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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Prep & Kitchen Workflow

Clean as you go

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

phraseCommon term

In culinary arts & cooking, clean as you go means: The working habit of cleaning your station, tools and spills continuously while you cook, instead of leaving all the cleaning until the end.

In Turkish: çalışırken temizlemek, temizleyerek çalışmak

How it is used

A basic rule in professional kitchens and food safety training, often written on kitchen walls. It keeps the station safe, organised and hygienic during service. Chefs remind cooks: "Clean as you go!" Also shortened to CAYG.

Example sentences

  1. Clean as you go; I don't want to see a pile of dirty boards at the end of service.

  2. If you clean as you go, closing down takes ten minutes, not an hour.

Common collocations

  • clean as you go policy
  • work clean
  • clean down your station
  • wipe as you go
  • stationAn area of the kitchen where one cook or a small team prepares one type of food, such as the grill, fry, sauce or garnish station.
  • sanitizeTo reduce the number of germs on a clean surface or piece of equipment to a safe level, using heat or a chemical product called a sanitizer.
  • cross-contaminationThe spread of harmful bacteria or allergens from one food, surface, tool or person to another, for example from raw meat to a salad.
  • mise en placeThe preparation and organisation of all ingredients and tools at a station before cooking or service begins. From French, meaning "putting in place".

More terms: Prep & Kitchen Workflow

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