Entertainment

Sink or swim

“America’s Test Kitchen”

“America’s Test Kitchen” (Daniel J. van Ackere)

POT HEAD: Maria Elena Delgado, who has worked in the dish room at PBS’s “America’s Test Kitchen” (inset) for 10 years, has some tips. (
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Food shows give us cooks using blow torches to top off lemon meringue cupcakes, or diving for sea scallops in the Bay of Fundy, but what is the one thing they steer clear of?

The horrifying, everyday reality of doing the dishes.

Take one look at the number of pans and utensils involved in Ina Garten’s “how easy is that?” shrimp with orzo, and you’ll finally understand why her husband, Jeffrey, is always making a quick getaway to New Haven.

The task of doing the dishes falls to the culinary staffs of every show.

The Food Network is so vast that it employs a separate staff just to man the dish room. Getting the job can be a stepping stone, especially if you work for Rachael Ray, who started as a dishwasher at the Howard Johnson’s in upstate Lake George.

On a show like PBS’s long-running hit “America’s Test Kitchen,” at least 174 pans — no joke — can get gunked up to make the perfect mac and cheese.

Most shows have high-powered, restaurant-quality dishwashing machines, but use them only for dishes and eating utensils.

They use the same pots, pans and cooking utensils that home cooks use. And all of these tools, which would be ruined in the dishwasher, are hand-cleaned by some people you see milling around in the background.

To these celebrity-chef dishwashers, cleaning pots and pans is a science — as well as a living.

The Post surveyed several dishwashers from “ATK” for the secret to their professional success. Which products and techniques work best?

The show has tested just about everything — on behalf of sister magazine Cooks Illustrated — but sticks to brands that are widely available.

Here are some results of the testing:

Seventh Generation, an eco-friendly dishwashing liquid found in most New York supermarkets, beat the other national brands in getting the job done with less effort.

Copper scrubbers (e.g. Chore Boy) are more durable than steel-wool pads, which tend to rust.

Bar Keepers Friend, an old-line powdered countertop cleaner, is great for cleaning many other things, the show discovered, including stainless cookware. The experts suggest making a paste out of it.

In the continual war of sponge versus dishrag versus paper towels, our experts are now proponents of reusable cloths, like eco-friendly Skoy. All dishwashing gloves aren’t created equal, either: Casabella Water Stop Gloves fare best.

To clean and sanitize all around the sink area, the show uses a cheap, homemade solution of one tablespoon of bleach to one quart of water in a spray bottle.

“Antibacterial” cleaners have to be left on the countertop for five to 10 minutes before bacteria are killed, say the experts. That’s not good. The cleaner could damage some countertops.

Here are some tricks of the trade for problem clean-ups:

For baked-on, sticky messes on pans — like mac and cheese or caramel — before you try soaking (which does help), fill the pan with water, return it to heat and then clean.

If that fails, degreasers that are available in hardware stores can be used overnight (but read the instructions carefully).

Wash bowls with doughs and batters in cold water first to prevent a cement-like crust from forming.

Make a paste of one tablespoon of baking soda with one teaspoon of water to get rid of nasty odors on cutting boards and in microwaves.

When food shows use sponges, they are boiled at the end of the day to sanitize them.

Allowing things to air-dry is fine, say the experts. But it won’t prevent your mother from making faces as she puts what you washed — but didn’t dry! — away.