Kitchen Hygiene

I am a stickler for maintaining a clean kitchen environment that I can cook in. An organised space with clean worktops and sparkling surfaces makes for an enjoyable cookery experience because ingredients are easy to find and messy spills are dealt with quickly. Using cleaning products is essential in any space where food is prepared - following basic food hygiene rules may be a bother but it ultimately prevents the spread of diseases and instances of food poisoning. I most certainly wouldn't want anyone who has eaten the food I have prepared to become ill or suffer from stomach problems so I try to ensure that my utensils, knives, chopping boards and floors are cleaned to a high specification, with plenty of hot water, a dash of specialist cleaning fluids and a generous glug of elbow grease. I will admit that I don't enjoy the cleaning process greatly but I see it as a necessary addition to my kitchen and I know that the children I work with at the cookery school will take this practice on with them to their own homes and families. Another vital aspect of kitchen hygiene is preventing cross contamination. Make sure that you prepare cooked and raw food on different chopping boards so that germs from raw foodstuffs don't pass onto items that are eaten without prior cooking like salads and starters. If you don't have separate chopping boards, wipe down the one you have between chopping different ingredients; it's best to start off chopping vegetables and raw salads first. Once that is done you can move them away from the board and start to prepare raw meat and poultry.