Every restaurant has refrigerators and freezers, but are you using them to their full capacity? Most restaurants don’t have a good system in place, so there are multiple refrigerators or a cold room that is simply not utilised properly.
With the tips here, you’ll be ready to get the most use out of your cooling units.
Plan Your Refrigeration
Before you set up your restaurant, you should estimate how much refrigeration you will need and then plan it carefully. It helps to have restaurant experience, but if you are new to the industry, talk to someone who has been running a restaurant for some time. They will make suggestions to help you create a more efficient system with your fridges and freezers.
For example, you’ll need to have a refrigerator for keeping ingredients on hand in the kitchen, while other products may be further back from the cooking area. There are several types of refrigerators that your restaurant may end up using. These include:
Reach-In Refrigerators
The regular type of refrigerator that everyone has in their homes will make it easy to store food that you need to grab quickly for cooking. It’s ideal for things like milk, cream, fish, chicken, etc. that will be cooked on a regular basis. You may also keep your sauces prepared and stored in this type of fridge and you can simply open the door and take out what you need. It will usually be next to the stoves, so it’s easy enough to take the food and begin to cook.
Walk-in Coolers or Cold Rooms
These spaces are large refrigerators or even freezers that you can walk into and they’ll have shelves all around to hold the food that needs to stay cool. A cold room is ideal for large restaurants or places that do a lot of cooking from frozen ingredients. However, organisation is key to keeping the food in these rooms from spoiling.
Cooled Prep Tables
If you prep a lot of food, you’ll want to have a cooled prep table where everything is kept chilled. It’s a simple process that allows you to work on the cold table and prepare sandwiches, etc. without worrying that the food will go off quickly.
Undercounter Refrigerators
Setting containers into a counter where it will remain cool is ideal for delis and sandwich shops. Everything from salad to puddings and sandwich toppings can be kept in these bins. The undercounter refrigerator will allow everything to stay cool throughout the day. These often have glass fronts so the customer can see what is on offer. You just need to get it and serve it for them.
Glass Door Refrigerators
Often used for drinks, the glass door refrigerator allows you to see what is inside. This may be behind the counter and you can grab a drink that the customer specifies, or you may set it out in the customer area so they can choose their own beverage. However, these refrigerators are also helpful for keeping anything you wish to display on hand. Salads, desserts, and more can be set in them without the drinks and you’ll see at a glance how much is left.
Bar Coolers
If your restaurant serves alcohol, you’ll need a refrigerator for that, too. A bar cooler tucks away under the bar so you can easily take out what is ordered without having to go very far. It’s a useful method of providing cold drinks when needed. As you can see, there are a number of options for restaurant refrigerators and they’re all useful in their own way. You’ll need to determine what you need for your own restaurant.
Organise Everything
Organisation is key to keeping track of everything and not wasting food. You’ll need a system to ensure nothing is left too long in the refrigerator and the best way to do this is to place incoming products behind the existing ones. When you go to use a product, take the items in the front to ensure you get the oldest ingredients first. This will help prevent food from languishing in the refrigerator because it keeps getting pushed to the back.
Alternatively, you can set up a system where you place new items on the left and when the next shipment comes in, you just slide everything to the right and set up the new products on the left again.
It’s also important to label everything. Your labels should include what the food is, which is very important if it’s in a closed, opaque container, as well as the date it was prepared. There are multiple people working in the kitchen, so if everyone neatly labels their items, they’ll be able to see what everyone else has set up.
You may choose to put labels directly on the containers or you could add them to the refrigerator shelf, depending on how much you need or have at any given time. This will help you spot when you’re getting low on an ingredient.
Do Inventory Regularly
Inventory will help you determine what you have and what you need to order. It shouldn’t take very long to do this if you have made up your inventory list and check it weekly. In fact, you may even take each item off the list as it’s worked. If you stay organised and ensure that everyone marks each time they use an item, you should know exactly when an ingredient gets low.
This is a good way to ensure that you have everything you need, but the system does require cooperation from everyone in the kitchen. Sometimes, when it’s quite busy, you’ll find it more difficult to remember to check everything off. This is why weekly inventory is a good idea.
Switch to a Cold Room
If you find that the reach-in fridges are too difficult to keep organised and are all muddled up, a cold room may be the better choice. These walk-in spaces allow for more shelves and better organisation.
While a cold room is a good investment if you go through a lot of food, you will need to consider whether you need that much space or not. There’s no reason to cool a large room when you only use a couple of small shelves in it. If you are going to spend the energy on the cooling system, it’s best to use it all up.
Cold rooms may also be freezers, which helps by giving you a space to keep foods fresh for much longer. If you purchase a large amount of fish or meat because it’s cheaper, you can easily keep it for months in the cold freezer room. This is just one advantage of having a cold space to store things.
Again, labelling is important, particularly if you have rows of shelves. No one will know where to look if they need a particular item, so either have a map outside the cold room that they can check to see where each type of ingredient is or clear signs once the employee steps through the doors. For example, you may keep all dairy in one area and all poultry in another.
Restaurants come in a wide range of sizes and each one needs a different type of refrigeration. You’ll have to sort out which option is best for your needs and then plan to stay neat and tidy. Being organised is the best way to make the most of your cooling space. Are you looking for refrigeration solutions for your restaurant? There are so many out there and we’d love to discuss your options with you. Contact Mitchells today for more information.