Knives and cookware for hotels... red versus white

[gogoblender 3,069]

Two of my uncles have just opened up a new hotel in Sri Lanka

Amaranthe Bay Resort and Spa

I was visiting my uncle in NYC just a few weeks back, and it was cool seeing him go on all kinds of buying trips to buy equipment for the kitchens of the hotel in Sri Lanka. He's buying them here in North American and buying them from internet suppliers because it's cheaper, and once he collects all the equipment on the list, he'll shipping container it back to Sri Lanka.

What I thought was cool was... did you guys know that for the hotel, all knives and equipment that touch meat have to have red handles, and everything that's for pastries has to have white handles?

He says it's some kind of international standard for hotel cooking, but this is the first time I've heard of it

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

Yes gogo, it is a general rule in most professional kitchens. Cutting boards are also colour coordinated.

Red = raw meat

Brown = cooked meat

Blue = fish and seafood

Green = vegetables and fruits

Yellow = dairy, cheese, sandwiches

White = general (in our kitchen white is for pastry and bread)

 

I generally use white and yellow cutting boards on my section, Pastry, even if I am workig with fruit and vegetables.

Knives also have different coloured handles. We got small pairing knives from the restaurant, but we all use our own chefs knives and bigger knives, all of them with black handles.

The one we got are

Red = meat

Green + yellow = vegetables

Pink = pastry (not my choice of colour)

Orange = starters cold section

Black = the head chef and sous chef

 

It helps to prevent cross contamination and promotes hygiene practices. And you can see who was the Barsteward that stole your knive. Then you use the red one to stab them. Mwuhahahahahaha!

 

Delta!

Edited June 16, 2015 by Delta!

[gogoblender 3,069]

Delta, great post.. So, this is true?! I didn't even have an inkling about anything like this. and yeah, cross contamination.. that's the word my Uncle used... he had so much fun hunting out and ordering the myriad of numerous items that hotel kitchens use in every day of their extraordinarily complex and dramatic days. Kind of makes me want to see the life of it, kind of like from Pixar's Ratatouille.

Is it actually a true "law" or unwritten, followed convention?

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

I think it will be safe to say it is law. It was one of the first things we learned at the academy, and all the kitchens where I've worked upheld that standard. One didn't have yellow boards, they used white boards instead... But yeah, the cutting boards are always colour co-ordinated. Knives maybe not that much.

 

Delta!