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.
Uh Oh. Handling Restaurant Disaster Recovery
No one wants to think about a major disaster hitting their restaurant. Unfortunately, it can happen at any time. In Arkansas, large areas (including Little Rock) were declared disaster areas as recently as last summer. Severe flooding, wind damage, and tornados are...
Restaurant Supplies You Need: Technology in Your Business
Every business is impacted by technology, and restaurants are no exception. There are dozens of ways to use technology to build your business, improve your efficiency, and serve customers better. Sometimes restaurant owners feel like they’re too busy to implement new...
Key Restaurant Equipment for a Fast-Casual Restaurant
Fast-casual dining has changed how America eats and has impacted what people expect in terms of convenience, price, and food quality. Generally, fast-casual food is affordable and higher-quality than pure fast food. It’s a step above a McDonald’s, without the price or...
Equipment for Your Restaurant: Choosing a Restaurant Concept
Some people who start a restaurant know exactly what they want. They either buy an existing restaurant with a concept, or they create the menu based on their family traditions or ethnic flair. However, not everyone who wants to start a restaurant knows exactly what...
Restaurant Supplies: Using Herbs to Add Flavor to Your Dishes
If you’re looking for new ways to attract people to your restaurant, consider the ways you can add flavor without adding fat or calories. Consumers are more and more concerned about the quality of what they eat, both at home and in a restaurant. Home cooks generally...
Commercial Kitchen Debate: Stainless Steel vs. Non-Stick Pans
If you run a commercial kitchen, you probably have a lot of ways of doing things that just seem right to you. For whatever reason, you decided between a gas and electric stove. You made decisions about dishware. And you probably have a position on the stainless steel...
Restaurant Equipment: How to Handle Gluten Allergies
In the last five years, you’ve probably seen a dramatic increase in the number of restaurant customers you have that are avoiding gluten. Some of them simply don’t like it, and others have a life-threatening reaction if they eat it. As a restaurant owner, you want to...
Reduce Food Waste: Proper Kitchen Equipment and More
Food waste is a reality in any commercial restaurant, but it doesn’t have to be accepted blindly. Too many restaurant owners or head chefs feel as though there is nothing they can do about this waste. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to reduce food waste in your...
Restaurant Supplies: Furnishing an Outdoor Sitting Area
Outdoor dining is a very enjoyable experience for many people. In Little Rock the weather is generally pleasant, although humidity may make it hard to eat outside on the hottest summer days. Adding an outdoor sitting area to your restaurant can be a great way to...
Commercial Kitchen Fun: The Wonder of Chocolate
If there’s anything that almost everyone loves as much as coffee, it’s chocolate. In fact, there are multiple celebrations of chocolate each year. Chocolate Day is on July 7th, because historically that’s when chocolate was first brought to Europe in 1550. Don’t miss...
Cooking Equipment Spotlight: Safe Indoor Grilling
Indoor grilling is a great way for your restaurant to delight customers without having to run a big charcoal operation out back. There’s nothing like grilled meat and vegetables to put a great aroma in the air and encourage hungry diners to dig in. There are two...
Restaurant Supplies: How to Properly Store Spirits & Drinks
Spirits and other alcoholic drinks can add a lot to your bottom line as a restaurant. These drinks often have high margins, and people order more than one frequently. This leads to more revenue for your restaurant and better tips for your servers! In order to make the...
Going Green Can Benefit Your Commercial Kitchen
Do you feel like running a restaurant means that you have to give in to wasted food, materials, and even money? Great news – you don’t. If you want to build your business, consider going green! You can structure your commercial kitchen to help the planet while also...
Key Foodservice Equipment for Your Food Truck
Are you ready to start a food truck? While the restaurant industry climbs slowly at roughly two percent a year, the food truck industry has been booming. Growing nearly 8% per year over the last five years, trucks are one of the fastest growing parts of the food...
Cooking Equipment Spotlight: The Right Knife for the Job
Not everyone who’s involved in a commercial kitchen has had professional training as a chef. As a result, not everyone is aware of how to choose the best cooking equipment for each job. Having the right knife is one of the most vital choices you can make during food...
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.