From the hotel perspective, Murlidhar Rao, senior VP of operations at Qatar-based Aiana Hotels & Resorts, says that while involving chefs at design and/or fitout stage is essential, sometimes the capex or opex must take precedence.
“Very often, chefs do mix ‘nice-to-have’ with ‘must have’ elements and end up with equipment that is not cost-effective to operate and also, will end up being used for only a marginal amount of time.
“For example, sometimes chefs ask for sandwich grillers, which are cost-efficient only if more than 50 orders are sold per meal period, for example, and more often than not, these numbers are not achieved.”
| Advertisement |
Most chefs Caterer spoke confessed they would have preferred to be part of the kitchen design, and that design is one of the most important aspects of whether they can create magic in the kitchen.
Maxime Le Van, head chef, Boca, agreed, and made his views known at the Chef & Ingredients 2015 advisory panel: “It depends on what stage you get involved. The company will come up with the plan; the chefs will review the plan. It’s all about double checking.”
When it comes to kitchen design, it’s not just stainless steel vs. wood, open versus closed — back-of-house designers must consider workflow, ergonomics, hygiene, efficiency for energy, modular equipment, ventilation and lighting, storage, pest control, waste management and maintenance.
The other consideration is the constantly changing staff at outlets in the Middle East — most of our chefs admitted that when new chefs come into a kitchen, they often ask for a kitchen re-design, refurbishment or refit. And with 56.6% of the Caterer Middle East Head Chef Survey respondents changing jobs every three years, it’s important to get the design right.
Sang Lee, executive chef, Solutions Leisure Group, which manages Asia Asia, Karma Café, Q43 and Lock, Stock and Barrel in Dubai, talked about finding himself in a situation where the kitchen layout simply didn’t fit the needs of the new menu.
Even though Lee was not a fan of some kitchen designs, he was quick to fix it so that the restaurant didn’t experience much down time. “Things were moved around or fixed very quickly to my liking,” he says. “New equipment was ordered and the kitchen layout was redesigned to make it all more efficient and easy for the service.”
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
