Prevention is better than cure. This common-sense idiom also applies to the kitchen, especially when high performance and safety must be consistently ensured, hand in hand with minimising service interruptions that affect the quality of results and a restaurant's profits. So how do you manage professional kitchen maintenance properly, effectively and in a far-sighted manner, ensuring the maximum efficiency and long-term durability of equipment? Find out here!
Professional kitchen maintenance: Three good reasons not to neglect it
What are the must-haves in a professional kitchen? Quality, safety, service continuity. And all this is ensured precisely by proper and regular maintenance of all the equipment forming the backbone of a restaurant's cooking area.
1) Quality. The best results are achieved in the kitchen thanks to the use of equipment that ensures high performance, great reliability, and the best usability for operators. Its good and constant maintenance is essential to keep it at peak performance, efficiency and safety for as long as possible, with the result of continuing to ensure quality catering.
2) Safety. Guaranteeing food safety is a top priority in the kitchen. Inadequate cleanliness and poor equipment maintenance can affect the edibility of food, endangering customers' health. Good professional kitchen maintenance keeps it compliant with sanitation requirements, avoiding the risk of hefty fines, if not restaurant closure.
3) Service continuity. Everything in the kitchen must run smoothly. A drop in the performance of a piece of equipment or the failure of a machine component can slow down the work pace, leading to a disruption that not only has economic repercussions, but also affects the restaurant's good name. Preventive maintenance avoids this type of incident, ensuring flawless service.
Zero problems with the preventive maintenance of professional kitchens
Let's be clear from the outset! The easiest way for those in the professional catering industry to sleep soundly is to sign a preventive maintenance contract with their supplier.
Companies like Lotus Cookers that make quality and safety their workhorses recommend kitchen professionals sign contracts with their suppliers whenever possible, with customised plans that guarantee periodic service monitoring of the kitchen's status to prevent and minimise breakdowns and downtime undermining its operation and safety. Indeed, with this contract, specialised personnel will visit their kitchens on a regular basis to check the proper operation of the equipment, the state of wear and tear, carry out interventions, adjust machinery or, if necessary, recommend replacements for perfect kitchen functionality.
A perfect example is the kitchens of seasonal hotels that open in spring-summer and remain closed in winter. How can the hotel be sure that upon opening, the equipment will resume regular operation after months of downtime? How can they be sure that a system won't go haywire precisely when the restaurant is at its fullest? Only that precious preventive maintenance contract that leaves nothing to chance!
Routine maintenance improves and extends equipment life
Those who have signed a preventive maintenance contract also need to carry out proper routine maintenance of their kitchen equipment themselves, the first indispensable step in preventing malfunctions and equipment breakdowns and making sure that it lasts as long as possible.
What does ordinary professional kitchen maintenance consist of? It includes rigorously and constantly cleaning equipment with appropriate procedures and detergents, following the manufacturer's instructions so as not to deteriorate materials, functionality and safety.
The timing and manner of routine maintenance depends on the type of equipment in the kitchen. For example, to maintain fry top performance it is important to carefully clean it after each use, always taking into account the type of material and the characteristics of its surface. Considering that it operates mainly with water, salt and very starchy foods, pasta cooker maintenance includes regularly cleaning the tanks and sensors to avoid the accumulation of scale and starch that can damage 316 stainless steel and cause the cooker's premature deterioration.
What if the unexpected happens? Presenting extraordinary maintenance!
The unexpected happens, even if you scrupulously attend to routine and preventive maintenance of professional kitchens.
For example, if a component of a piece of equipment breaks unexpectedly, then it needs extraordinary maintenance, i.e., the intervention of specialised personnel who resolve the situation in more or less time. Also in this case, the leading companies make the difference by ensuring effective, timely service.
Today's more advanced companies have also devised fast digital systems for supplying spare parts. As in the case of Lotus Cucine, which has special, dedicated WhatsApp numbers as a quick support tool to respond as quickly and effectively as possible to the various requests that come from distributors, importers, maintainers and the entire sales network daily.
Now that the central role of maintenance in the world of catering is clear, when asked what characteristics a professional kitchen should have, our answer is that not only must it have high-performance and innovative equipment, but its routine maintenance must also be carried out rigorously and in a timely manner, in addition to being forward-looking, as well as planning ahead by signing a preventive maintenance contract with professional and reliable suppliers.
Would you like more information about the best professional kitchen maintenance and the extraordinary maintenance service proposed by Lotus Cucine? Write to lotus@lotuscookers.it or fill out the contact form.