Kitchen Management

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The back-of-house operations of a restaurant are always the busiest and the most hectic. Basically, the

restaurant kitchen. It is not your everyday kitchen. In a restaurant kitchen, food is prepared on a large scale. Multiple batches of the same dish are made throughout the entirety of a day. The kitchen staff is always on their toes creating and recreating enjoyable meals for customers. The pressure is naturally more when chefs get repeat orders. 

Keeping in mind the significance of a kitchen in a restaurant, kitchen management becomes an inescapable task. Therefore, how one must manage a restaurant kitchen effectively? What are the challenges faced by restaurateurs? And since it’s not a straightforward job to manage a fully functional kitchen in a busy restaurant, what are the factors to be kept in mind while managing a restaurant kitchen? 

How to manage a restaurant kitchen?

“A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member’s talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.” — David Ogilvy

A restaurant kitchen is the powerhouse of any restaurant establishment. Kitchen management is directly linked to a restaurant’s profitability. Let’s look at some of the ways you can manage your restaurant’s kitchen. And do so efficiently.

  1. Inventory and stock management  

Your restaurant kitchen inventory list gives you a brief of everything that goes into making the food. Basically, the raw materials and ingredients. A detailed inventory list helps manage food costs while making sure that only fresh products are used in the kitchen. Inventory management dictates a huge part of kitchen management solution. 

  • Logically group different food ingredientsso that they’re easy to spot and use. Grains, spices, fruits, and vegetables can be kept in separate shelves Even better if the containers for dry ingredients are marked appropriately and grouped together. All the dairy products and frozen items go inside the refrigerators. Make sure each member of the kitchen follows the, “First in,  first out” rule.
  • It’s a weekend. People are rushing into your restaurants. Everything is going well until you realize you’ve run out of tomatoes. A major ingredient that is used for preparing various kinds of sauces. Or let’s say you’re out of milk. What happens to all the pies and cakes then? Nothing is more embarrassing than telling the customers that the dish they earnestly want to eat is not available that day. 
  • Always keep a track of all kitchen supplies.Make sure you buy all those food ingredients well in time for the weekends and other busy days. Conducting regular inventory stock audits will also help you save food costs and greatly reduce kitchen waste. Once you have your inventory sorted, you will know exactly how much of stock you require weekly or monthly. 
  • Prep sheets make restaurant kitchens more orderly. It’s nothing but a kitchen plan that notifies the chefs and other cooks about all the food production that’s going to happen in the following week. Also includes notification regarding any ingredient shortage. 
  • Being from the restaurant industry, you tie-up with multiple food vendors who provide you with vegetables, meat and other ingredients that you need for your kitchen according to your requirements. Tying up with them and placing your order well in time is very important and must be done cautiously.