When designing the furnishings of professional stainless-steel kitchens, the first thing to consider is the compliance with safety regulations. A key element in the organization of the layout, safety has to do with many aspects of a kitchen’s life: from how the people move in the space until the management of dirty and clean flows, from the choice of the equipment’s position to the calculation of gas kilocalories. Discover all the details to furnish safely!
Professional stainless-steel kitchens: no safety no quality
The quality of professional catering kitchens is measured by the quality of high-performance equipment, but also by the rigorous compliance with all those sector regulations that allow the chef and his team to operate in the best possible way and in complete safety.
The kitchen of a restaurant is in fact a sensitive space because it is intended for the preparation of meals and, as such, must necessarily have all the characteristics that make it safe for those who work in it and for the food that will be served to customers. In this regard, also read Restaurant kitchen cleaning: tips for perfect hygiene.
The combination of quality and safety therefore leads to the best designs for stainless-steel furnishings of professional kitchens which aim to guarantee excellent results in terms of the gastronomic offer and at the same time avoid risks for people and penalties for the business. Let's see together then which factors have to be considered for a safe and efficient professional stainless-steel kitchens.
The dimensions: make space for people to move
First of all, it is essential to consider the available spaces and consider that the distance between each equipment for professional stainless-steel kitchens must be at least 80 cm, even better when 1 meter. This is a useful measure to open a passageway for the people working in the cooking area and to make work management easier.
Space and the free movement of the chef and his team are very important, and necessarily implies a careful choice of the kitchen configuration: an in line wall kitchen in case of small spaces for a small team, or an island for large spaces with many people working in the kitchen for many covers.
In this regard, we would like to remind you that in the professional stainless-steel kitchen market there is a wide variety of choices, but those that should be preferred are the new generation high-performance solutions, such as the IperLotus 90 range, designed by professionals of the sector who offer the ideal solution for every specific need, evaluating spaces, number of workers and safety.
Directions and flows: move forward and never cross paths!
The correct organization of good paths and the flow of clean and dirty items is essential for safely furnishing a professional kitchen. This means, first of all, respecting the flow of access to raw materials, preparation, cooking, garnishing and service, avoiding reverse paths with respect to the food treatment flow.
As to guarantee hygiene another fundamental aspect is the distinction between the flow of clean and dirty items, i.e. preventing the crossing of paths of clean dishes exiting towards the dining room and dirty dishes entering towards the washing area. A mandatory precaution in case of large kitchens and preparing more than 100 courses.
In any case, the stainless-steel furniture of professional kitchens must be arranged as to provide the correct paths for the clean and dirty flows, organizing it on opposite sides of the room when working in a single room or by designing a special dedicated washing area, in case of a very large kitchen.
The system design: lighting and ventilation in accordance with the law
The layout of the electrical and plumbing system in the design of a professional kitchens for catering is an extremely important factor, because electrical sockets and hydraulic lines and drains must be within reach for each piece of equipment.
If you renovate an existing kitchen, each furnishing choice is closely linked to where key elements are located for the correct functioning of professional stainless-steel kitchens: the electrical or gas points, the water drains and the exhaust pipe. In the case of a newly designed kitchens, the systems are studied accordingly to the designed layout based on the needs, but always following the safety regulations required by the sector regarding, for example, lighting and ventilation.
As regards to the lighting, the overall vision must be eased and shaded or unlit areas must be avoided as to increase the safety of the work areas and optimize electricity consumption. Correct ventilation is essential to have healthy air in the environment where people work and food is prepared. For this reason, every professional kitchen must have extractor hoods that send fumes towards the outside and the ratio between the surface area of the room and the ventilation surface must be 1 to 20. If professional kitchens for catering are newly designed, it is not easy to decide where to place the extractor hood, it is usually easier to set the position when it is mandatory otherwise the path from the hood to the smoke exit must be studied: the shorter and straighter the path, the better the extraction .
Position and power of the equipment: watch out for dangerous places and KW!
When furnishing the kitchen, it is important to pay maximum attention to where stainless-steel professional kitchen equipment is placed because certain areas can be dangerous.
For example, the fryer must always be far from water sources. Never place it next to the pasta cooker, near a sink or a tap because if drops of water fall into the boiling oil there is danger of explosions. Preferably the lava stone or frytop grills should be placed far from the ovens because they release a lot of heat. The cooking line must always be under the extractor hood which must possibly protrude from the perimeter of the kitchen by at least 10 centimetres.
As regards the power of your professional steel kitchen equipment, the upper limit of the gas kilocalorie must be considered because there are limits to be respected due to fire regulations. The Ministerial Decree 12/4/1996 of European law establishes the obligation of compartmentalization (fire-resistant walls and doors) with respect to the rooms adjacent to the kitchen when the overall installed thermal power deriving from the equipment and systems (ovens, kettles, fryers, etc.) powered from fuels (methane gas, LPG, wood, etc.) exceeds 35 kW.
Do you want to know more about how to safely furnish our professional stainless-steel kitchens? Write to us at lotus@lotuscookers.it or fill out the contact form.