KITCHEN
DESIGN AND PLANNING
Introduction:
A food facility is a
complex organization performing specialized function in the manufacture, Sales
, and services of food. The choice of equipment, the layout , and the physical
factors supporting these function directly influence the success with which the
facility operates. Cooking space should be designed scientifically to ensure
maximum productivity, for it is the kitchen where the all important food is
prepared and upon which all the revenue hinges. An orderly and logical study of
the essential functions and the development of the facilities with maximum
efficiency and high standard form the basis for layout planning. The needs,
resources, and characteristics of a specific situation govern the functions to
be performed. The essential functions, in turn influence the flow or sequence
of operations, the equipment needed, and the space requirements. When the flow
of work, the equipment and space as well as physical factors are considered
together, the layout is largely determined. This chapter focuses on the
designing aspects of a kitchen, with emphasis on elements that need to be
considered while planning a food preparation facility.
Basis
of physical layout : A kitchen plan or layout should be
determined by the catering policy, even though a plan may often be limited by
space available. The policy adopted, and the space and layout required for a
kitchen to carry forward that policy, is affected by many factors such as the
following
1.
Type of business
2.
Type of customer
3.
Seasonal pressures
4.
Possibility of expansions
5.
Type of meal
6.
Number of covers (guests)to be offered
7.
Timings of meals (will it be a lunch or dinner
services, or day service)
8.
Cover turnover
9.
Type of equipments to be used
10.
Is allowance to be made for special functions?
11.
To what extent will ‘convenience’ foods be used?
12.
Total Floor space
13.
Position of windows, ventilation, drainage,
water supply, etc.
14.
Type of service proposed – self service,
cafeteria, waiter or waitress service.
Layout
of kitchen
The term ‘layout‘ means positioning of work centers and
their arrangement with respect to equipment and necessary services like
drainage, fuel supply, etc. in the kitchen.
Key steps for designing a kitchen
The following are the main steps involved in designing a
good kitchen.
1.
Determine a basic menu design or pattern.
2.
Estimate menu items to be prepared according to
demand
3.
Consider food purchasing policies.
4.
Ascertain the size, number, the type of
equipment needed to process the menu style and the type of dishes chosen.
5.
From the specification of equipment compute the
amount of space required to house the equipment required.
6.
Determine layout equipment departmentally
according to food flow analysis and frequency of use.
7.
The peak food purchasing requirement must be
determined.
8.
Determine and allocate floor space required for
refrigeration and dry store purpose as a ratio to total space available.
9.
Estimate the dinning room space by analyzing the
peak patron loads and average seat turnover during these periods for any given
restaurant.
10.
Allocate service area space within the kitchen
by considering menu, the peak load requirements, guests ‘needs and type of
service offered.
11.
Determine the number of employees needed and
their distribution in various departments from study of hours of operation and
peak production, and serving requirements.
12.
Calculate the amount of space needed for work
and traffic aisles by studying equipment layout and employee duties.
Developing kitchen plans
Before any kitchen plan can be
developed, it is important to flow four main steps discussed as under.
STEP 1
Formulate a list of activities
that are to be performed in the kitchen. In the process of scheduling, the
activities may be organized into a ‘production cycle’ which shows the sequence
in which the listed activities are to be performed.
STEP 2
Each part of the production cycle
is then broken up into jobs or tasks which need to be performed in a particular
order to achieve the objective of food service establishments. For example, if
the menu for a canteen consists of small cakes, hot and cold beverages, a
plated meal and sandwiches, each activity can be broken down into specific
tasks for every item on the menu.
STEP 3
Once the tasks have been defined , one has to
think of the simplest ways in which they can be performed.
STEP 4
The tasks are then arranged in a
sequence so that one task can smoothly follow another to establish what is termed
as work flow in any operation. In other words, the work planned to be in the
domain of the kitchen space flows from one area of activity to another with the
least expenditure of time and energy.
WORK AND METHOD STUDY
A layout is based on a good work flow from the receipts of raw
materials at goods entry to the dishes finally brought by servers for the
guests. Over familiarity with processing sometimes inhibits radical thinking.
FLOW OF WORK
Intelligent disposition of preparation machinery, sinks and
work, benchmark and reduce the total daily kitchen mileage covered by foot and
cut down unnecessary travelling by staff. Thus a perfect kitchen from this
point of view is one in which the raw and cooked materials have minimum
movements and only cover the same route once. When each section or parties is
satisfactorily planned, they must be linked to comply as nearly as possible to
the workflow.
This may seem simple but in many cases, the task involved
modernizing an existing old kitchen or laying out a new kitchen within existing
premises.
A well planned layout largely depends on the following
requirements which if properly provided for established good basic kitchen
conditions.
1.
Incoming supplies and raw materials (checking
and weighing)
2.
Food storage
3.
Cooking
4.
Server arrangements
5.
Pan wash arrangements
6.
Crockery and cutlery wash up.
