Jul 22, 2019
If you’re thinking about opening your dream restaurant, you have to pay attention to many factors, such as planning costs and expenses, setting profit targets, creating restaurant concept and menu items and restaurant design. A business owner like you needs to plan everything meticulously because the restaurant’s structure has to be created from the very beginning.
In particular, the kitchen is the heart of food preparation, so it must be designed effectively to most accurately match our restaurant’s food format. So what is a good kitchen? What about hot and cold kitchens? How necessary are they? Anyone planning to open a restaurant should try to understand them first.
Appropriate Kitchen Proportions for the Restaurant’s Space
In determining the proportions of the kitchen or food preparation areas for a restaurant, you need to know what your target group is first.
For normal restaurants, calculate 100% of the restaurant’s space and allot 30% as kitchen space. For take-home restaurants, allot 40-50%.
In particular, the kitchen’s location has to be decided with consideration to water supply, drainage pipes, air ventilation and points that connect to the customer accommodation area or food serving path. These points could limit the future expansion of the kitchen.
In determining the proportions of the kitchen or food preparation areas for a restaurant, you need to know what your target group is first.
For normal restaurants, calculate 100% of the restaurant’s space and allot 30% as kitchen space. For take-home restaurants, allot 40-50%.
In particular, the kitchen’s location has to be decided with consideration to water supply, drainage pipes, air ventilation and points that connect to the customer accommodation area or food serving path. These points could limit the future expansion of the kitchen.
Zoning Kitchen Usage Space
A good kitchen should have clearly designated usage areas to facilitate daily cleaning and food preparations.
Generally, the kitchen is divided into an ingredient storage area, fresh-ingredient-washing area, dish-washing area, ingredient preparation area and cooking area.
If you can clearly zone your kitchen, the kitchen will be neat and orderly and easy to clean and maintain.
Our food will be clean and hygienic, so the quality of each plate of food to be served to customers will improve. Accordingly, the restaurant owner can adjust the position and usage of each zone as appropriate to the restaurant’s menu items with primary concern to suitability and usage convenience.
A good kitchen should have clearly designated usage areas to facilitate daily cleaning and food preparations.
Generally, the kitchen is divided into an ingredient storage area, fresh-ingredient-washing area, dish-washing area, ingredient preparation area and cooking area.
If you can clearly zone your kitchen, the kitchen will be neat and orderly and easy to clean and maintain.
Our food will be clean and hygienic, so the quality of each plate of food to be served to customers will improve. Accordingly, the restaurant owner can adjust the position and usage of each zone as appropriate to the restaurant’s menu items with primary concern to suitability and usage convenience.
The Importance of Hot and Cold Kitchens
At the heart of restaurant businesses is high food standards. Therefore, you should maintain a constant standard for the flavors and cleanliness at your restaurant. Special attention has to be given to clearly dividing kitchen usage space in order to lower changes of mistakes happening involving food, whether due to temperature, hygiene or other reactions that might alter the quality of your food. We can divide the kitchen based on food preparation process into two types as follows:
A hot kitchen is a kitchen that supports the use of heat in cooking all sorts of ingredients, whether by boiling, steaming, frying, stir-frying, stewing or roasting, etc.
On the other hand, a cold kitchen, is a kitchen that supports cooking processes that do not require heat. This type is usually related to smoked ingredients, fresh vegetables and fruits or related to ingredients that have already completed heating processes such as cooked prawns, boiled eggs, etc.
In cold kitchens, emphasis is put on preparing salads, decorating plates or slicing ingredients.
On the other hand, a cold kitchen, is a kitchen that supports cooking processes that do not require heat. This type is usually related to smoked ingredients, fresh vegetables and fruits or related to ingredients that have already completed heating processes such as cooked prawns, boiled eggs, etc.
In cold kitchens, emphasis is put on preparing salads, decorating plates or slicing ingredients.
Kitchen Design for Restaurants with Limited Space
If your restaurant is small or has limited space, you, as the business owner, should pay attention only to the heart of the kitchen. In other words, the kitchen must be effective for its users, clean, hygienic and sufficiently consistent with the restaurant’s requirements. For example, a coffee shop can have a cold kitchen that takes just space behind the counter for preparing sandwiches and that has more customer accommodation space than other areas. On the other hand, a cook-to-order restaurant can have a hot kitchen situated around the front of the restaurant as a cold kitchen taking just the surface space of a table situated close to the stove.
