Building the Perfect Kitchen

Building a kitchen is both exciting and stressful. Before you start building, check out the following tips:

• Purchase the Items You Need – There are certain things you will need in your kitchen, such as a range, oven, refrigerator, and freezer. While you are building your kitchen, it’s vital that you do not purchase any extraneous gadgets. They will take up too much space and cause productivity issues.
• Maximize Your Storage Space – You need a lot of room in your kitchen, so you should do what it takes to maximize your space. Instead of storing out, you should consider storing up. Having plenty of shelving that reaches high allows you to put the essential items at hands length and items that are not used as often up high.
• Purchase Equipment That Lasts – While you are picking out items for your kitchen, such as a freezer or refrigerators, you should always buy the best items for your needs and budget. It can be expensive to purchase higher-end equipment, but you won’t have to worry about it breaking down in a year or two.

Your coolers, refrigerators, and freezers are vital to your business! Don’t let these expensive pieces of equipment fall into a state of disrepair. When you shop with O-Reps, you can find a variety of parts from the top manufacturers, including cooler door gaskets, PVC strip curtains, thermostats, and more.

Doing a Deep Clean in Your Kitchen

You always keep up with the cleanliness of your kitchen, but when was the last time you have done a deep cleaning? We have put together a short list of tips for restaurant owners who want to get a little deeper on their next clean:

• Exhaust Hoods – While doing a deep clean, you should take a look at your exhaust hoods. Most chefs are using the kitchen all day long, so these hoods can get dirty. You should remove the filters, scrub down the hoods, and spray everything down. If your hood is too dirty, you may need to hire a professional to help clean it properly.
• Refrigerator Shelving – It is important to clean your refrigerator shelving regularly. Whether you have a large refrigerator or a walk-in, you should take the time to pull every shelf off the wall, wipe it down, soak it, and dry it before putting the shelf back in. This process will also encourage you to empty out the refrigerator and throw away old items.
• Pilot Lights – Pilot lights can get stopped up and food may drip on them, so you should take the time to clean them anytime you are doing a deep cleaning.

Have you noticed damage to equipment in your kitchen while cleaning? O-Reps has you covered. We offer cooler door gaskets, char-broiler grates, wire shelves, and more.

Simple Issues – Walk-In Cooler Problems

Have you been experiencing issues with your walk-in cooler? If the answer is yes, there may be a simple answer to your problems. Take a look at the following:

• Latches – One of the simplest explanations is to check the latches. When the door latch is not working properly, your door may be open – even the smallest bit. If this is the case, then the cooler will start working overtime to make sure that it’s cooling properly. This will increase your energy bill and may cause your motor to overheat and dies.
• Gaskets – Another simple issue that may be causing your cooler or any refrigerator to not work properly is gasket issues. Take a look at the gaskets around the door – if they are damaged or not there, then that may be the source of your problem. To prevent issues from happening, make sure you regularly clean your gaskets and replace them when they are damaged.
• Hinges – If a hinge is loose or no longer attached to your cooler, you have a problem. These hinges are a vital part of your cooler, making sure that the door closes properly and stays closed. It’s vital that you keep an eye on the hinges, making sure that no one on your staff is too rough.

From cooler door gaskets, latches, and hinges to lights and handles, O-Reps has everything you need to repair and upgrade your walk-in cooler.

Cleaning Tasks to Prioritize at Your Restaurant

Regardless of the type of cuisine your restaurant specializes in — be it fast food or fine dining — cleanliness should be among your staff’s foremost priorities. Failing to keep your kitchen and dining area clean can result in sick patrons, negative attention from the Health Department and costly fines.

Fortunately, keeping your restaurant clean doesn’t have to be an arduous chore. Provided you and your staff stay on top of the following tasks, you should have no problem providing patrons with a squeaky-clean dining experience.  

Wipe Down Tables after Every Use

In addition to being unsanitary, improperly bussed tables are notorious for spreading germs and viruses between diners. To prevent this, it’s imperative that every table be thoroughly cleaned after each use. Even without the threat of germs, no customer wants to sit at a table that sticky and dirty. 

