Experts have agreed it’s important for investors in standalone and hotel restaurants to get chefs involved as soon as possible in kitchen design.

Asia de Cuba Worldwide executive concept chef Luis Pous said: “It turns out to be more expensive if you don’t get the chefs involved from the beginning. Sometimes some chefs will spend and spent, but the sooner they get involved the better.”

Tricon Foodservice Consultants managing director and general manager Edward Harvey pointed out that sometimes it’s not possible, so chefs need to figure out what tasks they can do when they come on-board to make the workflow as smooth as possible.

St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi executive chef Malcolm Webster said that when he moved to his current position, he assessed all the equipment to find out what is actually used. “You have to have a plan of how you’re going to work on replacing equipment or refurbishing if needed. We have challenging issues with workflows in certain areas, which will mean a redesign of the whole floor, the air conditioning, and these are projects that are going to take time to fix.

“But you have to have your short, medium and long-term strategies. You are a creator of a museum – you have to maintain that kitchen and then get ready to hand over to the next chef.” JRG Dubai executive development chef Nicholas James Cuadrado said that he was lucky to have CDCs who knew what to do before he was brought on to the project (referring to the latest JRG project, The Hide).

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Pous added: “My main focus is to have the prep kitchen in a separate area. I don’t know why designers are still designing kitchens with a pass through, where waiters pick up the food. We live in a world where food can be great but it has to be Instagrammed great as well. I’m a fan of the French style circle or rectangle kitchen so everyone can see each other and communicate with each other.”

Cuadrado added: “UAE has a lot of passes that don’t have halogen lamps that don’t give a nice light to the food; it seems to be the electric ones that doesn’t let it look very good. If they post a photograph of that and post it to 1.2 million followers to Instagram…”

Webster said not many owners see the value in investing in the BOH areas. “Open kitchens are great because it’s a front of house. It’s educating the owners, the designers on making sure we can get that right equipment and going through P&L processes, getting more efficient equipment, working on long-term savings.”

The experts were speaking at the Caterer Middle East Chef & Ingredients Forum. Full coverage of the event will be in the November issue of Caterer Middle East.