Some expert tips from chefs and designers to help you build or upgrade your kitchen.

By Sue Fea

The kitchen is the lifeblood of any good restaurant and bar – if it’s running smoothly so is the business, but if the heat is on in the kitchen, you could just have a recipe for disaster.

Top kitchen designers say flow is crucial in establishing a good operational system in any restaurant or bar kitchen. “Flow is the key, that’s the biggest thing, the ‘triangle’ between primary cooking space, bench space and storage areas like refrigerators,” says Brian Davies, national sales manager for Moffat.

He believes too many restaurant and bars owners sacrifice kitchen space for restaurant space, keeping kitchen space to a minimum so they can get more restaurant seats into their business. Retaining that ‘triangle’ between those crucial areas is vital if any restaurant or bar is to run smoothly. “We see kitchens getting smaller and smaller and it’s getting harder to convince clients that adding another table of four for a few more hundred dollars a night is just not worth it.”

But good planning, good design, good flow and the right blend of equipment to suit your menu is. “You don’t want your chefs banging into each other all the time – I saw a wash-up area recently, no thought had gone into how it would flow, it was miles away from where (service staff) came in and out.” In another kitchen a chef had to walk 10 metres to get one metre away because his path was blocked by a double-sided island.

Keeping your cool
Another important issue is providing adequate ventilation – this can make for a much more comfortable working environment and therefore happier staff. Insufficient gas and power supply is another challenge. Restaurant and bar owners should know the correct specifications for any equipment they’re installing. “Generally we find more problems with gas supply, they don’t bring in enough and then they want to bring in another new gas appliance, which can cause performance and reliability problems. In kitchen design, if you have 100 chefs you will have 100 ideas – that’s part of the problem.”

But it all comes down to layout, says Davies, and a simple detail such as whether a chef is left or right-handed. “First up know exactly what you’re going to be doing with your menu, for example, if you have a big emphasis on deep fried food and you only install one fryer or you want to do char-grilled product and you don’t have enough ventilation. You need to future proof your design.”

A little bit of extra financial outlay now, especially for a larger commercial kitchen, can save a lot of time and money later. New Zealand designers are seeing a lot more inquiry for induction cooking, a cleaner, faster method of cooking – similar to a ceramic hob – which works under an electromagnetic field. “It reacts with the bottom material in the pot and causes a vibration which heats the water... it’s fast, it boils water in seconds.”

Try not to compromise
One of the hardest things is to keep on top of budgets, which are getting tighter and tighter, especially for smaller operators. “The smaller ones are getting tighter, they have to spend more to attract customers out front and cut back out the back.”
But to compromise, warns Davies, is to lower your standard.

Designers are seeing more compromises made especially in those restaurants were owners are short-term – they’re putting in lower ‘spec’ equipment knowing that they’ll be selling in a few years so they’re trying to keep their entry costs down. “Make sure your equipment is of a high enough specification,” says Davies.

Technology is ever changing with some amazing new time saving ‘gadgets’ and equipment now on the market, not all of them affordable for the smaller operator however. Many of these gadgets can be labour saving devices providing they are used correctly and staff members are properly trained to maximise their benefits. Equipment, new and old, has been designed to do the likes of overnight cooking, but Davies says he seldom sees it used to its full potential.

Ovens that save time and money
Designers, chefs and restaurant/bar owners all seem to agree, however, that combi convection ovens are well worth the huge outlay – anything from $10,000 up to $40,000 – if you’re a medium to large operator. Though, even with these, Davies says he seldom sees chefs using the overnight cooking options, which can save time and money in a business.

Just recently he was able to point out to a highly-impressed client that chutneys and sauces could be left preparing overnight, all ready to roll when he arrived back the next morning. “Plan ahead – the equipment’s there so why not use it.”
Southern Hospitality’s Phil Llewellyn agrees the likes of the combi oven can be a wonderful time and power saving device. They can be programmed to cook a very large joint of meat so it starts cooking three hours before you arrive at work. They also have a rigorous in-built cleaning cycle.

