Those of you who work/have worked in fast food or other restaraunts

How long does it take for grease to build up to 1/4 inch thick, and turn black? I wanted to post this last night when we came home from cleaning, but I really wasn't in a mood fit for talking, lol! The top of the stove, where I was cleaning part of the night last night, we took a great degreaser and a straight razor blade in a handle and scraped and scraped it off. In the curve of the shelf over the stove, it came off in hunks that are a good half inch thick! I saved some of them, if I can get a picture, I will post it later. This particular building has a room for smoking meat for BBQ....it has two sinks and a floor drain.........all three were almost totally stopped up 'cause they poured GREASE down them!!!! I spent a good three hours herding water from where we were flushing them to one of the other drains last night, ugh! Please tell me that this nasty mess isn't the "norm" in a restaraunt, and that the health dept. probably shut them down? Hub said he's going to ask the inspector when she comes back out to inspect it after cleanup if the did shut them down, if not how in the heck they got by with such a mess of crap!

i presume that they never cleaned after using everything.
At the restaurant i worked at we had to stay untill we were finished to have everything spotless.
THere was a guy who worked there he was indian, and i never see him go home.
he was there late at night and there early in the morning.
our boss bought him this new steam thing to get all the dirt off the floor.
i have seem those only on those selling channels.
Anyway he had to clean the whole kitchen every night so it was always shiny.
THe reason he had to do this is because there was a small part where customers could get a glimpse of the kitchen.

I think that the health department had shut them down for that (in your restaurant)
Im sorry that its so dirty there
good luck cleaning and getting it all shiny

Yuk! kinda know whre your comming from on that one ive been in the restraunt bussiness for over 25 years from fast food to fine dinning if you are talking about the build up on the stove in the kitchen where you do all the cooking on and around the burners heavy duty stove the build up should not be that much

When i was the sous chef at the golf course once a week i would remove the the top part of the stove and send it to the dish washer also we would take the stove parts thats the square parts and sometimes would put them in a pot of boling water for a couple of hours to get the build up of greese off
i have seen a lot of dirty kitchens in my life time and a lot of cooks never take the time to keep the stoves clean or the grill as for cleaning the grill i would take a sheet pan turn it upside down turn the flames up and smoke the heck out of it and then use the grill brush to scrap off the build up from cooking the burgers and steaks etc...
are you talking about this kinda stove so i don't keep going on?
and belive me i know where your comming from the dirty nitemare kitchen!
i can give ya some pointers when it comes to cleaning if that will help

Originally Posted by RockinRhonda

are you talking about this kinda stove so i don't keep going on?

i can give ya some pionters when it comes to cleaning if that will help

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Yup, 'cept this one has two burners on one end and a very large smooth grill....oh, and this one is black almost all over ! Pointers? Do tell!

That's one of the reasons we don't eat out much and when we do it is not a fast-food place for sure.

I clean my stove every night with hot soapy water when I do my dishes and about once per month I take all the fan parts down and clean them and all the burner pans. There are times you could write your name in dust on my furniture, but my food will always be clean - otherwise I wouldn't eat it!

Originally Posted by Yosemite

That's one of the reasons we don't eat out much and when we do it is not a fast-food place for sure.

I clean my stove every night with hot soapy water when I do my dishes and about once per month I take all the fan parts down and clean them and all the burner pans. There are times you could write your name in dust on my furniture, but my food will always be clean - otherwise I wouldn't eat it!

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Yup, my hub is that way too, thank God! We're still leaning to the theory that the health dept. shut 'em down, partly because the deep fryers had been drained of the oil that was in them, but there was food still in the baskets! Sad thing is, its not really a "fast food" place, its a "home cookin'" style restaraunt, still, methinks the only reason for such filth is sheer laziness!

Its amazing how bad some places can get and that noone seems to care or notice. It is actually refreshing to hear someone complain about it and wanting things to be clean for a change!

Originally Posted by KittenKrazy

Yup, 'cept this one has two burners on one end and a very large smooth grill....oh, and this one is black almost all over

! Pointers? Do tell!

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ok now we are getting somewhere first of all don't expect to much on the first few times of cleaning cause its going to take a while and that also depends on your help in the kitchen "Team Work" is the key to everything

I've always used a product called http://www.greased-lighting.com/products/household.html
what i would do is at the end of the night in the kitchen sink soak the stove griddle
in the sink with hot water and grease lighting and who ever is opening the next day take it out of the sink and run it through the dish washer now remember this will take a few times to do this. (before you see improvements)
Before closing or while setting up for lunch get a sheet pan turn it upside down on the stove lite the flames at a low heat and let it smoke for a while and its going to get real hot but don't worry its alright just make sure the hoods are on! i would do this at least three time during the week after all of that get a pot as big as you got and put the griddle in it and boil it for awhile thats going to take off the excess build up that is left behind

if you do all of this for about a week and then you get the stove looking the way you want it to then once a week smoke the stove with the sheet pan and run through the dish washer (your dish washer will learn to hate you) but like i said it takes team work Also the grease light is great for the hoods above and cleaning equiment in the kitchen and to shine it up i use http://www.officeworld.com/Worlds-Bi...n/307132/05Q1/

well good luck if you need anything else fill free to email me and i will email ya back so the cat people don't get board on cleaning kitchens But this is something ive really enjoyed replying to i love restraunt work and love to clean you shold see my bakery and candy area at work sometimes people get upset because im to clean but when it comes to the public and working in the food service its very important

sorry for the spelling you guys know me i stink at spelling and grammer (lol)

RR, thanks a bunch!

No Idea. We had to clean EVERYTHING!!! It sucked b/c we only got paid for one hour after the store closed. Not done in time, too bad.

That's horrible!!! I worked at several different fast food resturants when I was in school and if anyone ever left that kind of mess they (or their supervisor) would be fired. Not only would we have to make sure the kitchen was clean for the health department inspections but also for random visits from the corporate office.

Good luck Cindy! After owning a Pizza & Fish N Chip shop I know this isn't going to be an easy job!

I wish I was down there to help you with the cleaning... Instead of doing nothing up here

I worked at several bar and grills, Cindy, but as server, not cook, so I'm really no help here. I do know it was something they had to clean regularly and it was carefully assessed when the people came for the inspections. Wish I was there with you, we could tackle this mess together!

I worked at a fast food place for nine years and "No," that is not normal. The flat grills should be scraped constantly when cooking during the day and at the end of every night the flat grills should be totally scraped, cleaned with a special cleaner, hot water, special cleaning pads and those grills should be totally clean, smooth and absolutely no black at the end of the night. And your grease problem.....ewwwww!!!! Good luck as it sounds like you definitely have a big job ahead of you. I'm surprised it was allowed to go that long. I couldn't tell you how long though, I'm guessing it does build up pretty fast if people aren't scraping and cleaning.

I don't know the answer to THAT question but when I was 15 and worked at a McDonalds... OH GROSS...

We had been serving ice-cream all day (it was a hot day) and I went to change an ice-cream mix and spotted some dead adult roaches floating on the top, and baby roaches all in the mix. I went to get my manager, and he said, "Okay" and dumped the mix in (wtih the roaches) and continued to serve ice-cream.

*hurl*

To this day, I will not buy soft serve ice-cream or milkshakes. ick!