How to Run a Kitchen
“Kitchen is the engine of a whole restaurant. A well maintained kitchen ensures happy and satisfied customers and hence leading to a steady growth of the restaurant business.”
By Jimmy Jean
Most experienced and successful restaurant owners know this fact very well that whatever goes on in the kitchen will, contributes to the success of the whole restaurant, in most cases. Which means that a well installed and managed kitchen is the considerable benefit to the rest of the restaurant. Your customers will always be satisfied with the delicious and clean food from your kitchen; hence ensure a seamless service. Keep reading this article to learn how to set up and run your restaurant kitchen efficiently.
“whatever goes on in the kitchen will, contributes to the success of the whole restaurant”
Planning Kitchen Accordingly
A good kitchen of a restaurant should be made up of different stations. The number of stations you will have will depend on the space of your kitchen, your budget and your planned menu. For the sake of saving money and space, some stations can be combined with others.
Firstly, you have to create a list of all the foods you plan to prepare in your kitchen. Also you must have to plan the processes that go on from the start to the completion of a dish. Which means that anything a restaurant staff does should easily be able to flow smoothly without any interruption. Make sure that your kitchen has a prep area which will be able to accommodate all the ingredients needed for the food or dish list you had earlier planned. The kitchen should also be able to follow food sanitation and the commercial kitchen guidelines. For example, you will be required to set an appropriate amount of wash stations aside and the air ventilation should also be placed strategically according to the specifications of the kitchen.
Stocking Kitchen Efficiently
After planning your kitchen accordingly, the next thing you need to do is to stock it with all the appropriate equipments. Being a commercial kitchen, you need to purchase the industrial-grade equipments which are capable of withstanding the busy restaurant use.
At the moment of starting, try to avoid the temptation of willing to purchase everything you see while shopping. Only go for the few basics required things to get you started. Depending on what you will be preparing in the kitchen, you need to come up with a complete list of equipment that will ensure you don’t miss the most basic and important ones. The rest equipments can be added later as they become needed.
Investing in Staff
One of the most important rule for an successful and efficient kitchen is highly skilled, qualified and hard hardworking staff. Its very important for you to invest your time and money to hire and train the best kitchen crew. Always ensure your staff that you’re always ready to help them become the best they can be in their job. And with this they will surely work hard for you and be loyal to you everytime. Always try to do everything possible to make them feel appreciated. The behavior you want to see from them should be modeled by you. Always keep in mind that words alone are never enough to express, things like offering bonuses will surely go a long way in showing all of them that you care. Always lead them with example by willing to work hard alongside them and also by being open to change. This will definitely portray you as a good leader among them and they will surely look to emulate this.
Ensuring safety
The safety of your kitchen is also a serious matter to consider. Firstly, ensure that all your personnel is conversant with all the kitchen equipment. Which means that they should be able to follow the manufacturer instructions while operating machines with the sharp and dangerous parts. Your staff should always use protective gears whenever it’s required for them to do so.
Hazardous chemicals should always be handled with full care. This can be done by carefully reading labels and by being familiar with the material safety data sheets for the chemicals on the premises. Make sure that you’re always ready for any kind of emergencies. You can implement an action plan for fires, accidents, violent situations, natural disasters and any other emergencies which may occur. All staff should be well informed about this and know what actions to take at the time of emergencies.
Efficient Inventory System
It’s very important for you to ensure that your inventory is always monitored. A system should be there to remind you of the time you need to restock your kitchen. Apart from ensuring that you don’t run out of stock, the system should also be able to inform or alert you in case you’re overstocking your kitchen with inventory. This will surely help you to reduce food wastage and would save money that could have lost.
The inventory system should be capable of being adjusted according to how your restaurant business will be running. If orders from clients are going up, it should allow you to adjust this according to the demand. Always ensure that invoices are well filed because they’re the ones which will help you in determining whether you’re actually receiving the goods you had ordered for.
Conclusion
You must understand that the kitchen is the engine of the whole restaurant. If the restaurant kitchen is maintained and run well, you can assure that you will have happy and satisfied customers and hence leading to a steady growth of your restaurant business.
For any sort of queries, feel free to contact and consult with us. It will be our pleasure to help you.
$30 on Phone Consultant (Free for 5 minutes)
$45 for Menu Planning
$30 for Recipe
$150/Hour for Kitchen Setup
$160 for Training Staff and Cooking Techniques
