Commercial Kitchen Layout And Design, Explained With Floor Plans
Much of the reputation of an establishment that provides the service of food, is based on the quality of that service. The organization of a kitchen may include several specialists, such as a meat handler, fish, poultry, etc., rotisserie cooks, vegetable cooks, bakers and bakers. The staff of the industrial kitchen is usually headed by a director of meals: the executive chef who will be in charge of other chefs and kitchen helpers.
In the industrial kitchens there will be a kitchen supervisor in charge of hygiene and staff behaviour and may also act as a purchasing agent for food and other supplies.
According to Richard Flambert (kitchen consultant), he says it’s the only kind of establishment where every day it is acquired, received, stored, processes, serves and consumes a product.
Food products arrive by the unloading area, whether fresh, chilled, canned, packed or frozen, and put them in some kind of cupboard. They are kept in a storage on shelves arranged on the basis that “the first one in is the first one out”.
Operation and Circulation In a Commercial Kitchen
Planning considers the amount of space allocated or available for the kitchen. When designing a building, one must take into account the needs that are the result of the previous market study (type kitchen, population to be served).
An example of a restaurant kitchen designed for the operation and The fastest operation was that of Eddy’s Restaurant in Kansas, (Fig. 1) where the flow of waiters is a circuit that starts with the laundry, very near the front door from the dining room. The circuit continues through from the meat and fish area, the vegetable area, the salad area and storage; from there it goes to the service bar. There is no traffic no crossovers, no long distances between areas.
Preparation units support the service stations and are prepared in such a way that the food passes from one area to the next on its way to the final service line. Refrigerators, located directly in front of the grills and stoves,
keep the food within reach of the chef.
All the teams are 0.20m on the floor to facilitate complete cleaning. The interiors and shelves are mobile for the same reason. Coolers and heaters are used for dishes.
In any kitchen you have to consider the spaces from the entrance of the staff, dressing rooms, men’s and women’s toilets, first-aid kit first aid in case of accidents (cuts, burns, etc.), control of ingress and egress of kitchen staff.
Part of the area of The kitchen will be occupied by equipment, utensils and operators. In addition of those occupied spaces should be sufficient space to move.
Operators shall be able to move from one area to another without having to wait for them to pass; there must be no obstruction to the access to the posts; sufficiently wide corridors must be left free for the movement of trolleys and other rolling stock, as well as space necessary for the work with the tools and the equipment in operation. (Fig. 2)
If the space is too small for production, it creates ventilation, temperature and control problems, for which there are special installations that solve these problems. It is also difficult maintain, when working conditions are poor, health and safety, therefore increases the likelihood of accidents occurring.
On the other hand, excessively large surfaces do not lead to a good performance of food establishments. Time and energy are wasted in walking and carrying things over long distances. The costs of cleaning and the lighting and maintenance of the premises.
Adequate kitchen layout in small space
The most basic and preferred flow plan is the linear flow, also known as assembly line flow. Materials are constantly moving from one step to another in a straight line.
This approach to design minimizes backtracking; it reduces processing time and prevents confusions about what goes out of the kitchen and what returns in. The straight line design will work well for smaller facilities because it can be set up against a wall and adjusted to the cooks’ duties.
A popular and very efficient option is parallel flow where there is not sufficient space to accommodate straight-line food preparation. These are four variations of the parallel design:
1. Back to back. A long central counter or an island in two straight lines running parallel to each other. A four or five-foot room divider or low-level wall is placed between the two lines occasionally. It is primarily a safety-related concern, keeping noise and clutter to a minimum and avoiding spills on one side in the other. But placing a wall in this area also makes sanitation and cleaning more difficult.
The back-to-back layout centers the plumbing and utilities; you may not need to Install as many sinks, drains, or outlets as possible, as both sides of the counter can share. A back-to-back configuration in in which the pass-through window is parallel to (and behind) production areas is occasionally referred to as a California-style kitchen.
In cases where the passage window is placed perpendicularly to the production line, it can be referenced as a European-style kitchen design. The benefit of European design is that the chef on the line can see the sequence of the numerous dishes that make up the order of a table.
2. Face to face. In this configuration of the kitchen, a center aisle divides two straight lines of equipment on both sides of the room. Often the corridor is wide enough to include a straight line line of work tables in between the two rows of equipment.
In this configuration, it is possible to have a high volume food facilities such as hospitals and schools, but it does not take advantage of the single source Utilities. While it is a good disposition for the workers’ supervision, it does force the people to work with each other’s backs turned, in fact, separating the cooking of the food from the rest of the distribution process. So it probably isn’t the best design for a restaurant.
3. L-shaped. Where there is not sufficient space for a straight line or a parallel arrangement, the The L-shaped layout of the kitchen is very convenient for accessibility to various groups of equipment, and is flexible for table service restaurants. It allows the possibility of setting up more equipment in a smaller space. You frequently find an L-shaped arrangement in the dishwashing areas, with the plate machine placed in the central corner of the L.
4. U-shaped. This layout is very rarely used, though it is ideal for a small space with one or just two employees, for example a pantry or salad preparation area.The kitchen designs are also circular and square, but their very limited flow patterns makes them not practical. Avoid wasting space if you can by making your kitchen rectangular, using his entrance in one of the longer walls to save the steps.
