Why an Efficient Kitchen May Be the Key to Your Restaurant’s Success

As a restaurant owner, manager or chef, you already know what happens in the back of house affects the front of house, and vice versa. However, your customers don’t know how it all fits together. They only know whether the food was good and the service was excellent or not. Often problems with customer service begin in the back of house. As such, those problems must also be resolved in the back of house. With an efficient kitchen, so many potential issues can be neatly sidestepped, leaving your staff to focus on what they do best — preparing delicious dishes (back of house) and serving them (front of house), with a joint focus on meeting the customer’s needs.

About Running a Commercial Kitchen

If you are still in the planning stages of opening an eatery, you know there is much to learn about running a successful commercial kitchen; however, if your operations are already underway, you may have already encountered certain common obstacles. Even if you come into your new eatery with significant experience running a catering company, operating a specialty goods shop out of your home kitchen or preparing large gourmet meals for friends, operating a commercial kitchen takes food preparation and quality control to an entirely new level.

What You Need to Succeed

What you need to succeed in operating a consistent, high-quality commercial kitchen is a plan and processes. When customers start pouring in, your plan and processes will literally be your saving grace — and the reason customers keep coming back.

Elements of a Successful Commercial Kitchen

These following elements can transform any commercial kitchen into a smooth and efficient operation:

* Selecting the right equipment. There is a big difference between robust residential equipment and equipment designed for commercial use. Commercial equipment tends to be more durable, offers more storage, adjusts more readily to continual temperature differences and lasts longer.

* Keeping accurate inventory. Accurate inventory is key to ensuring you have sufficient supplies on hand for the unexpected each day — which makes it a restaurant art unto itself.

* Hiring the right back-of-house manager. With the right back-of-house manager in place, you can rest assured your kitchen operations are running smoothly and efficiently. You want someone who can motivate well, stays organized, keeps calm under pressure and can build communication bridges between the back-of-house and the front-of-house staff.

* Building a motivated staff. Your staff works hard — you know this because restaurant work is hard work. Building in incentives for strong performance, teamwork and upselling can make your staff take ownership of their performance. Incentives can include a cash bonus for hitting a certain sales goal.

* Creating a comfortable, ergonomic workspace. If your staff is uncomfortable, cramped or in pain, everything suffers. You can hire a consultant to do an ergonomic assessment of workspace and workflow, and make recommendations to ease the aches and pains that come from working hard on your feet. For instance, for workers who stand on their feet for hours at a time, you want to have a padded mat under their feet to ease joint aches and pains.

If you make each of these elements a priority, you will be rewarded with a more efficient, effective and satisfied workforce — and a more profitable establishment.

About the Author: Aynsley Peet is an e-commerce manager who enjoys sharing his business expertise online and building relationships with those interested in the food service industry. He suggests restaurant owners find utensils for the kitchen at www.Nisbets.com.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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