Remember when every kitchen had a specific spot for the big stockpot?

I was doing a deep clean of my station the other day and found a thick layer of old grease under a fixed prep table. It was in a spot you could only reach by moving the whole unit, something I hadn't done in maybe five years. I figured a good degreaser and some elbow grease would handle it in an hour. Wrong. That stuff was like concrete. I tried every trick, from hot water and soap to a commercial citrus cleaner, even a paste of baking soda. Nothing cut it. I ended up having to gently scrape it with a plastic putty knife for what felt like forever, then hit it with a special heavy duty cleaner I had to order. The whole job, from finding it to finishing, took three full days of work after service. It made me miss the old days of simpler kitchen builds with less fixed gear. What's the worst hidden grime you've ever had to deal with in your kitchen?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota7871d ago

Sounds like a normal Tuesday, not a horror story.

thomas831d ago

That kind of stuck-on grease is the worst. It reminds me of the ancient vent hood at my first job. The filters were bad, but the real horror was the ductwork. They finally had it cleaned and the guy showed us a bucket of what looked like black tar he'd scraped out. @dakota787 would probably call that a Wednesday. Makes you wonder what's hiding in the walls of some old places.