TRAFFIC LANES AND WORK AISLES
Adequate and properly devised traffic lanes and work aisles
are indispensable to the achievement of satisfactory work flow that is in
providing straight flow lines for the receipt, preparation and cooking of the
product with minimum path crossing and back tracing.
GOODS RECEIVING FACILITIES
External space is needed for parking of delivery van. At goods
entry, sufficient space is required for receiving and checking goods, to
accommodate a weighing machine, checking table, stand up desk and delivered
goods prior to storage. For a smaller kitchen, a separate space within the
goods reception area should be provided for waste bins and empty containers. In
large kitchens a separate room for waste may be required. The receiving area
should also provide parking for hand trucks and trolleys.
STORAGE SPACE ALLOCATION
Various types of stores, for example- dry, vegetable, fruit,
meat and cold storage of dairy and fish products are required in good kitchen
.total storage space should not exceed one quarter of the kitchen area for
storing of food and equipment .we can calculate a space required for a dry
goods store on the basis of 8-10 % of total kitchen space.
LAYOUT OF COMMERCIAL KITCHENS
After
developing the work places, determining the specific equipment to use, and
finalizing the space requirements, the food facility consultant is ready to accomplish
the layout phase of the planning process. Some of the equipment layouts for
certain functions may already have been completed during the design of the work
places. Now the designer will formalize them, first as sketches and ultimately
in the form of blue prints.
The layout
process may be described as two separate stages that occur at the same time.
One stage deals with arrangements of individual pieces of equipments, work
tables, sinks with a unit which comprise a functional area or a functional department
i.e. one particular area may be developed for the function of Indian and
Tandoor preparations, (or) Salad and Sandwich preparations, as a single unit.
The second
stage of layout process involves arranging the functional areas into a total
facility. E.g. the receiving, storing, pre-preparation, production, pot washing
areas, and non-production areas such as rest rooms, offices are brought
together to form the basic floor plan for the facility.
There may
be some doubt as to whether these two stages of layout are done at the done at
the same time. Even though the designer may be working on one stage or another
at any given time, layout design must be considered in term of both stages. In
essence, the layout of the total facility must be considered when laying out
the component areas and vice-versa.
Concepts of
Layout:
There are four concepts of layout for a kitchen plan, they
are
·
Materials or products
·
Machines and equipments
·
Workers
·
Movement
1. Materials
or products
·
The products should be designed for ease of
production.
·
Raw materials used should require minimum number of
processing steps
·
The layout should protect the material from
detrimental factors such as moisture, dust, vibration and temperature changes
·
To provide flexible layout to handle change with
product.
·
Material storage area should facilitate taking
inventory
·
Provide facilities for storing waste and scrap
materials.
2. Machines
and equipments
·
The equipments provided in the layout should be united
to the required processes.
·
Maximum use of the equipments should be planned.
·
Layout should provide for each operations of the
equipment.
·
Layout should facilitate movement of mobile
equipments.
·
Sufficient access space for equipment maintenance
should be provided.
·
Proper ventilation and existing of equipment to be
provided.
3. Workers
·
Layout should safeguard the workers by eliminating
hazards.
·
Adequate light should be provided
·
Proper exhaust system for fresh air should be
provided.
·
Layout should be free of distracting activities.
·
Design of work place should correspond to height of
the workers.
·
Layout should provide adequate work space.
4. Movement
·
Layout should provide easy movement of materials and
workers.
·
Provide for smooth flow into and out of work place.
·
Layout should prevent back tracking.
·
Delays in movement of material should be minimized.
Layout configuration
The
arrangement of equipment and work places for functional areas is usually in the
form of a straight line or in combination and modifications of straight line
configurations. The basic patterns that may be used include;
·
Single
straight line arrangement: This is the simplest of designs, but it is
limited in the number of pieces of equipment or work places that can be
arranged. The straight line arrangement may be placed along a wall or take the
form of an island.
·
‘L’ shaped
arrangement: This is a
modification of the straight line arrangement to accommodate more equipments
and work places, it is sometimes used where linear space is limited. The ‘L’
shaped configuration is suitable for separating two major groups of equipment.
One group of equipment would be placed on one leg of the ‘L’, the other group
for the second leg.
·
‘U’ shaped
arrangement: ‘U’ shaped
configuration is ideal for small areas where only one or two employees are
working. One disadvantage of this configuration is that straight line flow
through the area is not possible.
·
Parallel
back to back arrangement:
This configuration is an arrangement of two parallel lines
where the backs of the equipment and/or work places on each line are adjacent
to each other. This arrangement centralizes the utility lines required for the
equipment. Sometimes a short wall is constructed in between the two rows of
equipment, in which case provision for cleaning and maintenance should be
provided.
·
Parallel
face to face arrangement:
This arrangement utilizes two straight lines of equipment and work
places where the front face each other and are separated by an aisle space.
This is very common configuration that can be used in many areas of facility.
