The single most important tool in a professional kitchen...

[sir pball]

As 31-year industry veteran, this is one of the most gospel truths about commercial kitchens that I've ever read.

https://www.foodandwine.com/the-most-important-tool-in-a-restaurant-11874731

[usonian]

1. In the galaxy.

[sir pball]

2. Oh MAN

As a lifelong DNA fan (I first read H2G2 at like…12) that connection never even occurred to me.

NEVER forget your towel(s)!!!

[TexasTowelie]

3. I've been saying that for decades.

Don't forget to bring a towel. You don't know where hotel towels have been.

[3catwoman3]

9. Or even home towels. It took me years to get my husband to cooperate...

...with my preference for not washing dishtowels with underwear and bath towels that you've dried your butt with in the same load. He'd usually try to justify doing so by assuring me he was using hot water. "We're not an industrial laundry, so it's not hot enough," would be my answer.

He mostly doesn't do that anymore, and when he forgets, I just rewash them.

[Turbineguy]

4. That's right!

[usonian]

6. I first heard it on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with Rula Lenska

Left a "dent" in my psyche

And a pain in all the diodes down my right side.

[Kali]

5. a towel is to an oven mitt

as a real cook is to someone who very rarely cooks.

[sir pball]

7. Oh, I like that.

I'm not sure I've used an oven mitt since I was 16…

Just make sure that towel is DRY!

[Kali]

8. I will use quilted oven mAts

but I find grabbing a towel is just easier. not much that is more useless and clumsy than a big puffy one-thumb mitten. have you tried the silicon mat/trivets as a pot holder? they work even wet, but personally I don't like the texture, prefer a towel.

[sir pball]

10. The mats do work, but they're stiffer and more uncomfortable, plus you can't keep them on your person.

Towels are still the single best "oven mitt" I've used.

I take two towels for an entire workweek and keep them tucked behind the front of my apron (I learned that from Mugartiz); I religiously keep them dry and grease-free and stash them in my locker every night.

In a commercial kitchen it's more important to have a "potholder" on your body, immediately accessible, rather than anything else. Having a towel in a quickdraw is better than any silicone potholder on the shelf.