Frequently Asked Questions How to Set up a Small Commercial Kitchen in 3 Easy Steps? If you want to set up your commercial kitchen, you may take cues from the following guide. Step 1: Curate a mouth-watering menu that you love The menu is a crucial part of any kitchen. If your food cannot influence your customers, it is tough to survive in the competitive food industry. Therefore, your menu must include the items you love to prepare and eat. You can develop a menu theme for your customers. It will distinguish you from the competition in your area. Moreover, focus on what you want to achieve through your menu. To curate a menu for your kitchen, you may ask for help from your head chef. They may help you based on their prior experience. Moreover, keep a short menu as adding more items may confuse your customers. In addition, pay equal attention to the pricing. As a business in Delhi, you may consult commercial kitchen consultants in Delhi for developing your menu and pricing. You may look at multiple options of consultants online. Alternatively, you may contact Nitin Tandon, one of the renowned commercial kitchen consultants in Delhi. Step 2: Utilise your kitchen space It is nice to have an extensive and fully-functional kitchen with modern equipment. However, you can utilise a small kitchen for your benefit. You can use the space appropriately to start your commercial kitchen. A commercial kitchen follows three design strategies based on your preferences, menu, and the cook's preferences. These design strategies include: Zone A zone kitchen helps in spreading the workforce across different sectors. The kitchen setup is divided into different zones having specific functions. Moreover, the crew working in these zones have specialised knowledge. Zone kitchens have a lot of space for food prep. The kitchen counters act as a place for measuring ingredients, slicing meat, cutting vegetables, and giving space for other kitchen activities. The cooking zone contains a grill and a fryer for optimal functioning. Moreover, it has a storage area for cold storage, dry storage, and sanitation. In addition, you may choose a separate zone to plate the prepared dishes. Assembly line If you prepare the same type of food in large quantities, you require an assembly kitchen. For example, burger joints, sandwich and pizza shops require an assembly kitchen. The food is prepared faster in such kitchens as less time is needed to complete each step. Moreover, you may arrange the assembly in circles to prepare food. Island It is a variation on both assembly and zone kitchens and works around a centre island hub. Moreover, this kitchen setup also utilises the perimeter for optimal working. You can use the main island for prepping and cooking food. Most cooking equipments are concentrated in this area. However, the border is used for storage and sanitation. These three kitchen designs can make your kitchen efficient. Moreover, it properly uses the assigned kitchen space. If you are confused about the kitchen layout, you may take help from kitchen consultants in Delhi. Many professional kitchen consultants provide their services throughout the city and beyond, and can help you set up a commercial kitchen. Try contacting commercial kitchen consultants in Delhi for better layout and design. Step 3: The essential equipment It is vital to choose the best equipment for your kitchen. After deciding on the kitchen layout and menu, you must look at the essential equipment. Choosing the right equipment plays a crucial role in the success of your kitchen. The main categories in every kitchen must include: Storage You will need dry and cold storage for your kitchen. For your kitchen, you may choose among walk-in, reach-in, and under-counter refrigerators. If you have to store food in large quantities, you may select a walk-in refrigerator. For more accessible refrigeration, you may choose a worktop refrigerator. Likewise, for dry storage, you may select cabinets and shelves. Cooking The cooking equipment must be made accessible to everyone in the kitchen. If you have little space in your kitchen, you may choose a commercial oven with cooktops. Moreover, this equipment comes with added storage shelves to provide a clean appearance to your kitchen. You may use the space near the cooktop or grill for the frying station. But if your menu lacks fried items, you may use a small countertop fryer. In addition, you may use a floor fryer if you have limited space on the countertop. The requirements for your kitchen equipment also depends on the menu. For example, some kitchens may require bread ovens, pizza deck ovens, toasters, sandwich grills etc. Moreover, you must invest in heating equipment to keep the food warm. Sanitation Choose a large commercial dishwasher for your kitchen. But if you use disposable plates and cutleries to serve food, you may not require a large dishwasher. They come in different varieties like racked, conveyor, and under-counter. Moreover, you must maintain three sinks in your kitchen. Safety To maintain a safe environment in your kitchen, you must use floor mats. These anti-slip mats provide a clean surface to the kitchen floors. Moreover, you will require proper ventilation in your kitchen to extract the gas and smoke. You must use an exhaust hood over the cooking counter to keep the grease and smoke away. Another crucial piece of kitchen equipment is a fire suppression system. You may keep small fire extinguishers near the cooking area for an accidental grease fire. Finally, follow the local regulations for kitchen safety. You must consider choosing specialised equipment for your commercial kitchen. If you do not know about kitchen equipment, you may seek help from kitchen consultants in Delhi. For professional help, you may consult Nitin Tandon, one of the best commercial kitchen consultants in Delhi. How to curate your restaurant's menu? Whether