Tips for Purchasing Commercial Kitchen & Restaurant Equipment

Figuring out what you need

You would always do your absolute best to acquire all the necessary equipment for your kitchen. Nonetheless, wait till you encounter five or more tables on a busy day asking for the same dish on the menu. And then, it'll strike you that you don't have enough of the respective gourmet plates of that dish that's in high demand! For this reason, we provide you step by step instructions on how to make a list of all the tools you need.

Sit down with a notebook and pen, although we recommend a blank document or excel sheet because there could be a lot of scribbling and rewriting. Now list all of the items on your menu in the first column of a table.

Secondly, recall the items that are needed in the preparation of that particular dish. It should include everything from the necessary cooking utensils, spatulas, and oven, to the serving plates and spoons. Repeat this process for all the dishes on your menu.

Ta-duh! You are now left with a detailed list of all the equipment your kitchen truly utilizes. Now count the number of times each item is used. For example, an oven may be used for more than 10 of your dishes. Make a separate list of all the frequently used items in your kitchen.

You can repeat this process for your cocktails or mocktail menu as well.

Commonly Debated Commercial Kitchen Appliances

To decode your queries even further, we're providing you with a few tips and tricks for purchasing the most commonly used Commercial kitchen items. Let's get going.

Commercial Pizza oven

There are so many commercial pizza ovens in the market that it becomes difficult to narrow down which one will suit your needs the best. Here's a brief introduction to all of them.

Convection Pizza Oven

These ovens use the standard convection methods to circulate air inside the oven and evenly cook the pizza dough and its toppings. They're great for small businesses or restaurants where the main attraction isn't pizzas. They can afford an oven that pushes out only one or two pizzas in about 5-7 minutes. If you opt for the more extensive options, though, you can expect ten pizzas, which are more than plenty for a small food outlet. Additionally, this oven is low maintenance and only needs to be wiped down once daily.

Brick Pizza Oven

Is your restaurant known for its authentic pizzas, crisped in a homely wood-burnt space? Then you might want to get your hands on a custom-made brick oven that can be both wood-fired and ignited by a gas. The oven is made of bricks that are heat resistant and allow for retaining high temperatures once heated. They can push out more than 10 pizzas in 5 minutes. These ovens are usually custom-made, so their price depends on the materials used, size, and making.

Deck Pizza Oven

As the name suggests, these ovens allow pizzas to be decked on top of another. They're similar to the brick pizza oven as a stone or stainless steel surface enables them to retain the heat and speed up the baking process. Once heated, the oven can push out 4-6 pizzas in a single deck. The models of this type of oven range from a single deck to 6 decks in total. The only catch with this oven is that you'd have to rotate the pizzas for even cooking manually. While you'll be opening the oven to turn the pizzas, you might lose some of the heat and delay the baking process even further. This is great for large food chains with a crowd of people waiting for their pizzas, provided they have a staff-rich kitchen to watch over the oven.

Conveyor Pizza Ovens

A conveyor pizza oven is great for a kitchen with fewer staff members to share the load. All you need to do is place your pizza bases on a conveyer belt that will pull it into the oven, cook it at a pre-set speed and temperature and transfer it to a surface that allows for some cooling. Everything from start to end is automated. You can choose between a gas and an electric variety of the oven.

Commercial Dishwashers

There is a commercial dishwasher out there to fulfil the needs of every kitchen. Depending on the footfall of your particular restaurant, there are the options you must know of:

Commercial Conveyor Dishwashers

Perfect for large kitchens, the commercial conveyor dishwashers promise capacity and speed. It allows the kitchen staff to stack up large quantities of utensils, give it a prewash, high-temperature washing, and finally, a high heater technology to quickly dry the washed dishes. It can take care of over 248 racks in an hour, and you don't even have to wait for a full load. You can move dishes along the sequential washing line as per your needs.

Door Style Commercial Dishwashers

With this dishwasher, your dirty dishes can be loaded onto the bus pan, cleaned, and back into circulation in a matter of just ten minutes. These kinds of ovens are great for businesses that need efficient cleaning but don't have much space to store the dishwasher. A larger version of a door style commercial dishwasher can easily take the place of a conveyor dishwasher without spending the excess money.

Under counter Commercial Dishwashers

Suppose even a store a door style dishwasher is looking too intimidating for the space available in your kitchen. In which case, an under-counter commercial dishwasher is specially designed to hog less space in your kitchen. They do the job well, and most of their models also come with an excellent energy star rating and a booster heater to help dry the dishes. They can also push out approximately 32 racks of dishes in an hour.

