Commercial Kitchen Equipment- an important chapter of your success story
As you take the final walk into your new dream restaurant, the glossy tiles and crisp themed walls give you wings to achieve your ambitions as a successful restauranteur. The moment you step into the kitchen of the restaurant, your eyes run over the counters and white serene floorings make you fall in love with the place.
Now when you start realizing empty spaces are saying something to you, the question pops-up- What kind of commercial kitchen equipment would be best suited in this kitchen? And above this, a daunting task to narrow down the possible necessary appliances according to space and utility.
Professional appliances allow you to store, refrigerate, freeze, and cook food that you require to serve daily. They are nowadays run on power but some are still run by gas.
Allow me to walk you down to a hassle-free journey on what type of heavy-duty machine, correct capacity according to productivity, and changing or upgrading the current equipage. This guide will prepare you with a clear picture in mind of what exactly you should place in your new commercial kitchen.
Ok. First, let’s begin with the basics…
Before you take the plunge into what needs to be purchased and what needs to be put later, it is vital to understand the basic need of your food work area. This can be easily categorized into the following:
- Equipment or appliances that are movable and can easily be carried around the kitchen.
- Larger equipage that can’t be moved, so they need to be fixed to a bench or stand.
- Utensils required for cooking in the kitchen.
- Kitchen hand tools that are needed while you cook.
- Mechanical appliances usually not electricity-driven but help in doing repetitive tasks.
- Types of equipment that are driven by power and are usually placed stationary and close to power plugs.
Second, turn to necessities…
Necessary equipage is vital for your commercial kitchen as you can’t exist without it. Let’s take a look:
- Easy and convenient cooking range (with or without oven) with burners- 4, 6, and 12 burners in a cooking range helps you facilitate multiple cooling stations while you can prepare food easily in rush hours. The operation is very easy with turning off and on knobs and it is pretty safe to reach your utensil.
- Oven (with gas burners) that facilitates multiple cooking during rush hours- they can not only cook but keep the food warm while you prepare other dishes to serve.
- Refrigerators types of equipment- any kitchen be it a hospital one or a restaurant or a café or a food truck business, none can operate without refrigerator.
- Storage types of equipment- are successful when you need to store and cool prep food, meat, dairy products, and such types of food.
- Freezers- are super important when you need to store food items like meat, cheese, ice and ice makers, frozen food, etc.
- Deep Fryers- a multipurpose appliance that works very efficiently if you are dealing with fried foodstuff like french fries, cutlets, burgers, fish fries, etc.
- Display refrigerator (in case you own a bakery)- works perfectly if you wish to display your bakery arts that lure your customer to purchase. This type of equipment cools and displays bakery items and other food items like sandwiches, pastries, muffins, and scones. It even lets you maintain the hygiene of the food.
- Mixers, grinders, blender, slicers- Planetary mixers are your best buddies when it comes to the commercial kitchen. It does all pre-prep jobs like slicing, cutting while it does mixing and blending jobs for cakes and sauces too.
Third, you will know how and why is it important for a food business…
Commercial kitchen equipment suppliers hold inventory of high quality and handle customers professionally. Just imagine you have the perfect recipes and fresh ingredients. But you don’t have the right kitchen appliance of professional-grade, you will not be able to run your food trading place without the help of basic as well as necessary commercial grade equipment.
When a restaurant receives bulk orders, without such types of appliances, you can not run your restaurant. With proper time management and excellent quality kitchen equipment, you can prepare your food quickly and increase the efficiency of your work area while you fetch praises coming from the tables of your guests. There will be a lesser wait time for the guests which in turn would increase your sales.
Ok. A short key list for better understanding:
i. A one-time investment- It is primary that your kitchen needs to be well equipped with commercial-grade appliances. Even one missing machine could disrupt the entire food prep process. If you use well and maintain better, these types of equipment will accompany you for years. Most of them come with warranty periods. Make sure you keep them with you.
ii. Cut-down in labor cost- Until recently, all jobs like slicing, chopping, peeling, cutting were performed by the chefs. Bakers use to invest so much time in mixing jobs for bakery related recipes. Preparing food was a hard and time-taking task. But not anymore. The electric kitchen equipment has made things easy as they do so many jobs, thus reducing the labor cost.
iii. Good output- While the machines do their jobs so easily, it saves hell lot of time for the chefs. Thus making them more productive.
iv. No wastage- Most of the commercial kitchen types of equipment come with several measurement arrangments. This helps to reduce errors that a professional chef can also commit. Mixing or blending or chopping with the correct amount or measurement helps to reduce wastage.
Fourth, where can I go to check and seek guidance for equipment? Or should I just pick it up from a commercial kitchen equipment sale?
This can become a huge dilemma if you don’t know where to start and freeze your choice. Well, don’t worry. Just read on:
- Keep quality above everything else- Without a doubt, your kitchen should have good quality equipment. It is a one-time investment so make sure you don’t compromise with this vital factor.
- Quick delivery- Make sure the vendor understands your deadline and delivers on time. The wait time can cost you a lot of there is a delay in delivery.
- Transparent deal- Pick a vendor that gives you a clear image of the deal and advice you are seeking. Hidden patches can spoil the deal sometimes and the time-delayed is even worse.
Now a short and quick summary of the above:
Pointers not miss while you are on the verge of buying commercial kitchen equipment:
- The theme of your restaurant- You need to understand your requirements center around what you will serve. If you are ready with the menu, it will be easy to narrow down a list of types of equipment. For eg- a Spanish restaurant does not require a cake display fridge.
- Pocket-friendly- Make mandatory choices, without which you can’t operate. For eg, a fine dining restaurant needs all major equipage while a bakery does not require grills and fryers.
- Convenient operations- Make sure you learn how to operate the appliance. Don’t opt for complex operations.
- Don’t over-purchase- If you end up buying everything, you will crowd your work area. There will be no extremely vital movement space. Be sure of the measurements while buying commercial equipment.
- Maintain and sustain- You will need to maintain the equipment while using it. Cleanliness and hygiene are important. So clean your appliance on a regular basis. And when not in use, switch off.
- Equipment that works for long- Stainless steel products proves to be long-lasting. Choose appliances that are rust-free and good conductors of heat. Equipment that does not consume much electricity should be your priority. Energy conservation is prime.
- Test before delivery- Make sure your equipment is in working condition. If not you can get it rectified on time.
Not using modern equipment makes you inefficient and incompetent in the food business. Whether you run a café, a hospital kitchen, or own a supermart, you need to think and process that the right kind of professional appliance will add not only to your sales but will make you way more efficient in the work process.
