It's a trend I see a lot in American blogs, whether it's cleaning routines (with Clean My Space), decorating or cooking blogs: being barefoot at home while cleaning or cooking.
Like
I really don't see why I'm cleaning since my floors are so clean that I already walk on them barefoot
or
but what idiot invented professional shoes, my kitchen is so clean all the time that I even put a big carpet in it?
(The video is in French, use subtitles…)
We're going to forget over housework in general, but when it comes to the kitchen, my broom is my third favourite utensil.
There's the splash from the sink, the stuff that falls out of place (lots of stuff), the cat that drops what it wanted to taste and didn't like, etc. Not to mention the risk of more serious accidents, the day the oil catches fire and sprays around you, the day you have to open your oven in a hurry and you drop the very hot dish on the floor… in short, everything that never happens in the life of an Instagrammable food blogger but very often in real life.
Personally, I had :
- tripped while holding the (big) jumper full of wild boar stew, which was a monstrous fall, I managed not to spill almost anything but I was stunned on the floor for a good minute and had a battered wife's face for a week: I had preserved the contents of my jumper at the cost of a dive with my arm outstretched towards the ground and a very rough encounter between the ground and my cheekbone; that said, there was still some splashing. ..
- the Italian coffee pot that got clogged and exploded, artistically colouring the walls, floor and ceiling with dark brown splashes worthy of Jackson Pollock
- the garbage bag that was a little too full and that tore itself apart (and that, of course, contained very liquid stuff)
- the cat that forgot its piece of chicken or the little hard thing that it chased around the flat (like Lego but even more devious)
- the knife that slips out of the hand and almost makes a hole in the flooring
- the glass, the plate that commits suicide by slipping and hitting the tiles and sending little splinters everywhere
- the earthy potatoes brought back from the market that sadistically leave their soil on the tiles while I put them away
- the big release of steam when the oven is opened, which almost makes the dish drop out of solidarity
- the accident when transferring from the pan to the dish
- etc
I don't feel like I cook like a pig, and I really like to live barefoot, but NEVER in the kitchen.
So when I see Caroline Chambers, blogger and recipe creator, introduce herself in this way, what can I say?
Without going as far as wearing a professional outfit with anti-slip shoes, I advise you, in front of these pictures, to remember that a kitchen is not a welcoming room for bare feet, that accidents always happen when you don't expect them, that a broken toe is extremely painful, and that jumping on tiptoe to fetch a broom to pick up broken glass is the best way to end up with a nice cut on your foot.
Plus, spending several hours cooking while standing barefoot on a hard surface is tiring. If you don't have comfortable soles, you should use an anti-fatigue mat or, worse, a real mat. (PVC mats clean up better than real mats…)
So the barefoot cook cooks on a mat.…
The reason professional kitchens have drains is so that you can regularly wash with water. You don't have to go that far, but don't think that Caroline Chambers actually cooks barefoot!