This post is brought to you by Home Hygiene Standards
Let’s play a little word game. When I say dishwasher, you say……………………….. I’m guessing you’d say clean dishes, clean kitchen counters, quick, easy, hygienic, unpacking, packing and that sort of thing. I doubt you would say delicious chicken or poached pears or a 3 course lunch. But that is what I experienced earlier this week when I went to have a delicious 3 course lunch cooked for me by Ed Halmagyi aka Fast Ed. Who I’ve decided is just about the nicest celebrity chef out there… a genuinely nice guy.
Now I don’t have a dishwasher, not by choice but just because the house had no dishwasher and I knew it was going to be renovated………18 months of washing dishes for a family of 7 and I’m counting down until I get a dishwasher. Now for me a dishwasher is a great way to have clean dishes, save time in the kitchen, have an empty sink and kitchen counter and also cleaner dishes. A little fact is that less than 50% of all aussie households own a dishwasher. The way people have carried on when they hear I don’t have a dishwasher I would have thought it was more.
But I didn’t realise just how much more hygienic having a dishwasher in your kitchen is. That’s because a dishwasher cleans your dishes at a temperature of about 65 degrees and the hot tap water is about 38 degrees. Plus you could be spreading germs with your dishcloths and tea towels if you’re not using a dishwasher. Are you wiping hands or counters with the same tea towel that is drying your dishes. How often are you changing your dishcloths.
We met Marjorie who is the founder and owner of Australian Food Hygiene Services but let’s just call her the home hygiene guru. Her job is to train people in hygiene and she’s seen it all. I’m not sure I’d be prepared to have her in my kitchen or see my practices but she gave us a quiz…………………….and I got one question wrong. Marjorie knows her stuff. Apparently there are 7 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year and roughly 20% of those are reported to come from the home. But that figure could be higher considering it can sometimes take up 3 days for food poisoning to strike.
And so we talked how to clean chopping boards, how to defrost your chicken, how to keep food in the fridge….and here is an interesting fact. Once you open a can of beetroot and store it in the fridge (obviously in another container not the can) it will last 7 days…..can of corn……….24 hours. How many times have I had some corn in there for a few days to chuck in a stir fry or salad. That’s the end of that one. And how many times would you keep beetroot in the fridge longer than a week.
The real attraction of the day was Ed, he was cooking us a delicious lunch…………………with quite a few of the components cooked in the dishwasher. Yep the dishwasher. Have you heard of sous vide where they seal the food in a vacuum sealed bag and then cook it in a water bath. Well the dishwasher can give you the right temperature for cooking your food but don’t try this at home. It took a lot of practice for Ed to get it just right.
We had a few starters – I loved the scallops – cooked in the dishwasher. And the chicken was so delicious, moist and perfectly cooked. Yep in the dishwasher.
For dessert a delicious dish of poached pears in zinfandel with a bitter chocolate gateau and chocolate cherry ice cream. So delicious and Ed brought out a special dessert wine and personally poured it for each of the ladies there.
A big thank you to everyone involved especially Marjorie for letting us know how we should be doing things, Ed and his helpers for the delicious food and my gorgeous readers who came along and enjoyed lunch with me.
What a group of gorgeous ladies, it was like lunch with old friends and we had such a great time I’ve decided I need to do another lunch with my readers. Ed was only too happy to give Max a little cuddle and Max was only too happy to try to eat Ed’s buttons.
and why don’t you try the test yourself, pop over to www.homehygiene.com.au and see if you get full marks! I won’t tell you which one I got wrong but let me know how you go………………..and especially if you get full marks! We want to know about it. And while you are there you can check out some of the great promotions on offer at the moment when you buy a dishwasher
It’s scary how dirty a kitchen can be. I’m forever asking my family not to wipe their dirty hands on my tea towel luckily we have a dishwasher which runs often. I have met fast Ed a few times. He does amazing work for Bear Cottage, and will often come and do cooking with the kids. He is comparing our fundraising ball tomorrow night. He is a truly wonderful man
oh he is amazing! soooo genuine! what a great person to be at your event, I hope it’s an amazing night for everyonexxx
Oh sounds wonderfully informative so wish I’d been able to come love getting together with you Corrie
next time Sonia:) you would love it, we had such a great time:)
Nothing nicer than a goup of like minded ladies out for a cooking class and a good chat, especially when you have someone of the calibre of Fast Ed doing the teaching.
After doing the “test” I am also pleased to know I do not have OCD when it comes to kitchen hygiene like a couple of people have intimated and my habit of using several tea towels and a couple of fresh dishcloths a day is not something I intend to ever give up.
Love your photographs too, Corrie.
Oops! Indicated….. Not intimated. Even though they were close friends. LOL
I’m shocked that it’s under 50% of households in Australia with a dishwasher! I take my hat off to you without one for 18 months… I whinge and complain about the horrendous 1960’s kitchen in our house, but I do have a dishwasher (and should count my lucky stars as the renovation we’re doing means I actually have a kitchen, rather than a lot of people who go without for months and months). Fascinating re the sous vide in dishwasher cooking – have you tried using the Thermomix for that? I did one of the 60 minute eggs in mine, it’s the perfect machine for trying out sous vide if you’re interested.
I don’t have a dishwasher at the moment (renters can’t be choosers) but even when I did, I just have so many things that shouldn’t go in the dishwasher that I end up mostly hand washing anyway. I would never put cast iron cookware or my knives in the dishwasher for example because they would get ruined and my wine glasses never fit in the racks.
I do use gloves though so that I can use very hot water in the sink which I think makes a big difference (and as a bonus keeps my hands soft!).
Oh Corrie I dont think I would cook any food in my dishwasher and I love having one now since we moved. After having salmonella food poisoning 2 years ago now I would not wish it on anyone, the worst pain I have ever had in my life, even after being in labour twice which wasnt easy at all after 12 hours of intense contractions on top of each other. The thing with salmonella is it break off all the little stems which are like coral in your bowels and it took me 13 weeks to recover from it totally. I am now very aware of raw chicken and always washing the kitchen chopping board properly and having separate ones for meat. I dont think mine was from my house though, it was some food that I had eaten out in. Your day with Fast Ed sounds like lots of fun, I always like watching what he cooks!
It looks like you ladies all had a lovely time!!
PS I just took the quiz & am rather smug to report that I got them all right! 😛
It was such an amazing time – thanks a million
What a great post but you know what I got excited about? it looked like you were wearing saltwater sandles,red ones!! I love mine..oh and I couldnt live without my dishwasher
haha cath yes! love my red saltwaters! comfortable and stylish and can I just say that these are like 3 years old and look like I bought them yesterday! really need to get a new colour and thinking yellow or aqua just to spice things up!
It was a lovely lunch
My only problem is that it has increased my OCD – ness in the kitchen – I realised that I do the wipe my hands on the tea-towel and then use the tea-towel to wipe up dishes, and I’m trying to cram even more dishes in the dishwasher, but I do love my dishwasher 
I like handwashing my dishes, gets me away from the TV and rowdy kids. They are air-dried, no towelling, with the hot spring weather they are warm when putting away. I change my scrubs, sponges every week. We use fabric napkins for hand drying not tea towels. Our rental comes with a dishwasher, I think it’s a 90’s model. It’s louder than my washing machine + it rattles so I’m very cautious about using it everyday – only when I’m sick or truly exhausted – I started using it 6 months after we moved in as it didn’t have a manual, just thought of the old washing machine my Mum had and winged it. The tablets are expensive, bought them on sale, so that turns me off using it. I do secretly dream our rental had a better machine though