Design
Service
Supply
InstallationServing
Serving
From á la Carte to self service, every meal needs to be served in a pleasant and appealing way. Hot food MUST be hot, cold food, cold- and all presented cleanly and with a smile!
Food temperature is vital, not only for client satisfaction but for health issues. As a result, the relay station between the cooking and serving of food is one of the most important pieces of equipment in the kitchen: whether it be the hot pass in an á la carte kitchen, or the servery in a staff restaurant, good planning and design is fundamental.
Fundamental is space, to ensure that guests are served within a reasonable time, be it in a fine dine restaurant or a staff restaurant where demand is sudden and high. Nothing annoys the diner more than having to wait, and then having is food served cold when it should be hot, or warm when it should be cold. The meal will be returned, and the diner will leave dissatisfied- losing you business and therefore profit!
Cook and serve is the best method in any establishment to ensure food is not ‘held’ for to long, delivering the food to the customer on time and in peak condition. They leave with a smile on there face and telling their friends what a great experience they have just had- what better form of advertising?
Cooking
Cooking
Brat pans, boiling pans, fryers, steamers, cooking ranges: all items we have to consider....
What size of equipment? Will it manage the capacities we need to cook? Should we buy two small or one large unit..?
What is important is that we consider the whole life span of equipment, what is the capital cost, how much are the running costs, servicing and spare parts costs, to give us a whole lie cycle cost. Buying a cheap fryer that takes 20 min to recover is not necessarily the best answer to a problem; questions should be: how long before it pays for itself? How much is it going to cost to run overall? Do we use electricity or gas, can we reduce the carbon footprint?
Good planning is a fundamental discipline that needs careful consideration. With so much equipment available, it is vital that we make the correct choice. We at CHR are an independent supplier of equipment, we are not tied to any one manufacturer, and we can choose the correct equipment for the job it has to do.
Ware Washing
Ware Washing
A well-designed and therefore efficient ware washing operation can cust costs, from fuel savings to crockery breakages.
A key consideration is sufficient space: giving staff room to do their job efficiently is always important, in any sphere, but especially so in an area where accidents can so easily happen, whether it is breakages or staff slipping on wet floors. Is there enough space for the waiters to ‘drop off’ on? Is there an adequate sorting area, to fully utilise every rack? Is every rack full every time the machine is used? These all combine to get the best value in fuel, water, detergent and labour.
Consider too what happens to the crockery after washing- where is it stored ready for next service, and how accessible is that storage? Is it all put away for next service or is some to be re-used, and if the latter, where is it to be put safely but within reach?
There is little point having a kitchen that can produce 200 meals per hour is we cannot wash up simultaneously. Lack of clean crockery can bring service to a halt, creating unhappy customers and lost revenue. How often is washing-up still being done two hours after service, probably incurring overtime? Good planning creates an efficient flow throughout the area of operation.
Preparation
Preparation
The most fundamental part of any kitchen, a good well organised and planned preparation area will save money.
What type of food are we preparing, do we do some butchery work, perhaps a separate pastry area. How is veg delivered, pre prepared, or in its raw form.
Do we need work out refrigeration, perhaps using refrigerated drawers as apposed to cupboards? Butchers block, mixer, food blender, Slicer. All need a place in the kitchen.
And when we have finished all this prep, where does the food go next, back into storage, are we cooking straight away. Are we going to chill or freeze it? All questions that need to be answered to enable us to plan a well organised preparation area. And remember a well ventilated preparation area helps kitchen staff, reduces energy costs and prolongs the life of refrigeration.
Storage
Storage
From a baby carrot to the largest piece of meet, cleaning chemicals to disposables we need somewhere to store it.
How much is delivered and how frequently. Fresh food, frozen, chilled, vegetables all have differing requirements. All need different areas to store in.
Do we need upright refrigeration or would we better with a cold room. How much frozen food capacity, are we decanting at the delivery area, do we store in Gastronorm containers or straight on to the shelf. Have we got the correct temperature controls?
All questions we need to ask and we haven’t sold anything yet. Do we need separate facilities for disposables, and oh what about a Coshh store.
