How Is a Hotel Kitchen Made?
Coord. Exc. Chef Ahmet ÖZDEMİR
The title was a bit ambitious, but the article will include the answers to the question of how to make a hotel kitchen, from the perspective of a cook and kitchen chef. Maybe a little bit more than a kitchen chef needs to know. My readers will decide this at the end of the article. My aim is to at least share what I know and pay attention not to make the mistakes that were made before in the construction of new hotel kitchens.
Professional hotel kitchens are taken into account with the meticulousness of a hospital when today's gastronomy trends are taken into account. Architects and engineers consider much more details in the construction of hotel kitchens, which are built with the latest technology hygiene and cleaning principles in mind.
The kitchen planning and kitchen designs prepared by the professionals of the business are researched down to the fine details, and the seasonal features that the accommodation facility will serve are also taken into consideration.
* Seasonal Features
* Seasonal Hotels
* Boutique hotel
* Star Hotel
* Hotel Growth Possibility
* Portfolio of Guests to be Hosted
* Seasonal Intensities
* Inner City Hotel
* Spa Hotels,
* Thermal Hotels
* Ski Hotels
* Deluxe Hotels,
* Hotels with Aquapark
Hotel features are definitely some of the most considered factors. Because the kitchen is at one point the heart of the hotel, and it is one of the most important departments that should be planned according to the service areas of the hotel.
In general, the kitchen chefs I come across, including myself, always complain about the hotel kitchens we have worked with, and we always find something missing in the hotel kitchens caused by the hotel construction. Even if we make some of these complaints for our pleasure, there are some issues and deficiencies that we are right in most of them. In a medium-sized 5-star seasonal hotel, the consumption of "raw food" per person is 4,700 gr. and net food consumption is 3,300 gr. If we take into account that the general kitchen planning should be done professionally in detail.
Architects never think like a chef in hotel kitchen constructions, and chefs never think like an architect. In fact, when you think like an architect, it is unfair as a chef, and an architect is unfair when you think like a chef. While the architect is keeping the building standing and calculating the most logical column places in accordance with mathematics, the chef complains about the shortness or length of the distances and the smallness or size of the kitchen sections .
I can name some of the most encountered problems especially in the main kitchen section as follows;
* Number and size of grease traps used in kitchen expenses,
* The appropriate thickness of the drain pipes and the thickness determination by considering the final limits of the hotel,
* Using electrical panels that require separate control for each kitchen section,
* Use of special fuse panels and conditions in the main kitchen for machines with high electrical load,
* Calculating the required pressure in gas distribution well or making the installation in a two-stage way that can be strengthened when necessary,
* Having a spare of the ventilation motor,
* Having a second atomic propellant engine in grill hoods that can be activated when necessary,
* A second submersible motor must be kept ready in the pools where the kitchen expenses are located,
* Using the newest technologies in the oil trap chambers in the water drains,
* If a garbage disposal is used, its infrastructure must be established by considering more than the general number of guests. (Especially in city hotels , the number of people in activity banquets and other organizations can be higher than the number of hotel guests)
* Diversification of freezers and cold storages in the main kitchens of hotel businesses that will provide food and beverage service to more than 1000 people a day,
There may be some of the most important issues to be considered in hotel kitchen constructions. In every hotel kitchen, there are areas that were added after the end of construction or that were planned but removed later. I think that the hotel kitchen plan or the layout of the kitchen sections should be reviewed by a knowledgeable architect and a knowledgeable chef during the construction phase.
At the same time, the owner of the hotel or institution should inform the architect and kitchen chef exactly at the beginning of the work. If I had to give an example of this, a hotel kitchen that will serve only 100 rooms has standard features. But after the hotel was built, with a change of mind, in addition to a hotel kitchen that was built considering 100 rooms;
* I Will Serve Banquet Meals,
* I will also do a wedding,
* I will also be engaged,
* I will give banquet, protocol dinners,
* I will serve at Congress Meals,
* I will demolish 4 rooms from different floors and build 2 a la carte restaurants open to the public,
* I will even build an à la carte restaurant in the lobby…
If you say, a new adventure and a new story begins here. All the calculations made by the architect and the head chef in the hotel construction are unnecessary garbage, and a new kitchen planning and a new construction period are required. For this, it is necessary to think well at the beginning of the work and evaluate all kinds of possibilities 3 times.