Clean Your Storage Units Each Week  

In order to keep your refrigerators and freezers nice and clean, you’ll need to empty them out and give them a good scrubbing at least once a week. Your food is your restaurant’s most important resource, so it’s only fitting that it be stored in a sanitary area. To this end, you’ll also need to frequently check your cooler door gaskets for signs of wear and tear and replace them as necessary.  

Thoroughly Scrub the Kitchen Floor Each Night

It’s very difficult to clean a kitchen floor mid-shift — not to mention dangerous. Since dirty floors are highly conducive to the spread of germs in restaurant kitchens, have your staff give the prep area’s floor a vigorous scrubbing before heading home at night. When performing this task, it’s important that they pay special attention to corners, edges and the areas beneath large pieces of equipment.  

Cleanliness is not something that restaurant owners and managers can take a laid-back approach to. If proper care isn’t taken, the consequences will be unfavorable — for both you and your patrons. In the interest of keeping your restaurant spotless, remember to wipe down your tables after every use, clean your storage units once a week, and vigorously scrub your kitchen floor each night. 

Properly Caring for Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is essentially the heart of your restaurant. Without a well-maintained kitchen and a knowledgeable, hardworking staff, no eatery would have a fighting chance. As such, it behooves restaurateurs to keep their kitchens in prime condition. A messy, disorganized, or unhygienic kitchen can result in dissatisfied diners and earn your establishment the ire of the Health Department. When working to maintain a professional kitchen, the following measures are sure to come in handy. 

Be Diligent About Daily Cleaning

In the quest to keep your kitchen as sanitary as possible, daily cleaning is not something you can afford to skimp on. In fact, certain cleaning rituals need to be performed multiple times each day. To ensure that your kitchen remains clean and germ-free, be diligent about disinfecting preparation surfaces, wiping down ranges, grills and fryers, and thoroughly cleaning can openers and meat slicers. In the interest of avoiding pests, make sure the areas around waste receptacles remain squeaky clean. 

Regularly Inspect Your Refrigeration Units

Without functional refrigeration units, you won’t have servable food — and without servable food, you won’t have a restaurant. With this in mind, have your refrigerators and freezers inspected on a regular basis and swap out defective components — like cooler door gaskets — as needed. 

Use Slip-Resistant Cleaners and Coatings

An unexpected slip in the kitchen can have disastrous consequences. Not only can this hamper timely food preparation, it’s liable to put you at the receiving end of a lawsuit. If you’re determined to prevent slips in your restaurant’s kitchen, clean your floors with slip-resistant cleaners and encourage your staff to exercise caution at all times.

Properly maintaining your kitchen is something from which everyone can benefit. Your staff will have an easier time preparing meals, diners will receive their orders in a more expedient fashion and your business will quickly find its way into the health department’s good graces.  

Maintaining an Energy-Efficient Restaurant Kitchen

Over the last decade, a growing number of businesses have begun rethinking their approach to energy consumption. As the effects of global climate change become increasingly difficult to ignore, businesses of all sizes have started looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Fortunately, going green is much easier for restaurants than other types of establishments. As an added bonus, taking a few eco-conscious measures can save you a considerable sum in energy costs. To help your eatery do its part for the environment, consider the following tips.

Keep Track of Energy Consumption

The first step in whipping your kitchen into shape is keeping track of energy consumption. Use specialized meters to record how much water, gas, and electricity various pieces of equipment consume. After your findings have been recorded, make note of which tools need to be updated and which are consuming acceptable amounts of energy.

Invest in Energy-Efficient Parts

Replacing every piece of equipment that consumes too much energy isn’t exactly economical, nor does it help your financial bottom line. For example, stove apparatuses and walk-in refrigeration units are often easier to retrofit than outright replace. This entails keeping old equipment but outfitting it with new components, such as energy-efficient cooler door gaskets.   

Get Behind Eco-Friendly Dishwashers

Although updating your dishwashers may strike you as a large expense, it can save you a tremendous amount in both water and power costs down the line. Dishwashers equipped with heat-recovery condensers and smaller wash-tanks eat up less energy and clean dishes more expediently than their bulky old-school counterparts. 

A push for increased environmental awareness has swept the globe in recent years. Rather than remain mired in the past, it’s in your best interest to get with the times — and see that your restaurant does the same. If you’re determined to bring your kitchen up to snuff, keep an eye on energy consumption levels, engage in retrofitting as needed and invest in eco-friendly dishwashers.