The High Cost of Getting Your Commercial Kitchen Layout Wrong
A commercial kitchen layout can look perfectly sensible when you see it drawn on paper. But when it’s actually built - and it’s too late to change it - the price can be high and long-lasting. Aspen Services explains the pitfalls, the things you may overlook and provides real case study examples to show the impact of good commercial kitchen design.
Staff walking unnecessary distances hundreds of times a day, badly positioned equipment creating bottlenecks, inadequate storage slowing preparation, or a kitchen that simply cannot cope with the number of covers the business wants to serve can all create costs that continue long after the installation has been paid for.
That’s why good commercial kitchen design isn’t simply about fitting the right equipment into the available space. Your layout affects productivity, staffing, safety, capacity and even how easily your business can grow.
So, what should you consider before committing to a commercial kitchen layout?
Start with what the kitchen needs to achieve
One of the easiest mistakes to make when planning a commercial kitchen is to begin with the room: “How much space have we got? Where can the ovens go? How many refrigerators can we fit along this wall?”
Those questions matter, but they shouldn't come first. A better starting point is to understand what the kitchen actually needs to achieve. How many covers will you serve? What happens during your busiest service? How many people will work in the kitchen simultaneously? How will food move between storage, preparation, cooking and service? What might the operation look like in three or five years?
The difference becomes particularly obvious at scale. At Winslade Park – The Forge, for example, we had to design a kitchen capable of accommodating up to eight kitchen staff, catering for events of up to 400 guests and supporting production of around 1,500 deli-style meals per day during the working week.
At that level of demand, layout isn't primarily an aesthetic decision. It's an operational one.
Poor layout has a productivity cost
Think about the steps involved in preparing a single dish. Ingredients move from storage to preparation, through cooking and finishing, and finally to service, while dirty items travel in the opposite direction towards washing and cleaning areas.
“An extra few metres between frequently used workstations might not sound important. But if several employees make that journey dozens of times during every service, the business is effectively paying staff to walk around the kitchen.”
An extra few metres between frequently used workstations might not sound important. But if several employees make that journey dozens of times during every service, the business is effectively paying staff to walk around the kitchen.
Layout can also affect capacity. If your dining room can accommodate 150 customers but your kitchen can only efficiently produce 100 meals during the available service period, the kitchen has effectively placed a ceiling on what the business can achieve.
Adding more equipment isn't necessarily the answer. Capacity depends on preparation space, storage, refrigeration, ventilation and, crucially, whether staff can work efficiently without continually getting in one another's way. A well-designed kitchen isn't simply one where everything fits. It's one where everything flows.
Design for your busiest service
A kitchen can work beautifully when three members of staff are preparing lunch for 30 people. The real test comes when six people are trying to serve 150. At Hinkley Point C, Aspen helped create a central production kitchen capable of supporting three meals a day for up to 8,000 workers, with catering required around the clock.
Hinkley Point C
This kitchen supports three meals per day for 8,000 workers. Building a kitchen to accommodate that requires precise planninge.
Most commercial kitchens will never operate at anything approaching that scale, but the principle is the same. You need to consider peak demand: how many people need to work simultaneously, where the busiest areas will be, how quickly food can move through the kitchen and where bottlenecks might occur.
That doesn't just affect productivity. Commercial kitchen staff spend long periods standing, lifting, reaching, turning and moving around hot equipment. Giving people enough space to work efficiently and safely should be fundamental to the layout.
Design for tomorrow as well as today
Nobody can predict exactly how a business will change, and unnecessarily overspecifying a kitchen can be wasteful. But it makes sense to consider likely growth before committing to a design.
Could covers increase? Might you need another member of staff? Could the menu change? Is there capacity to add or replace equipment? Could existing electrical, gas, water and ventilation services support future requirements?
A kitchen that perfectly meets today's needs but restricts tomorrow's growth can prove an expensive false economy.
Remember that the layout affects the whole building
Moving an appliance on a plan is easy. Moving it after installation may not be. Commercial kitchen equipment can be connected to electrical, gas, water, drainage and ventilation systems. Change the position of one major item and several other parts of the project can be affected.
Aspen experienced a particularly good example while working on the Somerset Pavilion at Somerset County Cricket Club. During construction, the main kitchen was reduced in size by two metres.
Somerset County Cricket Club
Good design meant that the cricket club was able to reduce the size of the kitchen footprint but retain the ability to cater for the club
Rather than simply squeezing everything into the smaller space, Aspen redesigned the layout while maintaining the original operational specification. Electrical, gas and water requirements then had to be coordinated with the other contractors to accommodate the revised design.
The project was successfully adapted, but it demonstrates why decisions about equipment, layout and building services need to be considered together from the outset.
Ventilation is a particularly important part of that equation. Cooking equipment determines extraction requirements, extraction influences ductwork, and ductwork has to work within the building. Treating ventilation as something to solve once the kitchen layout has already been decided can create expensive problems later.
The cheapest layout isn't necessarily the cheapest kitchen
Commercial kitchen projects naturally have budgets, and there will always be compromises. But it's worth distinguishing between reducing the initial cost of a project and reducing its long-term value.
A decision that saves money during installation can become expensive if it increases labour, limits the number of customers you can serve, makes cleaning and maintenance more difficult or means the kitchen needs altering again as the business grows.
Equally, good design can deliver benefits that don't appear on the original project quotation. A more productive team, greater capacity, easier maintenance and room for future growth all have value.
The real cost of a commercial kitchen isn't simply what you spend designing and installing it. It's what that kitchen costs your organisation to operate throughout its working life.
Plan the operation before you plan the equipment
The principle is simple: don't start by asking what equipment you can fit into your kitchen. Start by asking what you need your kitchen to do.
Think about the menu, covers, staffing, workflow, storage, cleaning, ventilation, maintenance and future growth. Only then should those requirements become a layout and equipment specification.
Aspen has designed commercial kitchens ranging from cafés and hotels to event venues and facilities serving thousands of meals every day. The scale changes enormously, but the challenge remains the same: understanding how an organisation needs to operate and creating a kitchen that supports it.
Design it well and your commercial kitchen should help your people work safely, efficiently and productively for years to come. Design it badly and you'll probably be paying for those decisions every day.
Planning a commercial kitchen?
Aspen Services designs and installs commercial kitchens for organisations across a wide range of sectors, from restaurants, hotels and pubs to education, workplaces and major infrastructure projects.
If you're planning a new commercial kitchen or refurbishing an existing one, involving a specialist at the earliest stage can help you consider layout, capacity, equipment, ventilation and building services before expensive decisions are made.