If you’re opening restaurant or food business, you need a functional kitchen. Use these tips to organize and design your small commercial kitchen.

Are you in the process of designing a small commercial kitchen? Are you wanting to find the perfect design that’ll keep stress levels low and customers happy? 

A working kitchen is the heart of any business in the food industry. That’s why it’s important that you come up with a layout that keeps everything running smoothly. With the right commercial kitchen design, you’ll stay on top of food orders no matter how busy you get. 

We’ve collected the top tips down below that’ll give your kitchen the kind of organization it needs to be a roaring success. Keep reading to learn more!

Understand Safety Regulations

Before you dive into organizing your commercial kitchen supplies, you’ll need a thorough understanding of the safety and health regulations of your area. Without knowing these rules, you’ll end up with a kitchen that will eventually shut down due to violations. 

It’s vital that all of your employees also know the different rules they’ll need to follow while working in the kitchen. Otherwise, they’ll cause problems for your company without even realizing it. 

Each state has its own rules, so make sure to read up on them before putting your kitchen design into action. 

Consult Your Menu

Another critical piece of a successful commercial kitchen layout is understanding the needs of your menu. There’s no need to outfit your kitchen with all the bells and whistles if those items won’t help you cook your menu. 

Go through your menu and make note of your most popular dishes. Those are the dishes that’ll be the stars of your kitchen, so they’ll need the most focus but don’t forget about your other menu items. 

By going through your menu, you’ll have a better idea of which appliances and tools you’ll need and which ones are creating clutter in your kitchen. 

Create Specific Zones

Once you have a better understanding of what your commercial kitchen needs, the easiest way to design the kitchen is by creating zones. You’ll want a dedicated zone for each of the biggest parts of your cooking process. This includes a prepping zone, a storage zone, a cooking zone, and a cleaning zone. 

In some small commercial kitchens, it’s necessary to combine certain zones to save on space. 

Well-stocked commercial upright freezers are as important as a roaring hot stove but none of that matters if you don’t have a sense of organization to keep things moving. Having dedicated zones for each step means that your employees will always know how to find the tools and ingredients they need.

This not only lowers stress but also keeps food flying out of the kitchen for your customers to enjoy. 

Use Open Shelves

What kind of shelving units do you plan to use in your kitchen design? If you want to increase efficiency, the best types of shelves are open. Without needing to open and shut cabinet doors all the time, you’re freeing your chefs up to focus on their cooking. 

Choosing shelves without doors also makes it a lot safer in the kitchen for your employees. They’ll never need to worry about hitting their head on a door that was left open by accident. 

It’s less of a hassle for a chef to look at an open shelf full of spices and then reach for what they need. With doors in the way, they’d have to take extra time to open the door, find what they need, grab it, and then close it again. 

It’s far more efficient to have all of your kitchen equipment and supplies within easy reach!

Remember the Kitchen Triangle

Have you ever heard of the kitchen triangle? It’s often used when designing residential kitchens, but the idea works for commercial kitchens as well. 

The idea is that a functional kitchen needs the stove, the fridge, and the sink to create an uninterrupted triangle with one another. This creates a good workflow that allows the chef to move about the kitchen to all of the most important points without running into anything else. 

Depending on the size of your kitchen, a full kitchen triangle may not be possible. However, it’s helpful to think about it when coming up with a design so that you give your chefs as much room to work as they need. Even a broken kitchen triangle is more helpful than no triangle at all!

Label Every Container and Box

Labeling is key to proper organization and is vital to a kitchen. Without a good labeling system, it’s easy to forget which container holds the sugar and which is the salt. Without a good labeling system, it’s more difficult to stay on top of expiration dates. 

This is why you’ll need to implement labels into your kitchen design. It’s the best way to keep things moving in the kitchen and ensures all of your ingredients are fresh and delicious. 

Declutter Often

As innovations come out, it often feels as though we need to buy all of them to stay on top of our business. The problem with this is that it also leads to a bigger collection of kitchen tools than we need. 

When a kitchen is full of items that never get used, it starts to heighten the stress levels for your employees. It’s common for this situation to go unnoticed until it becomes a problem. 

To prevent clutter from building up in your kitchen, declutter your tools, spices, and ingredients every couple of months. Anything that doesn’t get used anymore should be donated or thrown away. It’s the best way to keep up your kitchen’s efficiency!

Organizing Your Small Commercial Kitchen Leads to Success

By taking the time to come up with a plan for your small commercial kitchen organization, you’ll ensure that cooking is a breeze for your employees. Instead of becoming frustrated, they’ll have everything they need within easy reach to be productive. 

The best part is that they’ll enjoy the cooking process even more, which makes for a happy restaurant for everyone!

Make sure to browse around through the rest of our Business section for even more advice on how to reach all of your company’s goals!