While deciding on the kitchen layout in the Industrial Kitchen Planning as a professional, it is necessary to test or have the Relationship of the Main Kitchen with the Other Sections tested by an expert. Decide well what features the kitchen to be built in the "main target" should have in the construction of the hotel kitchen.
If I were to give a few examples of these;
* Seasonal Hotel Kitchen
* 5 Star Hotel Kitchen
* Starred Hotel (Stars Available Later) Cuisine
* Hotel (Tourism Facility) Kitchen
* Boutique Hotel Kitchen
* Inner City Hotel Kitchen
* Congress Hotel Kitchen
Examples may be some of your options. Because after the current Kitchen Planning is done, you should not lay the foundations in the construction phase of the negativities that affect the work flow among the Kitchen Types in the Hotel Kitchen Organization made by the kitchen chefs in the future .
Every mistake made and every wrong decision made in the planning of the hotel kitchen will return to you as the following negativities in the future;
* More Staff,
* Energy Consumption,
* Uncontrolled,
* Extension of Jobs
* Delay of Services,
* Miscommunication between Departments,
* Waste of time,
* Material Waste,
* The Kitchen Chef's Inability to Control the Sections,
* Inadequacy of Storage Operations and Failure to Provide Appropriate Conditions in General Kitchen Management ,
* Disruption of Basic Combinations in Culinary Principles,
It may cause your success-oriented target planning not to be realized, or it may cause the general planning of the hotel manager to fail, making department managers who are successful in their job seem unsuccessful.
You can also see the results of these shortcomings as many electrical cables, water pipes and camera cables that run over the tiles after the hotel is completed.
Some Infrastructure Preparations Made in Consideration of the Catering Policy Can Make You Profit in Many Areas in the Hotel Kitchens in the Long Term;
* Short Term Stock
* Long Term Stock,
* Open Buffet Service Units,
* Cook-Freeze Units
* Cook-Cool Units
* Hot Stacking Units
* Vegetable Preparation Units
* Types of Meals to be Offered
* Available Restaurant Concept Types,
* Main Concept,
* How Many People Will Be Served,
* Which Areas to Serve
* Number of In-Hotel A la Carte Restaurants
* Will Special Services Be Tolerant?
* To what extent will "ready-made" foods be used?
* Window, Ventilation, Drainage Expenses,
* Can the Main Kitchen and Other Kitchen Parts Benefit from Daylight?
* What is the Recommended Service Type? (All Inclusive, Ultra All Inclusive, Half Board, Bed & Breakfast, A la carte)
At the beginning of the work, it is one of the priorities and the issues that need to be decided well with different reasons to be considered among the general Kitchen Departments.
If he talks about the general kitchen areas;
As the number of guests increases in the hotel, the available service areas begin to narrow. If this increasing number of guests is added to the increase in the service options provided (additional wedding, meeting, congress, banquet banquet meals, etc.), the areas in the main kitchen almost merge into each other. In limited kitchens, you should always be prepared for all kinds of accidents, casualties, waste and abnormal developments. Machine failures and fires that may result from excessive electrical load in limited kitchens are among the most dangerous possibilities that will lead to disaster for the hotel business.
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Kitchen sections and areas of kitchen types , which will be determined with very good engineering calculations and architectural data, can only be calculated with the correct data to be given to the relevant architects and engineers. Efficiency in General Kitchen Management can only be achieved without being affected by heat and cold, where Kitchen Staff can move freely.
In the calculation of kitchen areas, only the number of guests is not a complete factor. It is absolutely necessary to get opinions from the knowledgeable chefs about the extent of the narrowing areas in the workload. The most important issue in the determination of kitchen areas is also related to the number of service areas provided by the enterprise in the field of food and beverage.
Taking into account the experiences I had in hotels before and after the opening in my professional life;
While this area is 0.093 m2 per person in a cafe, it can be 1.67 m2 per person in a 5-star hotel restaurant. Some architects and engineers, who are experts in the subject, believed in their calculations that the area per person in the restaurant section should be "one half" in the kitchen.
