Some thoughts on washing dishes properly

I've worked in a few restaurants in the past, washing dishes, and a few things I noticed is that a lot of people don't have a lot of common sense when it comes to dishwashing. This includes a lot of professional dishwashers. <br><br>A lot of people just scrape the food off into a container, and then load the dishes onto a rack to get washed. Then they run the dish machine, and call whatever comes out clean. This is not actually the proper technique. <br><br>The proper technique should be the same as it is when you wash dishes by hand. The dishes should be a good portion of the way clean before they go in the dish machine. "Scrape and load" is not the right method. If you scrape off all the big chunks, but still leave some food residue on the dish, all the machine is going to do is blast hot water at it and make sure the food is stuck in every crevice and groove. This is why a lot of people think their old dishes are gross after they come out of the dishwasher. <br><br>The same is true for when you wash the dishes by hand. <br><br>I see a lot of people washing dishes, and the first thing they do is take a wet sponge, or a sponge with dish soap on it, and start wiping it around the dish. <br><br>First, you need to scrape off whatever you can. Then, you should rinse the dishes. Make sure all the large chunks are gone, and that the plate is basically clean to look at. Then, you can put some dish soap on the sponge, and start washing the dishes. If you put soap on the sponge first, you're going to get it all mixed up in the water, and it's going to make a lot of suds. You can't get any dishes clean with soap suds all over the place. You need to get the dishes clean first, then add the soap to get rid of any stains or grime. <br><br>A lot of people complain about washing dishes by hand, but if you do it the right way it's really not that bad. This is a tip I wish I could pass along to more people.