you are new in the culinary business or planning to open another branch of your existing restaurant, the foremost thing is to plan and strategise. First, you need to plan on the menu, both food and drinks, with the offers as per the location and your goals. If you are ready with a plan on the concept and theme, you are moving in the right direction. Your restaurant should offer food to the guest and give them an experience and connection to the brand of your restaurant. Therefore, it is essential to understand the important elements of the menu while making it. While developing your restaurant's menu, it is essential to understand your target customers and the concept of your brand. For example, it would be wrong to sell steak items in a vegetarian restaurant. It would be best to do proper research and advanced hyper-local analysis to identify the local and economic factors that can affect your restaurant's menu. The presence of competitive neighbours and the restaurant's location also play a role in the menu design. Here is a list of factors you may want to consider while making your menu: Decide your menu concept The centre idea behind building the menu should be: what should you restart to be famous for?'. You should look for that distinguishing factor that would bring back your customers to your restaurant to get that flavour. You can start with flavour profiles, supporting elements, and deciding on colours and textures. Try to keep your menu minimalistic yet memorable. Do not add multiple items and cuisines to your menu. It is better to keep it within 32 items for higher efficiency of the kitchen. It also decreases the confusion among the customers. The customers decide what they want to order within the first 120 seconds. If you have designed the menu already and it is long, sit back and cut off a few items by the golden triangle rule. According to the golden triangle rule, the customers first check out items at the centre, move to the top right and finally to the top left before ordering. Make a list of core ingredients Making a menu with a particular drink or dish can be overwhelming and take a lot of trial and error. The key thing to remember is to bring that wow factor to your menu, which would make your customers permanent. Jot down a list of the core ingredients for all your dishes. Then, decide the flavour you want to deliver to the customers. Is it a blend of the local flavours or your restaurant's brand flavour? Also, keep in mind you include the items in your list which can be used in multiple preparations. It helps to reduce wastage and correct usage. While sourcing the ingredients, consider the local produce. For instance: seasonal vegetables and fruits, food artisans of your area, and meat from local shops. It reduces the overhead costs of travelling. Moreover, it will help you promote your shop by having the food prepared with locally-sourced ingredients. Investigate the supply chain After finalising the theme and core ingredients, you need to find a way to source them. It is better to avoid risks by decreasing the involvement of third-party suppliers in your supply chain. So jot down a list of all the suppliers you would need and take a look at their history, product recall storage facilities, delivery system and work ethics. Keep a minimum of two to three local butchers, seafood suppliers, local wineries and produce suppliers required as per your menu. Cost of your menu items You can use a recipe management program or a spreadsheet to put in data and look over the menu concept, portions and the ingredients associated with it. As per the input data, calculate the cost of each item and price it as per the locality and target customers. Take a look if there is room for enough profit as per the location, or are the prices balanced? Set a target for average revenue per customer. A well-structured plan would help you identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your restaurant. Plan the type of crockery to be used After planning out the theme and costs of the items, you are ready for the next step. The way food is served to the customers is a crucial part of their experience. Would the dish look good on a plate or in a bowl? Which colour plates should be used to bring out the contrasts? Is the dish or drink good enough for Instagram or Snapchat? Which component should go on the spoon or fork together? If it is available for the parcel, how will it be ten minutes after packing? There is no exact answer to these questions. The best way forward is to plate your dish in three ways and click pictures to select the best one. Run a test kitchen One of the most exciting yet crucial parts of the journey is to try out all the flavours for which you worked hard. Running a test kitchen will help you understand whether the new combinations meet your expectations or are enough to wow your customers? You may want to involve your team in this process to get a variety of opinions. If the menu doesn't work, you may give the ingredients and components a slight twist and try out the new combinations. But always be open to the feedback and take it as a critical review. You can also post photos on social media to check the popularity of different items from an aesthetic point of view. Finally, for a successful and profitable business, you may want to keep fewer items on your menu but try to have the edge over your competitors at the same time. But also make sure to keep the price on the affordable side. If you are looking for a restaurant consultant in Delhi, you may consult with Nitin Tandon. He is a renowned restaurant setup consultant in Delhi who has transformed many ideas and visions into reality. Our team is one of the leading restaurant consultants in Delhi. From creating the menu to executing the design, you would have our advice and guidance. So wait for no further and get in touch with Mr. Tandon today.