Small businesses that serve less than 60 people need kitchen space between 0.84 and 0.93 m2 per person. This is proportional to the decrease in kitchen workers and the decrease in the number of Kitchen Units and Cooking Equipment that are generally used. In other words, the growth of the business is not proportional to the growth of the areas.
For example, in the construction of a hotel kitchen for 1000 people, you cannot take it into account by saying that the average cafe per person is 88.5 m2. As the number of people to be served increases, the dimensions of the general areas increase periodically. Taking into account the service areas in the hotel kitchens of normal standards, it can be evaluated as 15% to 19% of the total area. Of course, I'm not talking about a skyscraper hotel or a golf hotel here. Such calculations require a separate engineering skill and higher merits.
Planning, Workflow and Method Study in Hotel Kitchen Construction…
Although non-pre-opening kitchen chefs are internationally popular, their ideas about planning in hotel kitchen construction may turn out to be unfounded. Chefs who set up pre-opening kitchens can offer more accurate possibilities in this regard. If I need to be more precise, chefs who know the "catering" system can provide more accurate data due to the loss of space and time associated with the Characteristics of the Kitchen Staff and the Receipts in the Kitchen Management .
In other words , if we take into account the Hygiene Rules in the Gastronomy Sector and add the HACCP principles to these, the product will come from the outside to the heart of the kitchen after being sprayed with different methods and processed. The roadmap here is very important. This roadmap is desperately needed in the construction of kitchen sections. In addition to food engineers, professional kitchen chefs should be consulted.
In my opinion, the people who will take part in the planning of a definite success-oriented kitchen project should be as follows;
* Architect
* Engineer
* Business owner
* Hotel manager
* Chef
* Food and Beverage Manager
* Culinary Consultant
* Restaurant Consultant
* Gastronomy Consultant
The most important task of the hotel kitchen project control team is to equip the architect and engineer with the most accurate data. Because they are the ones who will draw the project. No question should be left unanswered in the minds of architects and engineers when answering the question of What Should I Pay Attention to When Making a Hotel Kitchen .
In the work flow in the main kitchen, preparation units, different cooking equipment for cooking techniques , work benches should be placed in a way that will accelerate the production in the most rational way in Kitchen Management . Unnecessary distances should be avoided when placing kitchen equipment, and even when placing sinks, their distances to main work benches and cooking equipment should be well calculated.
In the placement of kitchen materials in the kitchen types, the previously prepared Hotel Kitchen Organization should be taken into account and its accuracy should be rehearsed by experts. As an equation, it would be beneficial to have a chef other than the chef who has international experience checked. This idea should not be seen as an understanding of insecurity but should be seen as a principle and control mechanism.
In the placement of kitchen units, the heat rates they will generate during use should be well calculated and ventilation supports should be made accordingly.
Features to be Considered in Offices, Kitchen Areas, Access Roads and Working Corridors in the Construction of the Hotel Kitchen…
One of the elements to be considered in hotel kitchens, which are built with hotel working principles and service areas in mind, are the features of the Food and Beverage Department Organization Chart . For example, foldable coffee tables to be built in the corridors in banquet meals are of great importance and can turn unnecessary spaces into the most productive work areas when the time comes.
Unnecessarily long corridors must be avoided when constructing kitchen offices, cold storage and dry food warehouses from an architectural point of view. Long distances are always a waste of time, as well as overstaffing and delayed service. All these storage areas, warehouses, cold weather and work offices can be built in accordance with the hierarchy on the main flow path coming from the outside to the kitchen. The main corridor should also be built large enough to handle the traffic in question.
The dining hall, toilets, changing rooms and showers, which are the general needs of the main kitchen staff, as well as the resting areas that they can use during their breaks should not cause a loss of time in terms of distance, and as far as possible, "stacks" areas should not be left in terms of security and personnel tracking.
Things to be Considered in Food Acceptance and Storage Areas in order not to fall into the Most Common Mistakes While Building a Hotel Kitchen …
Those responsible for product acceptance and receipt should definitely be built in the closest places to the parking area. With the same logic, cold and dry food warehouses should have the features to apply the necessary hygiene principles and should be ahead of the preparation kitchens. The main material warehouses should be built according to the procedures for the entry of the material into the kitchen and the ordering should be strictly taken into account.
