HoReCa – how do you plan your kitchen space?

At the beginning of the journey, owners of catering establishments are faced with the task of planning the space in the kitchen and the cold room. How to make the most of the space and store products properly?

Space in a restaurant kitchen – how to make the best use of it?

Kitchens in catering establishments are governed by completely different rules than those we arrange in our homes. Today we will look at the former. Why is it so important to plan the space properly? Well, sanitary requirements with regard to food safety are inexorable and must be taken into account when designing a kitchen or catering warehouse. Above all, the nature of the premises and the types of products to be stored and processed must be taken into account. Fruit and vegetables, as well as meat, fish and seafood certainly need the right conditions. They need a low temperature and, in the case of frozen items, a freezer. Dry products and liquids (oils, oil and others), on the other hand, can be kept at room temperature. However, due to their bulk, a special place for them must be considered when planning and arranging the kitchen or storeroom in a catering establishment. Dairy products and eggs should also be stored separately. In order to make the space as useful as possible, manufacturers of HoReCa equipment offer catering racks for restaurateurs. Depending on your needs, you can equip your kitchen with a stainless steel shelf rack, a tray rack or an aluminium container rack. Importantly, they come in different heights and widths so that they can be easily adapted to the dimensions of the room.

What distinguishes a cold room?

In addition to organising the space in the kitchen itself or in the storeroom, an important part of furnishing a catering establishment is fitting out a cold room. This is a separate space in the room, isolated by airtight partitions, in which it is possible to maintain a constant, usually low, temperature. Thanks to the special properties of the materials used to make cold rooms, they are: 

● chemically stable, 

● easy to clean, 

● odourless. 

A cold room is usually installed as an empty space and therefore requires separate management. If you want to store food in it, it is advisable to equip it with shelves on which to place the articles. It is worth noting here the principles of food storage:

● if you are running a large catering establishment, it is best to plan a separate compartment for dairy products, another for vegetables and fruit and a separate one for meat, fish and semi-finished products;

● if you are running a small catering business, you may want to consider replacing the cold room with a refrigerated cabinet or display case;

● animal products should not be stored together with vegan and vegetarian products;

● meat should be placed on the lowest possible shelves, both in the cupboard and in the cold room, so that any leakage of dirty water does not cause bacteria to infiltrate other food products;

● pay attention to the humidity in the compartment - some fruit and vegetables need a specific level of humidity so that they do not lose their freshness.

Frozen products need to be kept at even lower temperatures than the freezer allows. Freezer rooms - the equivalent of freezers in the form of an isolated space - were developed with this in mind. In them, catering racks are also ideal for storing frozen food. 

Designing a kitchen in a catering facility requires not only attention, but also knowledge of the principles involved in storing food. It is worth relying on the knowledge of specialists and equipping the space with furniture from HoReCa manufacturers. If you are looking for catering shelving for your premises, be sure to check out what is on offer from merXu.