The pot washers

The Food Chain

• Episode: The pot washers
• Website: The Food Chain
• Feed URL: https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p028z2z0.rss
• Duration: 00:26:28
• Published: 2019-04-18 04:00

Do you know who’s washing your dishes?

Emily Thomas talks to pot washers from around the world, about what they love and loathe about life at the sink.

A kitchen can’t survive without the pot washer, yet we rarely give them a second thought, lavishing all our attention instead on the chefs. But maybe we should. Being a pot washer, dishwasher or kitchen porter as it’s variably known, can be the first rung on the restaurant ladder, and many a great chef started out with a scourer in hand. But the job also attracts those who have very limited opportunities in life, and this means they may be more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

(Photo: Man scrubbing a kitchen sink. Credit: BBC/ Getty Images)