Here’s Why Creating the Ideal Kitchen Design Is Highly Important
If you own or manage a restaurant, you most likely have a long list of things to do, such as purchasing inventory, marketing your business, training your employees, and fielding questions from vendors and customers. However, no matter how busy you are, you shouldn’t forget to pay attention to your commercial kitchen and ensure that it has the best possible design. Taking these steps is important since it can have a huge effect on your food preparation process as well as your business’s overall productivity.
How the Right Kitchen Design Can Be Beneficial for Your Business
Many business owners don’t place a huge priority on kitchen designs. As long as you have all the equipment you need to get your kitchen up and running, you’re probably good to go, right?
However, if you’ll look closer, you’ll see that buying dishwashers, ovens and other equipment isn’t just the only thing you must do. To meet your short-term and long-term business goals, you must also create the best possible commercial kitchen design. By doing so, you’ll get to enjoy the following benefits:
- Comply with Health and Safety Codes
Most states have rules and regulations in food handling and commercial kitchen sanitation, and each of these laws should be followed if you want to avoid costly and complicated legal issues. Because of this, you’ll want to check the regulations in your area and ensure that your kitchen design is compliant with them. Is there a law that dictates the minimum distance between the wash sinks and the food preparation area? Does the health code say anything about the number of handwashing stations and waste disposal areas that your kitchen should have? Knowing the regulations will help you design a commercial kitchen that’s conducive to health and safety, and it will ensure that you’ll pass all yearly health inspections.
- Promote Proper Productivity and Workflow
There are dozens of things that can cause accidents or at least time-consuming hiccups in your commercial kitchen, and the design shouldn’t be one of them. In fact, your kitchen design should be specially designed to ensure that food can easily flow from the prep area to the cooking equipment and finally to the server’s tray. Your chefs, bussers, and dishwashing team shouldn’t be bumping into each other while they work, and there should be no sharp corners, loose vinyl mats, and other safety hazards that can pave the way into spills and accidents. If your commercial kitchen doesn’t resemble a well-orchestrated assembly line that smoothly processes food from one point to the other, you need to improve it as soon as possible.
- Create the Ideal Work Environment to Your Employees
No one wants to work in a kitchen that prevents them from being efficient and productive and puts them at risk for burns and other injuries due to its design and layout. So, to avoid losing dedicated and hardworking employees, you must make sure that your commercial kitchen design is conducive not just to productivity but also to comfort and ergonomics. This way, you’ll make your employees’ job much easier and ensure that they can focus on their tasks instead of navigating the dangers that kitchen brings.
- Save More Money While Earning More Money
Think of how many times you’ve had to throw out ingredients because they weren’t properly stored or used before their expiry date. Now think of how many times you’ve lost customers who walked out and went somewhere else because your kitchen was too slow in bringing out their food. If you’ve had these incidents happen to you many times, it’s definitely the right time to update your commercial kitchen design. It might cost you a substantial amount upfront, but the additional expense is worth it since you’ll have a kitchen that will help you avoid wasting money on wasted ingredients while earning more profits and revenues.
Creating the Ideal Commercial Kitchen Design: Key Tips to Remember
As mentioned above, the first thing you should do is to familiarize yourself with the health codes and safety regulations in your area. This way, you’ll have a clear guide of what you should and shouldn’t do when improving your kitchen design, and you’re assured that your business stays on the right side of the law.
It’s also important to consider the amount of space that you have. Generally, the rule of thumb is to have a 60:40 ratio for the dining room and kitchen (with the latter taking up the smaller area). However, this can vary depending on the menu you’re offering, the type of venue that you’re running, and many other factors.
Don’t forget to consult your chefs, bussers, and other staff members. Remember: they’re the ones who use your kitchen every single day, so they have a clear idea of what the perfect design should be, and they know what needs to be improved in your cooking, dishwashing, and food storage areas. Make sure to get their input so you can design a commercial kitchen that will boost your employees’ morale and help them stay motivated.
You can always choose to update your kitchen design all by yourself, but it can also be a good idea to get the help of kitchen design experts like HE2020. With their training and experience, these specialists can help you identify the areas that must be improved in your kitchen design and help you create a custom layout that best suits your business’s workflow. By hiring these experts, you can give your commercial kitchen design a much-needed update and create a design that will make you and your staff become more efficient and productive.
Get in Touch with Us
Creating the right commercial kitchen design should be a priority for any restaurant or hospitality business. If you need more tips on kitchen design improvement, or if you’re looking for experts who can assist you with this process, make sure to call HE2020. We’re known as a professional commercial kitchen equipment supplier, but we don’t just offer world-class combi ovens, glasswashers and other equipment—we also provide feasible and high-quality kitchen designs to restaurateurs and other hospitality business owners! Know more about our commercial kitchen designs by giving us a call or sending us an email today!
