Why Chefs Use Towels Instead Of Oven Mitts To Grab Hot Pans

If you've ever even halfway paid attention to the kitchen implements in your favorite cooking shows — whether that's a scripted program like FX's "The Bear" or a reality series (see any of the dozen-or-so-and-counting in chef Gordon Ramsay's empire) — there's one household accessory that's conspicuously missing: The oven mitt. And that's no accident. Professional chefs tend to prefer towels over puffy protective gloves because they have the advantage in dexterity, cleanliness, and ease of use when juggling pots and pans in multiple places.

So let's just say you're not tasked with turning 100 tables several times a night — essentially, there's no pressure to get magazine cover-worthy dishes out of the kitchen while keeping an eye on the clock. Is it worth swapping out your oven mitt when preparing meals at home? If you care about actually knowing where your hand is in relation to the cookware versus the food that is on it, the answer is unquestionably "yes." Mitts are bulky to the point where you can't easily feel important details like the edge of a baking sheet or the thickness of a handle. Even worse, their heft makes it almost impossible to carefully manipulate small vessels. Instead, a towel folded over on itself multiple times provides cooks with the sense of touch needed to retain control of their tools while also shielding skin from the heat.

When was the last time you actually laundered your oven mitt? The answer is probably never. The build-up is not only gross; that accumulation can actually pose a health hazard if any harmful bacteria contaminates your food. An exceptionally dirty mitt, particularly one that's been saturated in cooking oil, grease, or some other fat, could also spark a fire. Towels, on the other hand, are easier to cycle through as most kitchen rags come in multipacks, making it easier to toss one in the wash and sub in a new cloth. Chances are good there's one lonely mitt in your kitchen, making it difficult to decide when to forgo a dinner that requires hot pots and pans in order to clean the mitt properly. Oven mitts should be air dried, and always check the tag or packaging for special instructions.

Finally, towels are just easier to use. You can sling one over a hot handle after pulling a pot out of the oven as you attend to, say, vegetables boiling on the stove. The towel becomes a flag signifying "Hey, this thing is still scorching!," whereas a mitt is more cumbersome to put on and take off, so you're more likely to leave it lying on the counter, out of reach and out of mind. And the glove can really only do one thing: Be worn. Since towels are useful when it comes to covering bread as it proofs and wiping up spills, consider them your multipurpose sous chef.