Kitchen organization is all about making it easy for the back-of-house staff to do their jobs: from the cooks, to the dishwashers, to the food expeditors. Here are some general commercial kitchen organization ideas to use when you are setting up your kitchen.
Organize Your Stations
The stations for your kitchen are going to be specific to your menu. No one should have to traverse the kitchen for ingredients they need. Not only is this wildly inefficient, but it can be dangerous too. This is another reason why knowing how to organize a commercial kitchen is vital.
Chefs and cooks working each station should have easy access to the equipment they need and have what they need right in front of them. Most often, a kitchen will have:
A fryer station
A flat-top/stove station
A cold station (salads, etc.)
Depending on what is offered at your restaurant, it is also not uncommon to have:
A food prep station
A baking station
A to-go station
A dessert station
These are stations that will be actively used during service and for prepping beforehand. Larger storage such as walk-in refrigeration should be out of the way, but reach-ins/lowboy fridges should only be exactly where they’re needed.
Organize Your Tools
Each station should have designated areas for all the tools, kitchen equipment, and frequently used items that will be needed within reach. Think about all the small tools, equipment, and materials that will be in the hands of the chefs:
Tongs
Spatulas
Frying pans
Sheet pans
Knives
Spoons
Whisks
Ladles
Strainers
It is good to have a spot for all of these and a spot for “extras” so that they can be restocked. You can add wall-mounted shelves, open shelving, ingredient bins, and other storage and organizational items to keep things where they need to be while also out of the way.
Always get more tools than you need at a single time, because you’re going to have to clean them from time to time and things may get dropped or contaminated. Each station should have a home for at least a few of these.
Organize Your Ingredients
The food at each station should be easy to get to, but you also need to store like with like.
Remember this when you are setting up all the stations and the large equipment. Foods that are held hot shouldn’t be placed right next to cold storage. Things that are okay to be at room temperature shouldn’t be heated up to the danger zone by being next to hot foods and equipment. Temperatures should regularly be watched and periodically checked.
Drippy ingredients—like sauces—should be closest to the cook because you don’t want them dripping into other things on their commute to the stovetop. That could get messy, change flavors, and create allergy issues.
Follow the FIFO Rule
FIFO—first in, first out. You want to use older food and ingredients first to avoid waste. Food items with the closest expiration date should be used first.
Newly prepped food should go in the back of the line. It may seem like a pain in the moment, but take that extra 10 seconds to move things out of the way to put new ingredients in the back of the fridge, so you can pull the oldest things to use first. This will save you bigger problems, and money, later on. Work to reduce food waste by using it all up before it goes bad.
Stay Organized with Darling Ingredients Canada
There are so many things to think about when it comes to designing, organizing, and running a professional kitchen. We help make it easier on you and your staff.
There’s no question: no matter how you arrange your kitchen layout, you are going to have to deal with transporting and disposing of used cooking oil and other byproducts from cooking. Let us do it for you. We have a wide variety of UCO containers, systems, and storage solutions for all different needs that can help you stay clean and organized.
On top of all that, getting organized and recycling your waste with Darling Ingredients will contribute to sustainable solutions for not only a cleaner kitchen, but a cleaner planet.