The industrial kitchen is a paragon of efficiency and functionality in culinary operations. Central to its success are meticulously chosen supplies and features tailored to withstand the rigors of high-volume food production. An industrial kitchen has robust appliances like large-scale ovens, industrial mixers, and expansive refrigeration units designed for durability and efficiency. The kitchen’s layout is a study in strategic design, ensuring smooth workflow and safety. Essential features include stainless steel surfaces for hygiene, ample storage spaces, and ergonomically designed workstations. Organization is key in a kitchen, where every tool and ingredient has its designated place, facilitating a seamless culinary process. This environment, where precision meets pace, exemplifies the art of industrial kitchen mastery, where every element converges to create culinary excellence on a large scale.
Necessary Industrial Kitchen Supplies and Features
An industrial kitchen must have at least four essential industrial kitchen supplies and features to operate with no issues. These kitchen supplies are especially necessary because if one is not in the kitchen, the whole aim of the kitchen is lost. These supplies include ovens, storage units, food preparation, and cleaning areas.
1. Cooking Equipment
Due to obvious reasons, having cooking equipment is essential for any kitchen, industrial or not, making it one of the most crucial of the industrial kitchen supplies and features. These materials are critical in kitchens as they are needed to cook food properly. Businesses that serve food that is prepared and cooked rather than the ones that serve cold sandwiches, brought-in desserts, or just drinks do not require cooking equipment. Still, for businesses like restaurants, these are essentials and can be considered the most important feature in the kitchen.
2. Storage Units
One of the most important industrial kitchen supplies is storage units. These units include commercial freezers, coolers, and refrigerators to store food and beverages before preparing or serving them. Many businesses that serve food and drinks in commercial coolers, freezers, and refrigerators rely heavily on them to survive. The storage units can differ depending on the purpose and the size. Commercial coolers, refrigerators, and freezers are not used for storing products similarly, even though they aim to keep them without going bad. Due to this, storage units are also important supplies and should be in every kitchen.
3. Preparation Areas
Food preparation areas are another important industrial kitchen supply, and the food has to be prepared before being cooked or served to the customers. The preparation area must always be clean and ready to prepare new orders. The size of the preparation area is important, but this also depends on the length of the business and the number of orders put in. If the business is busy and gets lots of customers, then having a big preparation area is essential to serve the food to the customers better.
One way to combine the preparation area and storage unit is by getting an under-counter commercial cooler, refrigerator, or freezer, especially if the kitchen has limited space. An under-counter commercial freezer, refrigerator, or cooler enables the cooks to reach the products underneath the counter for easy access. This will also save space if the kitchen is small. Manufacturers like Greencooler provide durable and long-lasting under-counter commercial refrigerators, coolers, or freezers for their customers, making their investment worth it. An under-counter commercial cooler, freezer, or refrigerator can be seen as one of the important kitchen supplies in the area itself.
4. Cleaning Area
Sinks and faucets are other crucial industrial kitchen supplies, as cleaning is essential in these kitchens. Cleanliness and sanitation are vital for businesses that store, prepare, and serve any product consumed. The cleaning area has to be big, just like the preparation area, and there must be three sinks and working faucets. These three sinks must be divided for washing hands, dishes, and mops. Besides the cleaning area, cleaning itself is crucial for a kitchen. Clean cooking equipment, dishes, storage units, preparation area, and overall, a clean kitchen is essential to cooking most sanitary food and not risking the health and lives of their customers. Due to this, a cleaning area can be seen as one of the most important kitchen supplies. Also, the overall cleanliness of the kitchen is as crucial as the cleaning area, and due to this, it is important to get the kitchen cleaned daily or weekly.
Industrial Kitchen Organization
Industrial kitchen organization is a crucial part of having a business that makes, serves, and sells edible goods. An organized kitchen means a clean and perfectly designed place that makes the employees do their job easily. An organized kitchen also prevents many health hazards if managed well. To know how to start with a kitchen organization, there are some details that you can pay attention to.
1. Ingredient Bins
Having an organized industrial kitchen means an organized pantry. Especially for storing dry products like flour, rice, and other types that are not recommended to be stored in a commercial refrigerator and have to be in a dry, dark environment, organizing the pantry is a must. To do this, you can use ingredient bins to store these ingredients. If these bins are collected and labelled, there will be no risk of contamination, and they will be easy to reach, which makes the job of employees easier.