Commercial Glasswashers

Imagine spending a fortune on your equipment, only for it to be damaged by another one of your expensive appliances! For example, you'd probably want to buy a separate dishwasher if you know most of your crockeries consists of highly fragile glassware. The commercial glass washer is one such appliance that is suitable for an extensive bar menu with dozens of glasses that need to wash every hour.

Commercial Combi Oven

When choosing a dishwasher or pizza oven, you can make decisions based on the space available in your kitchen, the kind of load that a kitchen handles, whether it's in terms of plates or terms of pizza orders, your budget, and so on. When it comes to a commercial Combi Oven through, there are many more intricate details you have to be attentive to.

For starters, a commercial combi oven is an oven that offers three modes of cooking; convection, steam, and a combination of both. The convection mode is excellent for baking pastries, bread, and cakes. With the help of water that penetrates the atmosphere, the steam mode makes excellent fish, rice, and even vegetables. The third cooking mode combines convection and steam, giving you perfect control of moisture and humidity in the food.

Why may you need a combi oven?

Suppose your menu consists of various delicacies that need to be baked, roasted, grilled, braised, blanched, or even poached. In that case, you'll benefit from a commercial combi oven. However, specific courses may not do away with the steaming offered in the combi oven and may require a traditional steamer. Go through your menu well before investing.

Deciding on the boiler

A combi oven comes with or without a boiler unit. Boilers allow for a sufficient hot water supply to create steam in the oven. Large models typically always come with a boiler due to the magnitude of volume needed. Smaller models, on the other hand, don't necessarily need boilers to maintain humidity levels. If you go for a mid-size model, it's up to you to decide whether you'll buy one with a boiler unit or not. If you're kitchen usually supplies hard water, you should choose a boiler-less combi oven. Otherwise, it can lead to long-term erosion or deposits that call for maintenance down the line. If you require a boiler, make sure to filter the hard water before use.

What size to choose?

Combi ovens range from supporting 1 to up to 12 steam table-sized pans. Although the smaller varients can be plugged into a regular plug, the larger ones, say an oven with ten steam table-sized pans, need at least 13kW to 19kW of power to function.

Check the additional features.

Depending on the items in your many, don't forget to check out the different functions of your particular model of the appliance for its features. Many can be useful, such as defrosting, poaching, thermalising, toasting, steaming, and warming. Some can also self-sufficiently clean themselves or come with a hose for cleaning.

Whether to buy second-hand or new items?

When you're starting out and just getting your kitchen in place, second-hand items can help you save money. That's money you can utilize elsewhere, such as in marketing! The thing with putting money on a second-hand item is that it can turn out great and last you several years. Or it can completely stop working in the middle of a busy work-day without a warranty in your hand to claim.

Still, we've made a list of items that are majorly low-risk when buying second hand, given that you perform the checks mentioned:

Gas Equipment

Gas equipment is more expensive when compared to the day-to-day use of electric power. Nonetheless, suppose you're on the lookout for second-hand gas equipment. In that case, even if it breaks down, the repair costs are incredibly minimal.

Fryers

Just check the oil container, and double-check that it is water-tight. As for the baskets, they are easy to find and cheap to replace. Fryers are a good second-hand purchase because they last just as long as ovens and cooking ranges.

Ovens and Cooking Ranges

To check if a second-hand range or oven is working correctly, check that the flames are heating evenly and the surface is level.

Small Equipment

You can find fine culinary pieces like spoon sets, knives, spatulas, and blenders at throw-away prices if you look hard enough. If there's a motor involved, make sure to check it before use or take some assurance from the seller. Some sellers will give you a couple of days or weeks of warranty as word of mouth to ensure its good condition.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to building or maintaining a kitchen, so many things come in the way of its efficient functioning. Although we've made your vary of all the equipment available, you may still encounter some decision-making problems. In times of need, always ask your chef, kitchen, or service staff for their opinion. They know your restaurant in and out, and their opinion is a valuable asset in pumping up your kitchen efficiency. And when it comes to your commercial kitchen equipment's repair and maintenance, there's always Commercial Kitchens Armiya. Not only do we get your broken equipment up and running, but we also provide services where we check for any pending maintenance your kitchen aspires. This prevents you from the outburst of a fellow customer waiting on an order that your oven accidentally burnt! Your equipment can give up on you, but Commercial Kitchens Armiya never lets you down.