No matter what your style of cooking be Classical French Cuisine to Southwestern Fusion, as general rule the bigger your operation the more services and features your commercial kitchen layout must employ.
There are several factors you must consider when looking at designing a successful restaurant kitchen layout: the workflow, what type of service you will be providing such as the number of customers to be served, whether or not you have self-serve, cafeteria style or plated dining.
Then there is the actual size of the kitchen itself and the equipment that will go in it. And of course your budget will have the ultimate say on what your commercial kitchen design will finally look like.
5 Keys to a Great Restaurant Kitchen Layout
A great restaurant kitchen has a layout that allows the staff to work more effectively and efficiently restaurant kitchen layout. The better the kitchen layout the easier it will be for cooks to move from one work area into another without bumping into each other or being unnecessarily distracted which can lead to accidents and poor or sloppy service. And any of these situations can cost a good restaurant to slowly fall into the red and stay there.
Commercial Kitchen Layout Key # 1 - Have an Adequate Delivery Area. Never underestimate your need for a large storage and off-loading area for dry goods, chilled or frozen items. Many suppliers and vendors have a minimum delivery size, so you must have space in storage to meet their requirements. Also if possible, keep delivery personnel from entering the food prep and cooking areas.
Commercial Kitchen Layout Key # 2 - Setup your food preparation correctly. The "prep" or preparation area should ideally be setup between your bulk food storage and the cooking workstation. In order to cut down on the risk of cross-contamination you should separate the raw meat and fish blocks from the other foodstuffs. But in a small workspace, where separation is not possible, you need to add in mini-sinks for hand-washing and utensil cleaning.
Commercial Kitchen Layout Key # 3 - Plan the Cooking Area carefully. Be aware that cooking workstations are the biggest trouble spots in a commercial kitchen design. You need to not only consider the size and type of cooking apparatuses but also the basic power structure of the building itself (gas is not always available). Here the layout must emphasize ease of workflow and staff safety and protection from fire, smoke inhalation and electrical hazards.
Commercial Kitchen Layout Key # 4 - Food service should large enough to prevent bottle-necks. Many time architects and inexperienced owners don't allow for enough room in the food service workstation which causes back-ups, dropped trays and plates, and worst of all cold food!
Commercial Kitchen Layout Key # 5 - Plan for an efficient dishwashing operation. Unless you customers are using paper ware and plastic trays, you need to make certain that you have adequate workspace to collect, scrap, recycle, wash up plates and store refuse when your staff is "humping the Holbert" dishwasher.
Once you have planned around the above workstations and removed or negated any issues concerning them you will have a complete commercial kitchen design.