Module 21: Kitchen Design and Layout

kitchen Layout for Food and Beverage Services

A well-planned design and layout of kitchen can make a major contribution to good food hygiene.

Staff also respond better under good working conditions, by taking more pride in their work, themselves and their environment.

Adequate working space must be provided for each process in the kitchen and the separation of raw and cooked, clean and dirty must be followed to reduce the risk of
food contamination.

Before a kitchen is planned, the management must consider their goals and objectives in relation to the establishment’s marketing strategies.

The menu will determine the type of equipment required, number of staff employed, positioning of the business and the type of customer.

Kitchens should be designed for easier management.

The market that the business is catering for and the style of food operation, which includes the menu structure, all need to be considered.

There are two other important factors to be considered in kitchen design:

The capacity of the operation

The methods of service to be used

There are many factors that can influence the design of a kitchen. Take your kitchen at home as an example.

Can you think of some factors that have influenced its design?

Look at its size and shape. How have these two things had an effect on your kitchen?

List four factors that you think could influence the design of a newly-built hotel kitchen?

Think of the different hotel locations and possible problems that they may present to the kitchen design.

Layouts of kitchen are not standardized and can vary according to many factors.

Workflow and work safety should be taken into consideration during the process of kitchen planning.

Work safety is always a top priority and a kitchen setup which facilitates a smooth work flow from food processing to points of delivery and service is considered critical.

Storage Areas

By referring to the kitchen plan diagram, the blue arrows show the procedure for processing food materials once they are delivered from suppliers.

Incoming food materials will first go to the preparation area. Only large scaled restaurants would have separate rooms for storing different types of items which can be categorized into beverage storage, general storage, dry food storage and frozen food storage.

Food Production

On the kitchen plan diagram, food cooking and processing areas are laid out according to the menu and dining sequence, starting from the cold food section to the hot food section and then the dessert section (green arrows).

Food items prepared by chefs are put on the food pick-up areas in each section for servers to collect.

Food items will be placed on trays by servers at the tray table before being served to the customers. Used dishes and tableware will be delivered to the dish washing area for processing with clean items stored next to the washing area.

In mid-scaled or large-scaled restaurants, kitchens are normally divided into different sections.

Budget is the biggest factor in determining how many sections will be in the restaurant kitchen.

Some sections may be combined, where possible, in order to save space.

Section Division

Other factors which can affect the kitchen section division, include:

Types and varieties of food provided

Work flow of different sections

Food hygiene

Staff safety


Through surfing the Internet, try to find other kinds of kitchen equipment / utensils which are commonly used by kitchen staff.

What purposes are they used for?

Try to think of ten work rules that should be followed in any restaurant kitchen operation.

List five rules relating to food safety.

List five rules relating to personal hygiene.