The only way to keep a kitchen good as new is to never use it. Even the most careful cook will spill stew from her ladle or have a pot boil over. Regardless of one’s cleaning prowess, these drips and smears accumulate over time and produce a hardened combination of food and grease residue that even the best scrubbing cannot remove.
Here is one of our stovetop grills. Notice the buildup of grease. We’ve tried cleansers, hot water, the dishwasher, but we could not get rid of this accumulation over four years of daily cooking.