Getting Your Commercial Kitchen Up and Running
August 29, 2019Getting your commercial kitchen up and running.
Serving Ware
If there’s nothing to serve the food on, there’s no restaurant. You’ll need tons of cutlery, plate ware, bowls, ramekins, cups, and glasses. Consider the number of tables you can fit in your restaurant and how many guests you hope to serve every night when factoring in how much to buy. Consider breakage – in the chaotic environment of commercial kitchens; it’s not uncommon to lose a plate or glass every few shifts.
Cooking Equipment for Your Commercial Kitchen
Consider what tools you’d need to execute your entire menu in one shift. Pots of all sizes, sauté pans, tasting spoons, mixing spoons, sheet pans, whisks, fish spatulas, ladles, bowls of all sizes, squeeze bottles, bench scrapers – the list goes on and varies widely depending on the type of food you want to make. You’ll also need more of each item than you expect.
Safety Equipment and Your Commercial Kitchen
Make sure your kitchen has proper safety equipment. A well-stocked first aid or medical emergency kit is crucial in a commercial kitchen that runs on fire and knives. Check your local fire department guidelines before purchasing fire, safety, or sanitation equipment, and avoid potential complications by always keeping your kitchen up to fire code standards.
Commercial Kitchen Freezers and Refrigerators
All commercial kitchens require a refrigeration system of some type. Without a fridge, you can’t keep the ingredients and prepared foods fresh. Freezers are also crucial for inventory management because it’s much more cost-effective to buy 300 steaks and freeze them than to buy ten steaks every day.
Industrial-grade refrigeration units are designed to meet the unique needs of the food industry. For example, they can cool large pots of sauce to a safe temperature in record time, so they’re a crucial purchase for any food handling operation. You’ll have to decide between reach-in units and walk-in units.
Make sure to seek professional help for installation and that you know how to properly maintain your unit, as they can be costly to repair.
Food Preparation Counters and Cutting Boards
Prep tables, counters, and cutting surfaces are essential to any commercial kitchen and come in various sizes. Choose preparation surfaces made of stainless steel, sturdy against corrosion, doesn’t absorb bacteria from food or meat and can withstand the harsh cleaning products used in commercial kitchens. On the line, you’ll want food prep counters that have small refrigerators underneath them for easy access to food prepped for each station.
As for cutting surfaces, choose either plastic or wooden cutting boards. Plastic boards are more comfortable to sanitize but can develop deep grooves that can hide bacteria. Wooden boards are generally tougher to clean than plastic ones but don’t develop grooves as quickly.
Ranges and Ventilation
If your restaurant plans on making anything but salad, you’ll need a kitchen range. The range is the powerhouse of the kitchen, so it’s essential to choose one that meets both your cooking needs. Like residential ranges, commercial units can be either gas or electric. If you’d prefer a visual, responsive cooking experience, go for a gas range.
Gas ranges make it easier to judge heat levels and change from high to low settings much faster than their electric counterparts. Alternatively, electric ranges have smooth, elegant, easy-to-clean designs and come in three sub-categories.
Standard electric ranges use coils to heat food, whereas you cook directly on the flat surface of smooth-top electric ranges. Electric induction ranges employ magnetic coils beneath a ceramic glass top to generate heat, but they require unique magnetic cookware to work.
Ovens
Most ranges come outfitted with an oven. If your operation centers around baked goods, it may be in your best interest to purchase a range with a convection oven setting. Unlike regular ovens, convection ovens have a fan and exhaust system that blow hot air around the food. They are a great appliance for roasting, toasting, making pies and cookies, or dehydrating.
Sinks
Sinks are vital to any kitchen because they provide running water as well as space for handwashing, cleaning produce, defrosting frozen meat under running water, or washing the occasional cooking utensil as needed.
Health and safety authorities typically require commercial kitchens to install a triple-sink wash station and a commercial dishwashing machine, as well as a dedicated handwashing sink.
Restaurant Supplies: The Growing Menu Role of Specialty Cheeses
As a commercial restaurant owner or manager, you might wonder what you can do to revive your menu a bit. There are a lot of fun ways to diversify your menu, but one trend you might have noticed is the growing role of specialty cheeses. We’ve all used common cheeses,...
