With hospitality in full swing in terms of reopening, there’s no better time to look at how you can upgrade your processes and premises when running your commercial kitchen.
Looking at how you can make everything more efficient and spend your time more effectively can take your business even further before – and there’s no better time than right now. Here’s how you can review your own commercial kitchen to make improvements that can help generate greater successes.
Declutter your kitchen space
Floor space is a valuable commodity within the kitchen as it ensures that all kitchen staff have adequate room to fulfil their role safely. Clogging up routes between essential kitchen equipment not only makes it more difficult for chefs to move between stations, but it also increases the risk of accidents occurring. Organise equipment and workstations as best as you can to help improve efficiencies in your kitchen.
Organise ingredients and products by date
Overhauling your kitchen organisation can give you the opportunity to implement a new system for arranging kitchen ingredients. Labelling items which are opened with use-by dates and keeping these at the forefront of fridges and dry storage means they’ll be used up before opening up anything new. This can minimise food wastage due to spoilage and make stock takes easier for purchasing new inventory.
Prep as much as possible before service
Daily prep within your kitchen is what can set apart a shift that runs smoothly from a haphazard, stressful one. Make sure that your kitchen has all the necessary ingredients and food prep in place, as well as ensuring that equipment is clean and functioning as intended. Any shortages can then be addressed in good time before service starts.
Define your kitchen-waiter system
The teamwork between your staff is what will keep everything flowing within your commercial kitchen. Make sure both kitchen staff and front of house staff understand their responsibilities, as well as what they should do if specific situations arise. This can prevent people from assuming that a task is someone else’s responsibility, meaning it gets ignored and causes an issue later down the line.
Keep things clean
Cleanliness in the kitchen is one of the most vital things a commercial kitchen must maintain. It prevents cross-contamination and upholds your hygiene standards to the highest level possible. Make sure your staff know what cleaning jobs need doing regularly and have access to key cleaning supplies like dust pans and brushes, J cloths, and scouring pads.
Taste-test your menu
Depending on how expansive your menu is, you should aim to give each of your dishes a try on a regular review cycle. This can help you to address dishes which aren’t selling and streamline your menu in order to better utilise ingredients that you already have. This can play to the strengths of your kitchen staff and all you to adjust your budget.
Utilise tech where possible
Having access to the right technology in the kitchen can help things move along at a quicker pace and rely less on memory. Rather than a physical server ticket system, having an automated system like a Kitchen Display System (KDS) can allow kitchen to monitor what orders need producing and what has been sent out more closely.
With these areas in mind, you can set to revamping your commercial kitchen and make some improvements so that your summer service is the best it can be. Make sure you staff are all happy and feel comfortable that they know what’s needed from them, as well as ensuring they feel valued – this can ultimately be what drives the best performance possible!
