Last Updated On: February 9, 2021.
A kitchen is the central operational section of a restaurant. This is where food gets prepped, cooked, plated, and delivered. Kitchens can be huge and spacious or can be small depending on the type of business and location available.
Despite its size or appearance, a restaurant kitchen needs to be carefully designed and monitored to ensure that it runs at full capacity. Below are four tips for running an efficient restaurant kitchen.
1. Work well with your staff
As a manager or owner, your staff will need your guidance regularly, but it is vital to understand that everyone has both strengths and weaknesses.
Instead of trying to force your team to do things in a way that you prefer, understand their strengths and weaknesses to help you identify ways you can get tasks done more efficiently.
Ensure staff has whatever they need to be more successful at their jobs. Doing this will help your employees become more independent and also make decisions that are in line with your thinking.
Learn more about working in a restaurant kitchen here.
2. Ensure your communication system is effective
Normally, a good point of sale system will resolve most of your communication problems. In most kitchens, you will find that if something needs to be modified or canceled, the front house staff would speak directly with the kitchen.
This type of communication is usually efficient, more accurate, and even faster. After a change is relayed to the kitchen, the server will then proceed to update or modify the order at the point of sale system.
Using technology as a means of communication is great, but sometimes it can complicate things that were simple in the first place. Be sure to correctly discern if a technological solution is needed or just a more efficient communication model.
The video below talks more about a point of sale system.
3. Someone has to be in control
To keep everything running smoothly, someone needs to be in charge to ensure processes don’t fall apart. In a restaurant, this is usually the expeditor.
Expeditors commonly call the shots in a kitchen and also ensure that the right orders get to the right tables. This is often the person who is the middleman between the kitchen and the front of the house.
If an order needs to be modified or there is some helpful feedback that requires being communicated to the kitchen, it should all be processed by one person for effective communication.
This also allows kitchen staff members to focus on tasks without distractions.
4. Ensure that everything is streamlined
Your kitchen and menu need to be fully compatible. Make sure that your menu is designed around what you have available in your restaurant. Ingredients, storage, kitchen layout, equipment, and the skill of your staff should be taken into account when designing a menu.
Here are some pointers on how to do this efficiently:
- Replace menu items that are somewhat complicated to prepare.
- Cut down the size of your menu to make it more manageable for your kitchen.
- Use fewer ingredients to lower your inventory and labor costs and also make your line more efficient.
- Purchase the right equipment for your menu. If money is tight, design your menu to fit what you have in the kitchen.
- Hire the right crew and train them accordingly.