This configuration requires two separate utility lines for equipment as
compared to the single utility line used in the parallel back to back
arrangement.
The final arrangement for most facilities is usually composed
of a combination of configuration of equipment and work places. Only the
smallest of operations would use a single configuration of the layout
facilities.
After arriving at the total area requirement for the main
kitchen the following is the estimated percentage of the production/space for
functional areas.
Functional areas Space
allotted %
·
Receiving 5
·
Food storage 20
·
Pre-prepation 20
·
Cooking 12
·
Baking 10
·
Pot wash- KSD 5
·
Traffic aisles 16
·
Garbage- wet/dry 5
·
Employee facilities 5
·
Miscellaneous 2
Exercise : DRAW A SAMPLE KITCHEN LAYOUT PLAN
FROM YOUR CLASS ROOM NOTEBOOK.
PLANNING OF VARIOUS SUPPORTING SERVICES
Pot and Pan Washing:
The pot and pan washing function is also
preferably done in a separate area instead of combining it with other areas as
some small operations may be inclined to do. The basic pot and pan washing
function can be handled with the three compartment sink and drain boards,
sufficient space for storing the soiled utensils have to be provided.
In
some operations, a large storage area for soiled utensils may be required
because they are not washed as soon as they are received. This occurs when the
same personnel who wash dish, also wash the pots and pans. Pot washing machine
is considered for large food facility if they can be economically justified.
A pot
wash area is suppressed by 6” than the regular floor level of the kitchen, to
avoid the water flowing into the main kitchen area .Heavy jet washers with
water at a temperature of 88 degrees is used to wash pots because they easily
remove the dirt and fat and make
cleaning easy. Since the pot wash area becomes very messy with waste food and
fat, anti- skid tiles are recommended for the floor and white glazed tiles on
the three side walls up to 8 feet height. A minimum area of 10’ x 10’ is
required.
Wet
Grinding Area :
In India wet grinding area is considered to be
one of the supporting services to the main kitchen. There will be a minimum of
two wet grinders in any small hotels, so that there is a stand by in case of
breakdown. Wet grinders are tailor made and are of different capacities. The
ideal functional area required for a wet grinding is 10’ x 4’. The area has to
have anti- skid tiles for the floor and glaze tiles on the wall to maintain
hygienic conditions.
Chef’s
Cabin :
The chef’s cabin has to be ideally located, so
that, he has a clear view of the entire kitchen. In some organizations and some
hotels the Chef’s cabin is being utilized to store the imported stock of
ingredients like spices, wine, etc.
Ideally 10’ x 10’ is required for the Chef’s cabin.
ALSO WRITE ABOUT STAFF FACILITIES, MAINTENANCE
ETC.
DEVELOPING
SPECIFICATIONS FOR VARIOUS KITCHEN EQUIPMENTS
STANDARD
:
After determining the type and capacity of the
equipments required for the particular kitchen, the next phase involves
selecting the specific characteristics that are desired. Factors such as
·
Materials
·
Construction Techniques
·
Special Features
·
Maintenance Consideration , are
evaluated.
STAINLESS
STEEL :
Stainless steel is an alloy containing minimum
amount of chromium and nickel and maximum amount of other alloying elements
such as manganese, silicon and carbon. Its use in kitchen equipments is based
on the following characteristics :-
·
High corrosion resistance
·
High strength
·
Hardness
·
Durability
·
Abrasion resistance
·
Ease of maintenance
TYPES :
Kitchen equipments manufacturers and fabricators select from
the stainless steel refer to have type 304 and 302 ( Food Grade). These
stainless steel sheets produced in India, according to the standards of Steel
Authority of India that controls the amount of alloying materials.
The corrosion resistance of stainless steel is
attributed to the addition of chromium to the alloy. Nickel lowers the thermal
conductivity of the alloy and increases its coefficient of expansion, allowing
it to be formed into various shapes more easily. The amount of carbon is
restricted so that the alloy can be welded without forming chromium carbide,
which lowers corrosion resistance.
Stainless steel is produced in sheets,
plates , bars, wires , pipes and tubing.
FINISH:
A
number of degrees of finishing are available in SS. There are 8 designated
types of finishes. They are achieved by standard guiding, polishing and
buffing. The finish used for surfaces that are in direct contact with food or
is exposed is standard polish number 4.
THICKNESS:
The
standard wire guage (SWG) usually designates metal thickness. Typical Guage
numbers of metals used for kitchen equipments range from 6 to 24 ( 6 is the
thickest and 24 is the thinnest)
GALVANISED STEEL
Coating
the steel with a layer of zinc produces galvanized steel. The preferred method
of producing galvanized steel is by electroplating, which gives the best bond
between the steel and zinc. The quality of galvanized steel is dependent upon
the thickness of the zinc coating.
Galvanized
steel can be satisfactorily used for kitchen equipments, where there is no food
contact or where abrasion is not evident. Sinks, tables, counters, shelves,
racks are manufactured with galvanized steel framework.