Main warehouses with scales and acceptance devices monitored by cameras at the entrance Building the main warehouses, which will be used once a day by the employees according to the daily needs of the main kitchen, on the outermost parts means saving from labor, time and personnel. Again, one of the warehouses that should be built in the outermost part is the refrigerated garbage warehouses.
All main warehouses should be on the same floor if possible. One of the most important features in the corridor main flow path and the ways of the warehouses is the use of non-slip, hygienic and easy-to-clean materials.
When we consider the size of the main kitchen in the stock management of the total storage area, 4/1 of the dry food storage can be 10% to 12% of the total area, but the height should be used up to its final limit. In medium-sized hotel businesses (500-600 persons), it means 0.10 m2 storage area for vegetables and 0.15 m2 for dry food. I can calculate these areas as 4 days of cold weather and 10-12 days of dry food. These calculations can be considered as 0.40m2 for all-inclusive medium-sized hotels where 3 meals a day and more are applied. The above data is invalid for long-term stocking methods.
In a Medium Sized Hotel Kitchen, Main Kitchen Units Can Be Created as follows…
* Preparation Unit
* Cooking Unit
* Waiting Unit of Ready-to-Service Products
* Dish Washing Unit
* Warehouses
* Offices
A Medium Sized Hotel Kitchen Sections Can Be Created As Follows…
* Main Kitchen
* Hot Kitchen
* Cold Kitchen
* Patisserie Kitchen
* Butchery
* Fishhouse
* Vegetable Preparation
* Breakfast Kitchen
* Banquet Kitchen
* Room Service Kitchen
* Pool Bar Kitchen
* A la Carte Cuisine
In particular, I would like to point out that there are many more cuisines that we can add to these cuisines. But in a hotel with 5 star international standards, these kitchens should be.
Features Desired in Materials to be Applied on Flooring Walls in Hotel Kitchens…
One of the most important issues, especially in order to prevent work accidents, is the properties of the material to be used on the ground. At the same time, the type of material to be used on walls and ceilings for cleaning and hygiene purposes is equally important.
* Good Clean Appearance,
* Non-Slip Surfaces,
* Easy to Clean,
* Easy-to-Clean and Stain-Resistant Materials,
* Materials That Can Reflect Light
The main theme may have some of the main features of the materials to be used in the floor and ceiling. Of course, the most suitable materials will be determined thanks to the interior architects and experts who follow the developing technologies.
Ventilation System in Hotel Kitchens and Its Importance…
The most important feature that I should say at first is that the ventilation system is gradual. It should be able to be strengthened if necessary during busy working hours. Another feature is that the hoods in the grilles have the feature of drawing air and pushing air in at the same time.
In success-oriented Culinary Trainings , maintaining good air temperatures in the butchery and fishery sections is among the most important details. The intensity of the kitchen staff in terms of Efficiency in Kitchen Management is increased or decreased by the heating and ventilation settings of the kitchen.
Kitchen ventilation will provide a comfortable working environment in terms of productivity of kitchen workers, prevent condensation, as it should be sufficient to collect cooking odors in the kitchen, it will be healthier for the system to give air to the inside as much as the air drawn from the inside.
Some of the fixtures and kitchen utensils that can be used in the kitchen types serving in the hotel kitchen departments may be as follows. The tools and equipment to be used in the hotel kitchens may vary according to the hotel's concept, standards and quality, as well as the diversity in the service areas.
Finally, some of the tools, equipment and fixtures that can be used in hotel kitchens may be as follows...
*** You can contact me through my contact information for more information on the topics that are labeled in the content of the above Article for gastronomy consultancy in the topics within my service areas . ***
Ahmet Ozdemir
Coord. Exc. Chef Ahmet ÖZDEMİR
International Restaurant and Cuisine Consultant
Ottoman and Turkish Cuisine World Volunteer Ambassador
Note:
The original text of the article of coordinator chef Ahmet Özdemir named HOW IS A HOTEL KITCHEN MADE, WHAT ARE ITS FEATURES? WHAT IS CONSIDERED? in ACADEMİA is as follows. Google translation was used for the necessary language change.