Smart Shopping Tips for Purchasing Kitchen Equipment

Buying foodservice equipment is kind of like buying a car; it doesn't take a lot of experience or skill to make a good purchase as long as you know what you want and are savvy about how to find it. While a detailed purchasing guide to all types of foodservice equipment could fill a book, this article gives you a starting point for evaluating your needs and making informed decisions when it comes to putting your restaurant kitchen together.

Most restaurant kitchens appear to be packed wall to wall with metal: ranges, broilers, racks, pans, tables, shelves -- the list goes on. In general, "equipment" refers to any item used to store, prepare, cook, chill or clean up after food, whereas the term "smallwares" is used to describe anything routinely washed in a dishwasher: pots, pans, utensils and other tools. Foodservice designers and kitchen consultants generally work with equipment only, leaving you on your own to select your smallwares. (Because small ware needs vary so much from restaurant to restaurant, we'll leave those for another article, and instead focus here on equipment.)

Make a List and Check it Twice

When planning a new restaurant kitchen, you need to start with a very clear vision of the type of food you intend to prepare and, even more important, how you intend to prepare it. Your approach to your menu will suggest what equipment you likely will need. Will you make your rolls from scratch, bake premade ones, or buy them ready to serve from a local bakery? How about desserts or soups? Do you see yourself doing any significant meat-cutting, or will all meats come pre-portioned? Will you serve a lot of fresh greens? And is everything cooked a la minute and plated in the kitchen, or will you sometimes offer a buffet or do off-site catering that relies on bulk cooking? Each of these decisions influences the types and sizes of equipment you will need, as does the approach to preparing the dishes. For example, if you plan to cook your five-alarm chili only twice a week and hold the leftovers chilled (after all, doesn't chili always taste better the next day?), you'll probably make different equipment decisions than if you want to make that day's chili fresh each morning.

One approach to developing an equipment wish list is to make a list of the types of food you intend to prepare down one side of a sheet of paper or spreadsheet, and to fill in the kitchen equipment and/or technique you think you'll need to use for each item across the top of the page. In each cell of the sheet, indicate the role that the piece of equipment plays in producing the menu item.