After years of schooling in a culinary course, finally, you can start a career with your own restaurant. It’s a dream come true.
Armed with your favorite knife, your chef’s jacket, and research on all the essential requirements for opening a restaurant, you’re stuck on the type of equipment to buy.
Chefs’ jackets and knives won’t cut it when starting a business in the real world. It is only by investing in the right restaurant equipment that you will be able to deliver quality services.
Take your time in shopping for the right equipment keeping in mind factors such as:
- Your restaurant space
- Quality
- Type of restaurant e.g, casual, formal, food truck, etc.
- Supplier
- Cost
- Energy consumption
- Maintenance-in terms of usage and cleaning
- Kitchen designer or planner
- Restaurant compliance
Now that you understand how to select restaurant equipment, read on to see what types there are and why you would want them.
- Ovens
These are probably the first type of equipment you’ll buy or see in any restaurant. Oven’s quality, designs, and models vary in the market.
A combination oven is a combination of a convection oven and a steamer.
The difference between a combination oven and a convection oven is that the combination oven uses both the steam and convection aspects and is ideal for pastries and bread.
While the convection oven is ideal for toasting, roasting, and baked goods like cookies.
Then there are pizza ovens-just for pizza, and conveyer ovens designed for more time paced foods such as cheese bread.
- Freezers and refrigerators
Perishable goods need to be stored in a cold place to increase their lifespan.
They come in a variety of choices from walk-in to freestanding.
Choose the right fridge, cooler, or freezer according to the size of your restaurant and needs.
- Mixers
Perhaps you’ll incorporate baked goods, or pizza, in your menu. Thus you need a commercial mixer. They can be hand mixers, standing/floor mixers, or countertops.
Countertop mixers are great for small restaurants or bakeries, standing mixers are good for bakeries or pizzerias that make large quantities of dough every day. While hand mixers are ideal for making soups or sauces.
- Slicers
To avoid the tedious and time-consuming work that comes with chopping and prepping meat, slicers are made to create efficiency and save time.
Depending on the type of food you’ll be offering choose slicers that have higher horsepower, and the blade kits are compatible with the food you’ll be preparing.
- Gas and electric ranges
Acquiring either of these depends on your restaurant setup and preferences. They can be used to heat up food in skillets or make sauces.
The electric type takes time to heat up and is energy-consuming. You can start with the gas range and advance to electric.
- Sinks
Your restaurant kitchen won’t be complete without sinks. These cover an essential part in washing up vegetables or cleaning dishes.
If you can, invest in a dishwasher to save you more time when your business grows.
Other equipments needed are:
- Janitorial
- Food processors
- Safety equipment
- Point of sale
- Storage
- Smallwares
- Tea and coffee equipment
- Bar equipment
Final Thoughts
It may not be easy to choose your restaurant equipment in one day or a month, but with the right consideration and time, you’ll get equipment that’ll serve you long term.