What is a catering kitchen?
A kitchen can have very many other small sections that will make it effective in any form. One of them is having a catering place. It is always a place that is always near the kitchen place. As you have always seen as a place that we always have food which is always essential to our stomachs. Now what happens in this catering kitchen is what we want to know.
This is a pantry or warming kitchen where you will find the final preparations of food are done or made. Most of the time, food is brought in from the main kitchen in electric warming carts. It can be in bulk or sometimes already set up for use on a plate. When it arrives at this place, the catering place, the food is usually taken out and served to the guests.
As you have seen a catering kitchen has many other names like a pantry or a warming kitchen. At this place, there are no commercial cooking equipment or appliances that you will get in this place that will need you to have a hood or even a fire extinguishing system. It will depend on what you have in place because in others you will find them with dishwashers and even beverage dispensing.
The key distinction that will distinguish between cooking and warming is the production of grease. The production of grease will mean that a commercial grease hood will have to be made, fire protection, and a substantial grease trap. If you work out well, the 3 products will cost between $15,000 – 20,000 or even more. This is always an addition to the normal cost of a kitchen. If you had not made that plan, then you can be sure of digging more into your pocket.
Some of the small items that you might get in a catering kitchen will include:
- Small electric ovens
- Toasters
- Microwaves
- Sandwich grills
- Portable electric burners with low wattage
- Steam kettles
- Soup warmers
You will also find that in this kitchen, ware washing may take place with the cleaning of plates before storing them in the kitchen. Plates can also be returned with empty food containers so that they are also washed and sanitized at the central production kitchen. You also need to be aware that these kitchens also produce trash but the amount is always lower compared to the production.
How do get your catering kitchen well arranged?
You need to design the placement of your interior appliances and even cabinets to make you have a better working and better-looking area. Here are some of the things that you need to accomplish or do.
- Dive the kitchen into work areas. You need to ensure that some things are close to one another. For instance, when you are preparing desserts, you need to ensure that your pastry board is close to the flour and sugar bins. You need to have a meat and entree area right on the side of your cook top with a side preparation station put on the other side.
- You need to ensure that sinks and trash receptacles are equipped with either knee or foot levers. This will ensure that your kitchen has a sanitary kind of operation at all times.
- Warming trays should always be near the packaging area. Just know that the last step that you will have to deal with before you transport your food to the final packaging area is right here. You will have to put prepared hot dishes into thermos carts and cold foods into the thermos carts.
- You need to ensure that you have enough lighting that will give you chance to carry out food preparation. Lights that are put in the ceiling or kitchen should be spaced closely. Track lighting is always a better solution if you encounter one but make sure the fixtures that you will buy will be able to accommodate high wattage types of bulbs.
- The last thing that you need to consider is the choice of stainless steel cabinets that will ensure that you have an easy-to-clean surface that can withstand bleaching. This way, you will be sure of reducing the incidences of food-borne diseases.
Anything that you prepare in the kitchen should always be considered very vital. That’s why close to the kitchen appliances or room need to be clean in every aspect. As you have learned, a catering kitchen is necessary if you have space for construction but prepare to spend more to get it up well and working.
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