I am an experienced baker but have always worked by myself in small catering-type operations. I have been hired by an established job readiness program to teach homeless adults basic baking skills and when I looked through an old training manual at the school, one of the test questions stumped me. It read, "How do you let others know when something is hot?" I assumed you just call out, "HOT PAN!" or whatever, but that seems too obvious. Any suggestions to what is the appropriate kitchen etiquette? Also, can anyone suggest a good source for material on rules of kitchen safety? I need to teach these too.

I always leave an oven mitt on the hot rack. The mitt and the fact that your butt gets scourched if your are in a 2 foot radius is a pretty good indication.

A rag on the oven door means there is something in the oven and flour sprinkled on the handle of a pot means the pot is hot. I don't know how old it is but that is what we used in one of the big hotels I worked in.

As I worked in a large hotel with a brigade of chefs and appretices, our usual rule was " if you leave something hot then place a towel over the handle or over the edge of the pan" every one then knew that the item was hot.This is especially usefull for the pot washer who often would grab saute pans that we had just pulled from a 500 degree oven and would throw into a steel bin for him to collect.