The Love Tool: I Heart My Sharpies!
"More important than a knife," says one chef.
Who could have guessed that chefs LOVE their Sharpies?
I certainly didn’t when I started BehindTheKnife, But very early on, one by one, chefs spoke of Sharpie Love, and it turned into a recurring theme.
Here, a few chefs tell of their Sharpie Love:
Charity Dasenbrock, a personal chef in Santa Cruz, California, admits that she can’t live without her Sharpies. “They’re invaluable for my food labels since they’re highly visible and waterproof. My current client also likes things color-coded, so all the food for one meal gets labelled in one color while another meal gets a different color, which makes it fun for me. I was a preschool teacher in a previous life, so I love arts and crafts and I definitely like bright colors. I was saddened at my last job to discover that I had forgotten to close the green Sharpie, rendering it unusable, and so the green labels had to be changed to blue.”
Chef Eric Nittolo does his thing while a Sharpie is never too far away.
“The Sharpie is as important as my knife,” says Chef Eric Nittolo, executive chef at The Boathouse Restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan. “It writes on dry-erase boards which are then cleaned with degreaser, it sets ticket times on orders, and it also looks and fits perfectly in the little pocket in my jacket. I need it to date each product, which keeps our scores very high with the Department of Health, and the color signifies the person who wrote it down. Even front of the house takes reservations with the clickie kind. They are mere Sharpies to some, but to the restaurant world they are special.”
Executive Chef Christian Thornton of Atria Restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard uses Sharpies all the time for multiple tasks, and he particularly likes to color code so the variety of colors come in handy. “Because the kitchen is such a fast-paced wet/dry environment, I need something that I can count on to stay put when I write. I like to know that when I label something or set the rotation that I don’t have to worry about it disappearing. I get highly upset when one walks off.” His solution? “I store them in my pockets, in every free space in the kitchen, and at the hostess stand. I am never without.”
Chef Pahk is a pragmatist, opting for red and black Sharpies in his kitchen.
“I LOVE MY SHARPIE!!!!” says Ivan Pahk, executive chef at Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar in Kapalua and Kihei, Maui. “I have one in my collar at least 16 hours a day. I have one in my office, I have one roped up in the kitchen. One time my mom came over and used it and accidentally put in her purse and took it back to Oahu. Needless to say that I was pissed off so I called her and she said she had it. She thought it was the funniest thing that I got upset over a busted-up-and-can’t-even-see-the-name-of-the-pen-on-it. So she sent me a whole new set. Then I called her and told her that I don’t use the assorted colors, I only like the black and red ones.”
Sharpie Love!
What’s your own tale of Sharpie love in the kitchen? Leave a comment below.
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Who's Behind Behind The Knife?
Lisa Rogak is a New York Times bestselling author and independent journalist who writes about food, travel, and wine.
Assistant Research Director Little Shit will occasionally bat around a stray Sharpie as a cat toy.