Cooking and Cleaning

Grated garlic with guacamole ingredients

A pottery professor of mine once told me, “I don’t trust potters who don’t like to cook.”  While it may not be true that all potters love to cook, I have met few studio potters who actively dislike taking ingredients and transforming them using methods of heating. This description applies to cooking and making pots so in a way, it seems a foregone conclusion.

The potters in my guild (the Asparagus Valley Potters Guild) spend almost as much time talking about the food we bring to our meetings as we do talking about the pots they’re in and the business of making a living by selling our work.  

Anyone who likes to cook knows there is a flip side to the Joy of Cooking. I call it "The Wretchedness of Cleaning".  I’ve noticed from attending various dinner parties that people have different styles of cooking and cleaning. Some are incredibly fastidious--assembling ingredients ahead of time, following a recipe (down to that level half cup of walnuts), and taking great care to avoid a mess in the first place.  Others cook with reckless abandon--pulling ingredients as needed, substituting when in a pinch, using the recipe as more a general guideline, and not worrying too much about what’s splashing and spilling because the cleaning will happen later after the food is enjoyed. With either cooking approach one can get some great results.  In my reality, the way the food is presented is as important as how it is made. Great pots make good food even better.

After the dishes are cleared, however, it is my major preference that the dinnerware can end up in the dishwasher. So many customers tell me, “I would never put your pottery in the dishwasher.”  I always respond that I’ve lost more pots to slipping into the sink while hand washing than I ever have in the dishwasher.  To land on my table for regular use, a pot has to be durable enough to go through the dishwasher (see Dishwasher Safe for instruction on how to test dishwasher worthiness). In fact, I have to honestly say, I am unaware of a piece of Kaleidoscope Pottery in my possession ever being broken or chipped as the result of washing in the dishwasher--and I have pieces I’ve used every day over the last 23 years. I believe the only time a plate has been damaged in my dishwasher has been from dropping something from the counter down onto one.

So, whatever your cooking style, I do hope you will feel free to put Kaleidoscope pots into the dishwasher.  The only reason I’d recommend against it is if you don’t have one.