Every house needs a functional kitchen. Every restaurant needs that functional kitchen to operate on a commercial level with ease, proficiency and when necessary, style. Every inch of space needs to be utilized thoughtfully beginning with the amount of countertop needed for the preparation of the raw ingredients to placement of the serving counter where the completed dishes will arrive. Of course, all of this will vary from restaurant to restaurant. The process may seem daunting but, rest assured, that there are hospitality consultants available to help you make sure that your kitchen design layout is no less than epic.
Open Kitchen Layout
Most likely to be found among fine dining restaurants, the open kitchen design allows the diners to become part of the entire meal cooking process. You can always ward off any excess heat and minimize any unnecessary sounds coming from the inner stations by adding a glass partition. Otherwise let the full force of your kitchen army add to your customers’ culinary experience.
Island-Style Layout
Although meal cooking basks in the limelight in this particular layout, the dishwashing station, the service area, the food preparation zone and the inventory storage sector, each of which take up a supporting corner are no less important. More commonly seen in larger-sized restaurants serving a particular cuisine, these kinds of commercial kitchens help facilitate overall staff communication under an executive chef’s thorough supervision.
Zone-Style Layout
Just like the name implies, the entire allocated space is divided into the necessary zones, be they according to specific kitchen duties or the different methods in which dishes are prepared. If it’s the latter, then the food preparation area can be replaced by a soup and salad station while the space reserved for meal cooking can be given to the meat section. Larger restaurants with diverse menus and ample staff are ideal for this kind of layout because it will give them the option of allowing different types of dishes to be prepared and served simultaneously.
Assembly-Style Layout
For fast food restaurant chains which are prone to using a line configuration in preparing the same type of dish over and over again, an assembly-style layout turns out to be the best case scenario. Consisting of a central row of areas including inventory storage, dishwashing, food preparation, meal cooking, service, it involves a team working in an organized and efficient manner to deliver fully prepared and packaged burgers, pizzas, fried chicken and sandwiches to customers on the other side of the kitchen.
Galley Layout
Food trucks are the target audience for this one here. Being mindful of the tight space, even hospitality consultants advise to place all the kitchen equipment along the 2 parallel walls. Make sure your placement follows the popular work triangle method where a kitchen’s 3 most essential work areas take you from the sink to the stove, onto the refrigerator and back to the sink. Planning matters most, especially where space is limited.
A commercial kitchen layout is all about specific components organized in a particular pattern to increase performance and efficiency, in other words, the epitome of organized chaos. A horde of appliances and crockery need to be professionally handled by a team of dishwashers, servers and chefs in various size spaces. Get the expert advice of hospitality consultants to manage both the necessity of your chefs and the expectations of your guests