Induction equipment is also becoming very popular, used increasingly by hotels presenting food at buffets – they beauty of this is it heats the food and not the container. “You can have an induction hob under the table and it can be passing through the table top, so it’s multi-purpose, more flexible.”

Commercial induction cookers are another recent introduction to the market. Llewellyn’s company has recently installed an induction range, the first in New Zealand. If you have a small space, it doesn’t put out a lot of heat, as it’s only pushing heat into the food, whereas if you’re operating a gas range there can be a lot of ambient heat that’s not being used.

Technology = speed and efficiency
One happy Southern Hospitality client is The Ballarat Trading Co owner Mike Burgess of Queenstown. His recently opened new gastro pub in the resort’s mall also carries all the good trademarks of efficient design and top-of-the-line technology.
Australian sous chef Glen Farmer says the $40,000 combi oven Burgess installed is worth every cent. “It cleans itself, from wash to fully steam cleans, on four different levels, quick wash or hardcore clean, and it takes anything, greasy pots....no hardcore chemicals and they come out gleaming.”

Farmer says you hit the switch and the oven is heated within 20 seconds – you can steam, bake or even do both at the same time.

Burgess says you wouldn’t find combi ovens in most Queenstown restaurants and bars because they’re so expensive but at the end of the day it’s all about efficiency in a busy gastro pub in one of the country’s leading tourist resorts.
Efficiency of movement and layout is critical. Ballarat has a six-to-eight-metre ‘cook line’ and good flow – it’s one of the largest kitchens in Queenstown, but as Burgess says everything’s designed for speed without sacrificing quality.

Your needs versus your wants

Foodservice Consultants New Zealand director Herke Beukens says the latest technology and gadgets can save time and money but only if staff members are trained properly in how to use them. “If you don’t train them in how to use it, then it’s a waste of money. When they use it wisely and correctly, it can save labour.”

The new in-built cleaning systems in some of the latest high-tech equipment offer another valuable time and money saving advantage. He advises all operators to be realistic in their budget – don’t just put “a dollar sign on paper” indicating what you can spend. Get an independent designer/consultant, who is not selling you product, to make your project work. “Buy the equipment you need, not the equipment you want.”

Kitchen makeover

Huka Lodge executive chef Michel Louws, a European-born chef, asked specifically for induction to be included as part of the new Huka Lodge kitchen rebuild. This was completed in June this year. Louws says it’s like a normal stove however it works on a radiation magnetic field, it is also very hygienic – with a glass surface making it very easy to clean.

Years at the top of the business has taught Louws that time means money so he insisted on what he calls some vital kitchen essentials, a good shock freezer – the temperature can be as low as 40 degrees and fish can be frozen within 20 minutes. The cell structure of fish probably changes by 75 per cent during the traditional freezing process and there is always leakage, but with shock freezing this may reduce to as low as five per cent. Louws is so sold on shock freezing that he did a test trial with fresh oysters once in The Netherlands, using a test panel – they could not taste the difference between the shock frozen oysters and the fresh ones.

He also sings the praises of the combi oven as a great time and money saving device. Huka Lodge has installed two, a small one offering two different temperatures and a larger one – which he describes as his “work horse”.

Other essentials in the new Huka Lodge kitchen apart from the obvious stainless steel include under-bench fridges for efficiency, a Pacojet which allows him to make ice cream and mousses to order, six Hatco Glo-Ray heat lamps – allowing the kitchen team to plate up several hot plates at one time, and an Alto-Shaam heating cabinet, perfect for a slow-cook tender roasting and keeping products at a very stable temperature.

Louws also had a new dishwashing system – instead of all the hassles of old feeding cans and tubes and topping up rinse aids, one multi-purpose tablet lasts an average day in the Huka Lodge kitchen. Oh, and he wouldn’t be without his Thermo-Blender – “It’s a necessity, if you don’t have it already you should get one immediately. It pureés a lot smoother, it’s faster and 200 times stronger than a bar blender, with an option of incorporating heat – we can set the temperature at 70 degrees, add all our ingredients and in four minutes we have a nice fluffy hollandaise.”
Louws says these are the cornerstones of any good larger restaurant kitchen and he was fortunate to be able to have these included in the new kitchen rebuild at Huka Lodge.