2. Right Sized Commercial Fridge
One of the most crucial parts of having a kitchen is the working space and how big of a space the appliances take up in the kitchen. Understanding how big of a space you need for the appliances and working space is crucial for kitchen organization. Due to this, having a commercial fridge that is the correct size, which is not too small for the demand but not too big either, will give the kitchen more space and can benefit by cutting the cost and use of electricity.
3. Organize Your Refrigerator
An organized commercial refrigerator is as important as an organized industrial kitchen. With an organized refrigerator, you can easily find whatever you need without making a mess or ruining other organization-related details in the kitchen. Creating any type of mess will destroy the existing organization in the kitchen. One way of preventing this is to have an organized commercial refrigerator.
4. Label Everything
Labels are crucial for starting the journey of industrial kitchen organization as they prevent any risk of mixing up containers and ruining the whole dish. You can label the containers where you put the spices and other edible goods to avoid mix-ups in the kitchen. Also, not only writing what the container has but adding the date you get the product will be beneficial as using the one you have got before others will prevent wasting goods.
5. Use the FIFO Method
The FIFO method is popular and useful for kitchen organization as it makes organizing easy. The FIFO method refers to the “first in, first out”, meaning that whatever you put in first in your custom-size refrigerator, freezer, cooler, or pantry must be the first item used the next time you prepare any dish. This method prevents food waste and the product from being forgotten in the refrigerator or pantry, which may later spoil and cause other products to deteriorate. This method is especially useful to prevent any health hazards from happening as well.
6. Use Organizers on the Shelves
Shelves and other spaces for industrial kitchen tools and appliances are important; the industrial kitchen is also organized if they are organized. Having organizers on the shelves will help keep the kitchen clean and organized, as the employees would not have to deal with any mess that could be caused by not having an organized shelf. You can use shelf organizers for many kitchen parts, especially on the cupboard parts of the counters. This way, finding a pan or pot will be easier without making a mess.
7. Put Spices in Small Containers
This is especially useful if you put spices on the shelves. Leaving the spices in the bags they came in without any labels will make the kitchen look messy and cause a problem when the employees need to get them quickly. Having containers that are small enough and have a specific shape will prevent the messy look as well as make the spices easy to reach. This will also prevent contamination, especially if the container includes a spoon to get the spice.
8. Place Products in Containers
Another important detail of organizing an industrial kitchen is placing products into containers before putting them in a commercial refrigerator models, which will help preserve products. Also, putting products in containers will prevent contamination, spilling, and problems with the organization. Rather than placing products in bags, using containers will make organizing your pantry or custom-size refrigerator, commercial refrigerator, freezer, or cooler easier.
9. Kitchen Utensils
Having a specific place for the industrial kitchen utensils and keeping them in the same space after every wash will make it easy to reach out to them when necessary. It is one of the most important details of a kitchen organization. Also, keeping the kitchen utensils clean and organized will help with saving time during rush hours. When it comes to the kitchen, having limited time and rushing is common. Due to this, to prevent wasting time finding the right knife or other utensils to create the dish, keeping them in a specific place in a clean and organized manner is a must.
10. Always Have a Clean Working Space
A clean space is the result and the reason for the industrial kitchen organization routine. An organized kitchen will make keeping the pace clean a must and allow the working space to be available and clean for work. Keeping the space clean will be no issue as long as all the employees follow the organization’s rules for the kitchen. A clean working space will also prevent food contamination, which is another crucial detail.
11. Take Safety Precautions
In a kitchen organization, taking necessary safety precautions can look like everything from keeping the place clean to keeping meats and vegetables in different places. Safety is crucial for both employees and customers. One important rule in an organized kitchen is that safety has to be the priority, and any choice made for the organization must also obey that rule. Due to this, cleaning the space to decrease the chances of contamination or cleaning up spilled food from the ground to prevent anyone from slipping and falling has to be included in the industrial kitchen organization rules.
You can reach our previous article from http://greencooler.international/choosing-a-cooler-for-a-cafe/