0

2. Use hydrogen peroxide to remove stubborn stains from chef whites (and any other laundry you may have stained).

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"Scrubbing with hydrogen peroxide and a few drops of dish soap before doing laundry will take any stain out of white chef coats."

—shananer

3. Use coffee filters to clean glass without leaving streaks behind.

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"I was a hostess, so keeping that area clean was my job. I learned that to give the windows and mirrors a beautiful streak-free shine, use coffee filters."

—mandymarieb3

4. Boil scorched pots with dish soap to remove the stubborn black layer.

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"I TOASTED a pan (totally burnt it) and my chef taught me this trick: To clean a frying pan, fill it half way with water, add a single drop of soap, and put it back on the burner. Bring the pan to a rolling boil, and use your spatula to loosen up the burnt bits. Just rinse in hot water and your pan will sparkle like new!"

—jarrahg

5. Drape a towel over the bowl of your mixer to prevent flour from flying everywhere.

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"Drape a kitchen towel or plastic wrap over a stand mixer (before turning it on) to help contain any flour or liquid that kicks up."

—NjBaltoMn

6. Use boiling water to dissolve sugary bits stuck to the bottom of a pot.

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"Sugar breaks down in hot water. Jam, honey, caramel, corn syrup, and even marshmallow will eventually break down in simmering water (and adding lemon juice will help dissolve any crystallized bits)."

—NjBaltoMn

7. To clean dirty coffee pots, wash them in a solution of water, salt, and lemons.

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"Clean the inside of a crusty coffee pot with hot water, salt, and lemon juice. Dump it all in, let it sit for a bit, swish swish, and dump."

—sarahb155

8. Soak up oil spills with salt.

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"Say you dropped a pan of bacon fat or broke a bottle of olive oil on the floor — just cover the spill with salt. The salt holds onto the fat and makes it easier to sweep up. Then just mop/wipe up any residual oil with cleaner."

—NjBaltoMn

9. Use metal scrubbies instead of sponges to clean stubborn messes .

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"Use a metal sponge to clean tough messes off of metal pans."

—saviatchley

10. Use microfiber cloths to polish glasses, and Shamwows for polishing silverware.

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"Microfiber cloths for polishing glassware, Shamwows for silverware — trust me."

—patrickfc

11. Soak silverware in hot water before polishing them to get rid of any water marks.

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"When polishing silverware, if they're not straight out of the dishwasher, put them in a pitcher of hot water before polishing them to easily wipe off any water marks."

—joellekayt

12. Polish stainless steel with Windex.

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"Polish it off with a bit of paper towel and it'll look lovely. I use it to get my sinks looking beautiful and my taps, towel racks, and door handles shiny."

—misla9293

13. Use cooking oil as a DIY adhesive remover for those stubborn sticky residues.

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"In restaurants we have to label all of our products with tape or stickers, and sometimes the newbies throw them in the dishwasher without removing the stickers. To get the residue off, pour some oil on the container, rub it with a paper towel or rag, and rinse it off with soap and water."

—kendrarochelleh

Let's get cleaning!

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