Clean Up

Ahoy there!

In all hospitality ventures there is one thing that is harder to get started on than anything else. It's not the accounts (although I do live life in fear of ledgers and receipts) it's the cleaning. The photos I'm posting kind of show you why "swabbing the decks" in a newly transferred premises can be days of work and not the minutes it takes at home.

If at all possible bring on board all family, friends, friends partners and strange guys asking you for change on the street (it's for a caramel latte/the bus/a phone call I swear). Here is my sister doing her baby brother a massive favour in getting behind the cook top and cleaning eons of grease and charcoal off the stainless splashback.

Make sure you do this as excessive build up of grease and charred food soon become impossible to remove, when they reach this level you are risking your food permit and compromising your insurance. The same goes for your flue (exhaust/extractor) any build up of grease or foodstuffs can become flammable and void your insurance so get it serviced as soon as possible or you might be standing in some burnt out ruins with an angry landlord and no money.

 Here's photo no. 1 of a corner of the kitchen floor. This is what grease looks like when it hasn't been mopped, scrubbed and disinfected in a long time. It creates a slippery surface risking workers compensation claims, develops bacteria risking food poisoning claims and is pretty damn disgusting.

Here is two hours of hardcore mopping with hospital grade disinfectant and floor cleaner. As you can see there is little change. My arms were feeling buff like a medieval housewife's by this time and I had reached a Zen stage where the outcome was no longer of importance but the act was calming and enjoyable (read lost my mind due to bleach fumes)

Finally an intense scrubbing and some undiluted cleaner brought me here to where I can be happy about the cleanliness of one corner of my kitchen, now to pull out the fridges and start to really get my hands knees and elbows dirty.