Which Kitchen Appliances Are Essential To My Restaurant Kitchen?

30 Apr 2020, 5:21 PM

Which kitchen appliances are essential to my restaurant kitchen?

If you're setting up a new restaurant kitchen, a thorough checklist of the kitchen equipment you'll need should be a top priority. It's important to think ahead and ensure you've got everything you need before opening; the last thing any new restaurateur needs is a last minute panic after realising some vital piece of equipment is missing during the first busy lunch shift. Here's a brief list of some of the kitchen essentials every restaurant will want to have, and what you'll need them for.

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Good quality kitchen knives

A good set of kitchen knives - or two - should be top of everyone's list of kitchen essentials. Make sure you've got enough so that every chef can access whichever knife they need at any time, without needing to constantly wash them up, and ensure you've got many different kinds for whatever your needs will be. It goes without saying that sushi restaurants will have deba knives and carvery pubs will have meat carving knives, but almost all restaurants should have a good stock of chef knives, bread knives, and vegetable knives.

Pots, pans - and everything else

If we're going to start with the basics, next up it's got to be pots, pans, spatulas, whisks, spoons, and all of the other necessary kitchen tools. To figure out what you'll need, add up what you'd require to cook your entire kitchen menu at once; this way, you'll know you've got enough equipment even when you're operating at full capacity. If you're unsure, opt for more: you'll always need more than you'll expect. On a busy night there'll be no time for washing up between courses, so you could end up using new pans every ten minutes.

Food processors

Food processors and food mixers should be considered an essential piece of kit in just about every restaurant kitchen. Useful for soups, sauces, dips, and even in baking, kitchen mixers are utilised in all kinds of cuisines. They can be used to quickly make up a curry paste, a hummus starter, or a homemade pesto. If you make a lot of bread such as pizzas or bagels, you'll want to look at spiral mixers, which handle dense doughs well. If your restaurant often offers fresh homemade soups, you might also consider stick blenders, which offer convenience and flexibility when whipping up a soup; with a stick blender, you can blend your dish to exactly the consistency you want.

Food slicers

Food slicers are a must, though the type you'll need depends upon your own use. If you make a lot of sandwiches, you might want to buy an electric food slicer in order to slice meats and cheese in bulk. For smaller or more infrequent jobs, manual food slicers should do the trick.

Pasta machines

While most restaurants won't need one, you'll definitely need a high quality pasta machine if you're running an Italian restaurant, or even a British gastro-pub that wants to up its pasta game. Fresh, homemade pasta is what sets a great Italian restaurant apart from a bog-standard chain, and what will keep your customers coming back for more. Pasta machines can be used to make all kinds of pasta, from tagliatelle to penne, and can even be used to make stuffed pastas like ravioli, which you can add your own fillings to.

A steam table

Not something you'll find in a domestic kitchen, steam tables are nevertheless a must in most commercial kitchens. If you're preparing lots of different elements, you'll need a steam table to keep sauces and prepped food warm while finishing off the rest of the dish. Steam tables can keep food warm for hours at a time - which is key when you're considering food safety regulations, as well.

Storage containers

Another one that might not seem obvious to anyone who's never operated a commercial kitchen; storage containers are likely to be one of the most well-used items in your restaurant kitchen. Useful for keeping prepped food fresh all day, airtight storage containers of varying sizes are a key piece of equipment in any commercial food preparation environment. This is where you'll store all of those slices of cheese you prepped with the electric mixer, as well as sauces, garnishes, and pre-chopped ingredients, to ensure that when the orders flood in cooking time is kept to a minimum.

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