I learned how to cool down instantly in a heatwave using 10-second method

One of the worst things about suffering through heatwaves is that you still have to cook. I’m already trigger happy when it comes to dining out and a perfect excuse to write it off is less time spent in a hot kitchen. “Treat yourself,” purrs the devil on my shoulder as I tap on the Uber Eats app icon. If you’re already roasting indoors, why turn on the hob?

Thus, amid the latest bout of hot weather, I indulged in two nights of takeaways, but even I had the shame to draw the line there. And against all reason, I craved the type of rich, melt-in-your-mouth stew that requires browning meat at high heat plus by hours of cooking. My heart and stomach crave autumn and it couldn’t be repressed. Foolish indeed, but it brings me to the invaluable lesson I learnt about how to cool down indoors.

One common tip for cooling down is a cold, wet towel, especially if you struggle with sleep when it’s hot. In practice, I found it messy and ineffective. The towel was either too wet — unpleasantly dampening my clothes and bedding — or too dry to be effective.

Some days later, I had a eureka moment in the midst of browning 2kg of short ribs for the aforementioned craving. As I stood sweating with fans on full blast, my eyes caught on a tea towel hanging innocuously on the handle of the oven.

A regular hand towel was too thick, heavy and unwieldy, but maybe a tea towel? Perhaps it was too thin to do anything, but I tried anyway.

I grabbed a fresh tea towel — my favourite workhorse, the £1 ones from Ikea with the single red stripe — ran it under the tap, wrung it out just enough not to drip, and adorned myself with it like a cape.

Even though it only touched my neck and shoulders, the relief was immediate, full-body and lasted for hours as I toiled in the kitchen.

Line cooks the world over will be thinking: “Duh.”

I’d stumbled on an old fashioned chef’s cooling hack from first principles.

Keith Chiu, chef and founder of Love Sac, previously explained the technique: “I think one of the best things you can get yourself is a cooling towel.

“Most of the time, chefs just sling one over your shoulder anyways. Instead, replace that with a cooling towel. You just rip it through cold water, wring it out, and it keeps your neck nice and cool. Would highly, highly recommend that.”

On Reddit, one cook recommended taking it a step further: “When you take out that cool towel, make sure to dab your ‘cooling points’ before wrapping around your neck. Wrists, elbow pits, knee pits, back of ankles. If you have time/a break and can use a different towel, hit the soles of your feet too.”

And as Martin Lewis says: “Heat the human, not the home.” The same goes for cooling down. Anoint thyself with a cold tea towel this summer and know sweet relief.