It’s a Toast: Why We Love the “Friends” Kitchen
Welcome to our new series, “Roast and Toast!” Each month we’re going to feature one kitchen we love and one kitchen we hate. It can be from anywhere – a sitcom, a cooking show, a cartoon, a movie, or any other screen you’d see one on! We’re starting off with a toast...
Ready to Open a Second Restaurant Location?
If your current restaurant is booming, it might be time to consider a second location. Congratulations on your current success – you’ve already beaten the odds! Opening a second location can be easier than your first one – you’ve already worked out a lot of the kinks....
The One Product to Boost Convenience Store Sales
Is there one product that can single-handedly make or break the success of your convenience store? A lot of store owners would say no. When they look at their store, they see products coming from hot dish foodservice equipment, shelves, and a variety of categories...
Restaurant Equipment Spotlight: Gas vs. Electric
Does your Little Rock restaurant use gas or electric restaurant equipment? In all likelihood you made this decision a long time ago, but it’s one that can always be reconsidered. There are benefits to both. If you’re opening a new restaurant location, it’s vital to...
Restaurant Equipment: Self-Ordering Technology
One of the biggest challenges of running a restaurant is keeping up with all the technology and restaurant equipment that is available. You might have thought when you opened your location that you could run things basically the same way for decades. While they may...
Four Tips to Opening a Successful Restaurant
Have you been dreaming about bringing your food expertise to the forefront of you life? Many people have thought about opening their own restaurant. Folks don’t follow through for a variety of reasons – money, fear, or simple inertia. You can be different, though. You...
The Case for Timeless Restaurant Décor
What’s the newest trend in restaurant décor? Evidently, people are loving “Millennial pink,” and they’re using it for everything. If you’re trying to keep up with what’s hot, you better get some new restaurant supplies right away! And remember, this isn’t just any...
Deep Fry Safely & Efficiently
When it comes to kitchen equipment, knowing how to use it correctly is vital. Not only does it keep your employees safe, it ensures that the food comes out well and that your equipment last a long time in good condition. Using a deep fryer may seem pretty simple, and...
Should You Buy Closeout Restaurant Supplies?
As a restaurant owner, you, of course, want to save money in any way possible. Restaurant margins are known for being razor-thin, so every dollar counts. Because of this, you might be tempted when you see a closeout deal for restaurant supplies. After all, you can get...
Choosing Environmentally Friendly Restaurant Supplies
There’s been a lot of controversy recently about restaurant supplies and how they affect the environment. The current focus is on plastic straws, but the same conversation has been had about Styrofoam and a variety of other materials. Can you choose environmentally...
Restaurant Supplies to Prepare Your Location for Spring
In March you can begin to feel warmer weather around the corner here in Little Rock. After all, the groundhog didn’t see its shadow this year, so we’re in for an early spring, right? As you think about how to prepare your restaurant for spring, think about getting the...
Proper Use of Cutting Boards
Food safety is vital to every restaurant – consistent inspections make sure of it! Unfortunately, the day-to-day operations can sometimes mean that safety falls through the cracks. One thing that can get overlooked in a busy kitchen is the safe use of cutting boards....
Four Myths About Food Trucks
You probably know that the food truck industry is booming – it’s grown by 7.3% in the last five years and shows no signs of slowing down. That makes it an attractive industry for anyone interested in serving food – from established restaurants to new entrepreneurs....
Kitchen Equipment: Choosing the Right Cutting Board
Every kitchen, from a food truck to a large restaurant, needs cutting boards. From vegetables to bread to meat and fish, your chefs and cooks have to chop things every day. Have you put a lot of thought into this important piece of kitchen equipment? Like many other...
Ensuring adequate tableware is essential for any restaurant, but equally important is having reliable commercial food processing equipment to handle high-volume food preparation. With a fast-paced kitchen environment, investing in durable equipment can streamline operations, reduce downtime, and meet customer demands efficiently, helping restaurants serve quality meals without delays or setbacks in service.