Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

When do you need to use a vegetable brush to clean produce in addition to the vinegar soak?

— Diane Dankert

Answer:

Well, let's go back and say that not every vegetable needs a, uh, a brush. And I'm gonna just, um, one of these days, Patrick and I are gonna set up my kitchen so I can do a live demo for you. But I just wanted to say this. Sometimes if I buy, uh, apples or cucumbers, I will have a kettle of boiling water and I will take a skewer and I will put it into the very top of an apple, maybe an eighth of an inch, and then I will pour hot water over it to remove any wax that might be on the apple. So scrubbing a, an apple with a brush would not remove the wax, but that hot water will remove it, and you'll see all of the sludge and residue in the bottom of your, uh, fold. So, whoops, sorry about that. So the question is, when do I use a vegetable brush? I use a vegetable brush. If I want to scour something like celery, something that's hard, uh, if I wanna get those sweet potatoes really, really clean because I eat the skin, uh, I'll scrub them really, really well to take off any little viney, you know, spines that are on it, or any dirt that might be part of its residue because, uh, I just wanna throw it into the air fryer or the oven and, uh, have it go. So potatoes, celery, things that are hard. So, uh, don't clean onions because we can peel them off in layers and they always look pristine and clean and taste delicious.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan