Here are tips covering the best way to take care of your chef uniform.
Regardless of where you work in a restaurant, you’ll get dirty. Even if you aren’t a chef, spills happen. Sometimes even walking back and forth to the kitchen can leave stains on your uniform or cause it to smell like grease or smoke. A chef’s uniform is an investment. While a chef uniform don’t last forever, you want them to remain pristine, looking as new as the day you invested in them. Here are tips covering the best way to take care of your chef uniform, ensuring that your restaurant looks as professional and polished as possible.
Invest in High-Quality Chef Uniforms
This tip might seem obvious. However, some restaurant owners might not think there is much of a difference between a cheap and top-tier apron or jacket. Nevertheless, there is a visible difference. A high-quality chef uniform will be thicker and more durable, and the material won’t be too difficult to clean. Top-tier restaurant workwear will retain its color even after multiple wash cycles.
If you’ve purchased cheap, mass-market aprons and jackets in bulk, you might understand how painful it is to replace them. However, you don’t have to spend a million dollars to have high-quality restaurant uniforms. It’s best to buy top-tier uniforms upfront that will last a long time versus finding out later that your uniforms don’t have a long shelf life. Hanover Uniform will work with your budget to best serve your culinary needs.
Read Care Labels Carefully
It’s best not to throw culinary uniforms with regular, everyday clothing in the wash. It’s best to read the labels and follow instructions carefully. Regardless of the garment you’re washing, you want to follow care instructions carefully to ensure that it lasts a long time and that you don’t damage or ruin it. Also, you don’t want to assume that every piece has the exact instructions or that the apron or jacket you purchased will have the same care label as the one you bought another time. You’ll be surprised at how following this tip can preserve the structural integrity of your uniforms.
Don’t Procrastinate in Treating Stains
Stains and spills are inevitable whether you’re a waitress, sous, or head chef. The best way to ensure you remove stains is to tend to them immediately. How you treat the stain depends on the type of stain it is. However, you’ll never go wrong with treating it right away.
We suggest you remove all solid foodstuff before treating a stain and not rubbing the stain. Otherwise, you will likely rub grease, oil, and sauce into your clothes. You can treat many stains with a quick pour of club soda. However, when you return home, you should launder the uniform immediately to ensure that the mark doesn’t remain. We also suggest removing the stain entirely before placing it into the dryer.
Have More Than Enough Chef’s Uniforms Handy
You can never go wrong with having a few backups or spares on hand. If you have the funds, purchasing extra uniforms is always helpful. If so, you can soak and treat the damaged uniform immediately without needing to work the rest of the night with a blotch on your apron or jacket. Also, consider having low-quality aprons or jackets as a backup to keep your best gear immaculate.
Know When to Skip the Bleach or What type of Bleach to Use
If your chef uniforms are white, you might automatically think that you should douse them in bleach. After all, this is what we would do at home with our white socks or undershirts.
However, sometimes bleach can cause clothes to discolor or turn yellow. Try an oxygen-based bleach to avoid this. However, if your culinary uniforms are beginning to look unappealing, try soaking them in a sink full of warm water with one cup of oxygen-based bleach and soak them for 24 hours and wash them. Adding a cup of vinegar into the wash cycle can also help keep your jackets white. It’s also worth considering buying aprons or jackets in colors other than white if heavy stains are frequent.
Store Your Uniforms Properly and Know When to Replace Them
After a long day of work, you’ll be tired. You might even be so tired that you absentmindedly throw a chef’s uniform on the floor. However, it’s best to take the time to remove your apron or jacket and hang them up rather than throwing them on the floor to avoid dirt, pet hair, or other debris getting on your uniform(s) and causing long-term damage.
Finally, you should know when it’s time for a replacement. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, even high-quality uniforms. Also, sometimes it’s impossible to fix a uniform after it’s gone through years of facing stains, bleach, rips, and other damage. You must know when to “fold uniforms and when to hold them.”
For Quality Uniforms and Work Supplies, Give Hanover Uniform a Call Today
Hanover Uniform is a dependable and privately held uniform supplier dedicated to serving your business with whichever uniform or work supply needs that you have. Our professional team is ready to serve customers all across Baltimore, Maryland! Large or Small, we’re invested in making you look good! We are here to help with every step.
For more information on how we can help your business, visit our website or give us a call at 800-541-9709 or 410-235-8338! Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Linkedin!