7 Great Restaurant Kitchen Management Tips

It is the kitchen area that decides whether the customers are going to return and recommend your food to others. The kitchen is an inevitable part of any restaurant.  No matter how strong your service is, how professional your front house staff is, people are stepping in your restaurant to eat and if the food is not good, fresh, and not delivered in time, people have no reason to visit back.  On the other hand, if the food is good, people can order online, prefer takeaway or dine-in too. To make sure this crucial part of the restaurant works with maximum efficiency, many restaurants are deploying advanced technologies. 

Kitchen management systems are one such technology. Considering the hustle-bustle every restaurant kitchen has to face every day throughout the working hours, every minute is crucial.  Orders are prepared and served every hour in order to satisfy customers and meet their expectations. All of this and more can be done efficiently with the help of a good restaurant POS software.

7 Great Restaurant Management Tips

1.  Inventory and stock management

The inventory list of your restaurant kitchen is a replica of what your kitchen needs often to keep the menu ready, right from the ingredients and raw material, everything is included.  An accurate and detailed inventory list also helps in managing food costs and ensuring the stock of fresh food only. 

Apart from managing the inventory list, it is also important to manage the food within the kitchen. Segregation of raw materials and other items and equipment as per the cuisine type, order frequency, utility, etc. This makes sure that the chef gets the right ingredient at the right time without wasting time.

2. Menu Management

Deciding the type of menu you should serve in the restaurant can not be an ‘out of blue’ decision. You do not want to spend most on the items that are unpopular or least in demand. Depending upon the type of cuisine you serve, items in the menu that customers like, and the cost of preparing and serving the menu, you can manage the list of menu items. You can update it as and when required.

3.  Proper equipment

You need to keep your kitchen floor calmer, in sync, and efficient. Though it is easier said than done, the kitchen management system makes it possible for you. Once the kitchen is well-equipped, and things are in their place, you can focus on cooking excellent food and serving it in the best possible conditions.

4.  Maintaining your equipment

Talking about keeping equipment in their right places, it is also important that you take care of every piece of equipment and keep it clean and smooth to work. It is very important to sharpen the edges of the ax if you wish to cut the log finely.

5. Hiring well and managing better

Candidates that you heard today are going to manage your restaurant tomorrow. They are the ones who will be taking care of your customers and restaurant, they are the ones who will be cooking, they are the ones who will be serving customers and they are the ones who will be the face of your restaurant. Hence the restaurant was not shy away from investing in hiring the best possible talent.

6. Tools and technology

Clever restaurants are deploying the right technology in their restaurant kitchen to overcome the loopholes of the drawbacks of traditional kitchen management methods. Restaurant kitchen management system includes a Kitchen Display System integrated with a Point of Sale system. An efficient KDS digitizes Kitchen Order Tickets.

7. Food safety and hygiene

Sanitation is a very crucial part of the kitchen management process. A kitchen is a place where your staff works throughout the day and it is the place where the food is cooked. Hence, it is important that the kitchen is managed, organized, and clean and the equipment is used. One must consider factors like the following to take care of food safety and hygiene in the kitchen:

Kitchen sanitization,
Kitchen layout
Proper storage system,
Clear guidelines on staff roles
food preparation,
and kitchen sanitation, etc.

However, managing a restaurant kitchen is not as easy as it seems. The management staff has to face and overcome various challenges in order to keep the kitchen active rolling. Here are some of the challenges that need to be overcome for an efficient kitchen management system:

1. Restricted space

Most of the time, the kitchen area is so compact or tiny that the chef and the kitchen staff hardly get a space to stand and move. Plus, if the Mitch equipment is not in order, space gets worse. All of this adds to the messiness of the kitchen.

2. Old/damaged equipment

Right, and well-functioning tools must be given to the restaurant kitchen staff to support their responsibilities in the kitchen. Worn-out equipment adds to clumsiness and modernization of the kitchen gets compromised. Such equipment doesn’t perform its best and affects the chef’s schedule, estimated cooking time of the menu, etc.

3. Differences between staff members

This one is observed in many places.  Restaurant owners often have to take action to resolve the clashes between the kitchen staff and others or among the kitchen staff. However, this challenge can be overcome by designing a clear and transparent list of the hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities of every staff member so there are no clashes.

Alert from the above-mentioned challenges the restaurant has to deal with other issues such as:

Unsafe kitchen environment
Irregular orders and their flow
Using irrelevant or worn-out technology, etc.

To take care of all these issues and more and ultimately to lead. a sustainable and reputed restaurant, owners are taking the help of a professional Kitchen Management System. Their benefits are higher and the ROI is positive in the long run. Plus, when the customers get served well, they talk about it to others resulting in more footfall or online orders.