Hustle & Flow
By Brandon Farrell | Stones Pizza

In the 20 years that I have been in the restaurant industry, I have worked in close to 50 commercial kitchens, and it still amazes me how many seem like they were designed by someone who has never actually worked in a kitchen. One thing though, no matter who designs the kitchen, or how large it is… there is still never enough bench space, but that is just one of the laws of the universe that we just can’t seem to conquer.

There was one particular kitchen I used to work in, that had a bench that jutted out just that little bit too far, so almost every time I walked by I would strike it with my thigh…I had one bruise that did not heal the entire time I worked there. This same kitchen also had a salamander that hung in just the wrong place that used to gouge the top of my head on a weekly basis, for some reason I never enjoyed that job… I think I lasted four months before I couldn’t take it anymore. Are any of your staff feeling the same way now?

Designing a kitchen requires a lot more thought than is usually afforded, as it usually seems to be done once all the equipment is already in the premises. It becomes a case of simply trying to find a place for everything until there are no more pieces left to fit, and everyone can leave with the feeling that they have just put a kitchen where there was once an empty space. When it comes to actually working in this kitchen, you may find yourself with a nightmare of inefficiency, and if your kitchen is too slow, your profit limitations will be lower than they have to be. Of course, the other aspect is that if your staff find it frustrating to work in the space, they aren’t going to hang around too long.

The first thing you have to do, of course, is to decide what equipment you actually need and design this around the space that you have…some equipment is “wish list” stuff, like perhaps a smoker, so if starting a new kitchen, leave that stuff out until the business has proven itself, but keep it in the back of your mind when designing your space, so when the time comes, you already know the best place for it.

The next is to draw up a floor plan, with a checklist of what the kitchen needs, and draw it in to scale. Then, imagine that you are watching from above as people try to maneuver around your kitchen. Do the little ant people have to weave about a maze of benches every time they go to the cool-room? Is the hand washing sink out back behind the drystores? Where are the bins? Every kitchen needs some decent sized bins…be sure to draw them into your plans and see if any of the ant people trip over them. The main areas to look at, are the path from cool room to the make-bench, when you are at peak service, you want to be able to get your make bench filled as quickly and efficiently as possible, so you want as clear a line from fridge to bench as you can get. The next main thing you have to look at is the route your product has to take upon completion to the customer. If you have takeaway, you will probably have to leave pizzas keeping warm on the oven waiting for the customer to pick it up, so you will have to take that into consideration as well.

This article includes more...

Click here to get your paid subscription to read the whole story.