Layout
The most important thing to consider when designing a kitchen for a restaurant is the layout. How your kitchen is laid out is crucial because it directly impacts the efficiency, safety, and overall quality of food preparation. You want to create a good workflow allowing you to maximise efficiency. You often hear designers referring to the “magic triangle”: this is where food preparation, cooking, plating and cleaning stations are logically placed to minimise movement.
Space Maximisation
A carefully designed kitchen also maximises space. Since many restaurant kitchens have limited space or are in peculiarly-shaped old buildings it is particularly important to use all the space available. Kitchens need a lot of equipment and have numerous staff which all need to fit into one space, without it feeling crowded or creating flow clashes as this can lead to stress and accidents.
Safety
With all that sharp and hot equipment in your kitchen, you need to carefully consider where to place proper ventilation and sanitation stations, ensuring adherence to the strictest food hygiene standards. Health and safety are a huge part of cooking and much of this happens at the design stage. A good workflow and well-designed kitchen maintain a better level of hygiene where cooked and raw food are kept at safe distances. It also makes a more comfortable working environment for anyone there. While comfort isn’t something immediately associated with restaurant kitchens, if your staff can easily access tools and ingredients and not bump into each other they will be much less stressed and much more productive!
Equipment
Restaurant kitchen cooking equipment can vary depending on the style of cooking that your restaurant prides itself on, but there are some items that most kitchens will always require. Apart from the smaller items i.e. spatulas and bowls, that we don’t usually supply (though we can certainly get hold of them if you’re in desperate need!) there are larger items that most restaurant kitchens need (or maybe don’t but would definitely benefit from having):
- Ranges or cook tops: for boiling, sauteing, grilling, stir-frying, shallow frying etc. We recommend: Falcon Dominator
- Ovens: for smaller operations, a conventional fan-assisted oven will do but most restaurants are better off using combi ovens because of their versatility, their ability to cater in larger quantities and their programmability which can free up valuable time We recommend: Retigo
- Deep Fryers: not all restaurants offer chips, but then fryers aren’t just for chips! You don’t have to have huge floor-standing machines taking up room for small quantities of fried materials, sometimes a small countertop unit is just perfect We recommend: Lincat
- Griddles/Grills/Salamanders: for grilling, for burgers or for finishing off particular dishes We recommend: Blue Seal
- Refrigerators and Freezers: reach-in, drawers, under counter or walk-in. There is a large choice depending on the space you have and the type of food you’re preparing. You might even prefer or need a saladette counter for easy access to a variety of prepared ingredients and garnish. These are particularly useful in pizza parlours. We recommend: Atosa
- Food Processors, Mixers or Vegetable Preparation Machines: for chopping, slicing, mixing, pureeing, making dough and any other mixes. Either tabletop or floor-standing, depending on the size of your kitchen and the amount of food you’re prepping. We recommend: Pacojet 4, Metcalfe, Hallde
- Furniture: hygiene standard stainless steel work surfaces, tables, heated gantries, sinks, floor and wall cupboards, with surfaces in 304 grade stainless which is the food standard. Any lower grade will deteriorate quickly by regular contact with acidic foods such as tomatoes.
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Fabrication
Every kitchen requires 3 sinks, one for hand washing, one for preparing food and one for cleaning dishes. These also must be food standard and we can fabricate them to fit any space. We make them to order ensuring we design them in order to maximise space where necessary.
We can add:
- drawers
- shelves
- gantries
- basket & tray runners
- hand wash basins
- scrapping rings
- voids for bins or dishwashers
The list goes on... click here to see what options we can add to your fabrication.
Why Choose Kitchen Solutions?
At Kitchen Solutions we have been designing and installing kitchens for decades now. We can take your kitchen project from design to completion making sure your restaurant is designed for maximum ease, comfort, efficiency and productivity so you can maintain the highest standards of quality dishes to serve to your customers.
Our process: After an initial consultation and site visit we will produce a design that we discuss with you, explaining how we have arrived at the specific layout. If you’re happy with that, we confirm the restaurant kitchen equipment you want and need after which we go ahead and create the fabrications, ready for installation with the equipment.
Our industry specialism: As distributors of commercial kitchen restaurant equipment, we are knowledgeable about the equipment on offer in our industry and the latest innovations as they come out, and you will be the first to know from us. We have close relationships with our suppliers who are some of the largest in the country: Blue Seal, Lincat, Falcon, Foster, Pitco, Merrychef, Retigo, Turbochef, MagiKitch’n, Rational, Josper, Alto-Shaam to name but a few, and we will always recommend the brand that best matches your budget and requirements.
