Kitchen Deep-Clean Checklist

Test the three-bay sink sanitizer with a strip — quat at 200-400 ppm or chlorine at 50-100 ppm depending on your SDS. Log the reading; the inspector will ask for sanitizer logs going back 30 days.

Shut gas valves to flat top, six-burner, salamander, and char-grill. Wait until surfaces drop below 200°F before scraping — chemical degreaser flashes on a hot flat top.

Use a flat-top scraper at a 30° angle, then grill brick with grill cleaner. Rinse with water, dry, and re-season with a thin layer of canola or flax oil before cooldown.

Pull grates and soak in degreaser; brass-bristle brush the radiants. Inspect bristles before reinstall — loose wire-bristle fragments are a recurring foreign-object complaint and an FDA Food Code concern.

Pump oil through the filter and boil out the vat with fryer-cleaning solution if TPM exceeds 25%. Note the boil-out — never boil out with food residue still in the vat.

Pull baffle filters and run through the dish machine or soak in degreaser overnight. NFPA 96 grease-laden filters are the top fire-marshal write-up; replace any that are warped.

Transfer all time/temperature-controlled product to the prep walk-in or rented reefer. Track the move-out time — anything above 41°F for more than 4 hours per the FDA Food Code must be discarded.

Pull shelving and run through the dish pit. Wipe door gaskets with quat — torn or moldy gaskets are a frequent health-inspector citation and cause temperature drift.

Dust-clogged coils are the #1 cause of compressor failure and warm boxes. Vacuum monthly minimum on every low-boy and reach-in.

Run the unit empty for 30 minutes, then verify with a calibrated probe. Walk-in must read 41°F or below; freezer 0°F or below. Do not reload product until the reading confirms.

If product time-temp abused during the clean, discard and document on the waste log. The waste entry feeds back into MarginEdge or R365 for true food-cost accounting.

Document the SKU, weight, reason, and discard time. Photo of the dumpster drop is the audit-trail standard for high-value protein loss.

Pull all racks, stones, and trays from convection ovens, conveyor toasters, and rethermalizers. Soak in the three-bay with hot detergent solution.

Spray Carbon-Off or equivalent on cool interior surfaces; let dwell per SDS (typically 15-30 minutes). Ventilate the kitchen — fumes will set off the smoke detector if the hood is off.

Use stainless polish in the direction of the grain — circular motion leaves haze that's visible on the inspector's flashlight test.

Drain the wash and rinse tanks, run a delime cycle per the Hobart/Champion/Jackson manual. Lime scale on the rinse arms is what causes spotting and short rack times.

High-temp machines need 180°F at the manifold (160°F at the dish surface). Use a max-registering thermometer or temp-strip plate. Low-temp machines need chlorine at 50 ppm minimum at the rinse.

Call the dish-machine vendor (Ecolab, Auto-Chlor, or local rep) for same-day or next-morning service. Until repaired, switch to manual three-compartment warewashing with sanitizer at 200 ppm quat.

Empty, scrub, and re-sanitize each bay. Verify the wash bay reaches 110°F minimum and rinse drains fully — a slow drain is the most common warewashing citation.

Anti-fatigue mats trap grease underneath; pressure-wash on the dock or in the mop room with a floor degreaser. Greasy mats are a slip hazard and a roach harborage.

Apply alkaline degreaser, agitate with a deck brush, and squeegee to the floor drain. Pay special attention to the fryer apron and dish pit splash zone.

Pour enzyme drain treatment (e.g., BioRem-2000) into each drain after closing. This is the difference between a kitchen that smells fresh on Monday open and one that doesn't.

Greasy ceiling tiles directly above the line are a fire-marshal flag. Replace tiles that are stained through; FRP panels wipe down with degreaser and rinse.

Look for droppings, gnaw marks, or live activity behind equipment and along the slab line. Note findings in the IPM log for the next Orkin/Ecolab visit.

Call the PCO for an emergency visit before next service. Health departments cite for active infestation observed on inspection — don't open with rodents in evidence.

Date-label everything per state code (most require open-date plus 7-day discard for ready-to-eat TCS). Pull anything past use-by — log to the waste sheet.

Nothing stored on the floor — all dry goods on shelving with at least 6 inches clearance per the FDA Food Code. Cardboard cases on the floor are an automatic citation.

Closing manager walks the line with the executive chef or sous, confirms each section, and signs the log. The signed log is the document the health inspector asks for first.