Chef Apron Care: Your Essential Questions Answered

In the hospitality and service industries, the success of businesses depends on the hard work of large teams of staff, who interact on a daily basis with a broad clientele. These teams must work in a cohesive manner to juggle numerous tasks and to make sure that all infrastructure is managed effectively.

 

Hospitality venues such as restaurants must be managed on a large scale and also in a detail-oriented way in order to deliver a high quality service. This attention to detail involves an appropriate focus on staff uniforms, where these serve a practical purpose as well as helping to create a professional work environment.

 

Chef uniforms in particular have to be exacting for health and safety reasons, where items such as hats, jackets and aprons need to be worn and maintained with care for the benefit of the wearer and the customer. Read on to learn more about chef apron care, where this important aspect of uniform maintenance is just one key detail that contributes to the successful functioning of a restaurant space.

 

Key Features Of Chef Whites & Uniforms

In the hospitality and service industry, staff uniforms are purpose built to suit various functions throughout the working day. This is especially true for chef clothing, where a kitchen environment poses numerous challenges to its staff. Chefs must contend with high temperatures, hot liquids and sharp cooking instruments, all whilst maintaining a strict level of hygiene.

 

Some of the key facets of standard chef uniform include:

 

Hats - In high end restaurants, tall white hats will be a marker of chef skill and training, where the head chef will be adorned with the most impressive headwear. In an everyday kitchen environment, hairnets and caps deliver a hygiene function, where they keep loose hairs away from the food whilst also keeping hair out of staff member’s faces and eyes.

 

Trousers - Chef trousers are built for practicality, whether they’re worn at a five star restaurant or in a small kitchen space. These are typically loose fitting to help the wearer stay cool, featuring sizable pockets for the storage of tools and cooking instruments.

 

Jackets - The chef jacket is a very particular design that ensures wearer safety as well as kitchen hygiene. This traditional jacket is double breasted, featuring a folded over front secured by popper buttons. These jackets are designed to be reversible in case of staining, where they also provide a double layer of protection from hot liquids and spillages.

 

Shoes - In the kitchen, chefs are typically on their feet for long hours, meaning that shoe comfort is always a priority. Comfortable trainers or an equivalent are typically recommended, where these should be sturdy enough to provide a basic level of protection from sharp tools and hot liquids.

 

Aprons - A chef apron is the final layer of protection in the kitchen, where this helps to great a barrier between the body and various hot liquids, whilst also preventing the jacket from becoming stained. Further to this, aprons facilitate a high level of kitchen hygiene, where they can be worn over clothing that has been in contact with areas outside of the food preparation area.

 

How To Care For Your Chef Apron

As chef aprons are so important for kitchen safety and hygiene, they should be taken care of properly. The following tips encourage a high level of cleanliness when it comes to washing and maintaining your chef apron:

 

Stain Removal

Busy chefs will constantly have to battle apron stains. Ordinarily these can be handled by everyday stain removal and detergent products in a regular wash. But some foods can cause lasting stains that demand extra care. Grease splashes for instance can be removed by brushing the area with a combination of baking soda and washing up liquid. Tomato-based stains can be removed using washing up liquid combined with a few tablespoons of vinegar and cold water - left to soak, these stains should lift off easily.

 

Odour Removal

Sometimes odours can seep into apron fabrics over long periods of time, making them difficult to lift through an ordinary wash. Soaking the apron can help with this. A preliminary soak in a white vinegar and warm water solution can help to lift an initial layer of grime, whilst a second soak in lemon juice and salt can help with heavy odours. Follow this with an ordinary machine wash to see fragrant results.

 

When To Wash Your Apron

Aprons should be washed frequently and thoroughly to allow for good kitchen hygiene standards. In a home kitchen these washes can be further apart, whilst in a professional space aprons should be washed more or less after every shift. Situations that demand you wash your apron include: working with raw meat, eating, using the toilet, going on an outdoor break and emptying the bins. All of these contexts can cause bacteria to grow on the apron that could contaminate your food.

 

When To Replace Your Apron

Fabric aprons are usually designed to last, but it is likely that you will need to seek a replacement after a reasonable period of time has elapsed. If your apron can no longer protect the wearer fully or if it serves as a hygiene risk then it should be replaced. Broken straps, burn marks, tears or non washable stains could mean that it is time to invest in a new apron in order to promote safe kitchen standards.

 

Benefits Of Using A Commercial Laundry Service

Keeping your chef apron clean is incredibly important for health and safety standards in a  kitchen environment. As such, you may prefer to delegate your laundry tasks to a professional service. Choosing a commercial laundry service can bring numerous benefits to your business, where these include:

 

Professional standard of cleanliness - A commercial laundry service will always provide a professional cleaning standard using all the best products and equipment, delivering a perfect clean every time.

 

Increased on-site space - Laundry facilities take up lots of space on your site that you could be using for other purposes, where you could invest in larger storage facilities or more customer seating.

 

Dedicate time to other tasks - If you delegate your laundry tasks to an external service, then your on-site staff can take up other essential work that will contribute to a more efficient running of your business.

 

Straightforward collections - A further benefit of utilising a commercial laundry service is that they will collect and deliver your laundry directly to your site, so you can save on transportation costs and dedicate your time to other concerns.

 

London Linen: Laundry & Dry Cleaning Services For Your Chefwear

At London Linen, we understand how important it is for your business to have clean and fresh chef aprons. From hygiene to practicality, aprons are an essential part of the chef uniform that should always be prioritised. As such, we aim to provide an unbeatable standard of commercial laundry care, where our systems are built to deliver the perfect clean every time. We can collect and deliver your laundry according to your specific requirements, so you can continue to provide an exceptional service to your customers whilst we take care of your aprons.

 

In addition to this, we also offer a comprehensive commercial linen hire service to all our customers. Hiring your linens provides a low cost and environmentally friendly alternative to using disposable or privately owned items, where our range can provide you with all the options you require. We can provide everything your restaurant needs to flourish, from tablecloths and linen napkins to professional chef aprons and staff uniforms. Alongside this, we supply an extensive range of hotel and hospitality linens, including bedsheets and luxurious towels. These all come in a broad variety of colours and styles so you can choose the products to complement your company brand and your existing interior decor.

 

Find out about our full product selection today or browse our current sustainability promise, where we’ve set forward our intentions to become a greener laundry provider. Get in touch today to find out more about everything we do at London Linen.