The challenges that comprise the construction and design of a restaurant kitchen are unique at best, and often life-consuming at worst. Leading chefs, restaurant managers and workaholic line cooks will all tell you that kitchen renovation stories produce the biggest nightmares in terms of sheer time and resource management.
A restaurant can’t function without a kitchen, and a restaurant-in-progress can’t open for business until every facet of the kitchen is in perfect, tested, working order—small business restaurateurs are often surprised to find that the state requirements alone in order for them to cook commercially involve a number of legal complications that, simply put, cost money.
The MVP of an up-and-running commercial kitchen (unless you’re part of the less than 1% of restaurants that exclusively serve raw food), is going to be your oven— this will be the backbone, engine room, and life blood of your business all at once. Because of this, it will be extremely important for you to plan and build your kitchen not only around the functionality and reliability of your oven of choice, but for you to ensure that all facets and accessories of your kitchen’s oven work together to create an efficient (and up to standards) oven system.
A largely underrated and under-discussed aspect of a functioning commercial kitchen is going to be your hood system—the commercial ventilation equipment that sets your restaurant kitchen apart from the small scale potential of home cooking. The uninitiated have most likely seen these large scale aluminum systems dominating the ceilings of restaurant back rooms, but never questioned why.
These systems are generally required by law in order to classify yourself as a commercial restaurant, and include a broad scope of equipment including exhaust hoods, motorized fans, air filtration systems, and more. Additionally, these systems will generally cover a range of safety and hygiene concerns such as grease containment and industrial strength fire proofing.
So how do you know what hood system is right for you, let alone where to begin shopping for one? Luckily, the industry surrounding commercial kitchen supply is surprisingly well versed, and a quick search will most likely find you a wide range of vendors that offer package deals such as all in one kitchen solutions, or wholesale big box bundles.
Finding a solid deal in terms of equipping your commercial restaurant kitchen, however, will most likely go beyond you simply scouring listings for the lowest prices or discount hardware—an important thing to keep in mind is that the quality of your oven equipment is going to play a very large and very long-term role in the overall quality of both your food, and your ability to serve customers quickly.
It’s generally recommended that first timers in the restaurant business search for their equipment purchases with an emphasis on buying from reputable specialty sellers. A provider of hood filters that develops and manages their own stock such as HoodFilters.com, for example, is most likely going to provide a more realistic deal in terms of quality than you might find shopping with an online warehouse that merely includes a small handful of hood filter bundles in their kitchen catalogue.
In addition to this, specialty sellers will often emphasize a business model that revolves around regularly updated deals and specials, additional warranties, etc. A quality hood system is often going to be an investment that ranks among your large-scale appliance purchases, such as your oven and refrigerator, so it’s always a good idea to shop with a seller that has a good track record of customer service and warranty fulfillment.
The most important aspect when shopping for commercial equipment is to focus on finding the equipment that’s truly best for you and your business. Keep in mind that you’re in the market for a long-term investment, and weigh all your options with the sincere consideration of your customers (and your peace of mind) in mind.
