Setting Up A Commercial Kitchen Using the Right Equipment

For many of us who have little or no experience in F&B business, setting up commercial kitchen equipment for a cafe or restaurant can be a daunting task. Purchasing the right food service kitchen equipment is not a walk in the park. Along the way, you need to take note of a couple of important pointers. Here, we highlight some very basic but important considerations to make when selecting food equipment. 

 

1) Find out if the space you rented/purchased is fitted with 3-Phase or Single-Phase Electrical Supply.

 

It is important to know if the place you rented or purchased for your F&B business has 3-Phase power supply. Some of our customers come to us asking for large food service kitchen equipment like large capacity deep fryers or deck ovens for their new establishments, without knowing if their place is fitted with 3-Phase power supply.

 

 Equipment such as large deck ovens used by bakeries, combi ovens used by restaurants and large capacity deep fryers seen in fast food establishments require 3-Phase power supply to work. Installing the 3-Phase power supply to a property will set you back quite a bit in set-up costs. Therefore, it is always advisable to find out the electrical requirements from your food service kitchen equipment supplier before working out the budget required for the setup.

 

2) Estimate the capacity you need for food service equipment.

 

Customers typically overestimate their requirements and end up buying a larger capacity food service kitchen equipment than what they actually need. It is not so much the cost of the equipment but the long-term costs of operating the equipment. 

 

For example, we have customers who purchased large capacity 27-litres freestanding deep fryers such as those you see in fast food restaurants and realized that they have wasted so much oil to fill the unneeded capacity in the fryer. Do keep in mind that food service kitchen equipment can be added on slowly. For new start-ups we generally recommend acquiring fewer commercial kitchen equipment at the beginning and slowly adding on more in the future.

 

3) Plan your menu so that you know what new kitchen equipment you need.

 

Some customers come to us without knowing what they are planning to serve in their cafe. Some new kitchen equipment, such as the UNOX convection ovens, can be used to bake as well as grill a wide variety of food items and is a value-for-money piece of equipment. 

 

For example, you can simply purchase a patented FAKIRO pan for your UNOX convection oven to bake pizzas instead of acquiring a separate pizza oven. Always remember to consult a kitchen equipment company personnel if the equipment you are considering is absolutely necessary for your menu.

 

The above three factors are common but often neglected factors to take note of if you are buying new or refurbished kitchen equipment for your F&B establishment.