How to clean & organise a commercial kitchen?

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Sous chef is second-in-command of a kitchen who’s responsible to make sure all workers including clean-up staff is performing well under his supervision! Primary goal is ensuring commercial kitchen is always clean for every chef. When inside, everyone should feel like stepping in a brand-new, untouched kitchen. In many countries, inspection teams are organised to evaluate a kitchen inside out! When cleaning a commercial kitchen, tasks are usually divided into five components namely; dishes, floors, tables, counters, trash and cooking ware.

To clean and maintain a restaurant kitchen is included in routine chores and throughout dinner service. It’s responsibility of the kitchen manager, executive or sous chef to delegate such duties over to the staff. A messed up and disorganised kitchen may result in accidents such as grease fires, food-borne illnesses, pests and insect outbreak so on. All traces of cooking and grease should be cleaned as if the kitchen hasn’t been used. Be as thorough with kitchen like you are while washing a car; leave no place untouched from highest surface to lowest.

Helpful guidelines

• Start by cleaning the dishes and sink area! Stack all the dirty dishes in a queue besides the sink, spray each with hot water jet to remove large chunks of food debris and stains. Leftover food should be disposed off in the garbage permanently. Wash each dish with a green, slight abrasive pad dipped in hot water plus soap solution. After that, rinse with hot water and dunk the plate or cutlery immediately in cold water containing sanitised solution; this would remove germs and completely disinfect the crockery. Now load the dishes in staging area and allow them to drip dry. Once dry, organise them neatly over shelves!
• Next; clean and disinfect tables, countertops, cutting boards and other accessories. Spray them with same sanitising solution that you used for dishes. Wipe the surfaces thoroughly with moist rag and after wiping, make sure not fluids or food leftovers are to be seen!
• Wipe all corners of the oven either with a sponge or green scrubbing pad immersed in liquid soap solution. Turn “ON” the grills so you may clean them with a wire brush while they’re hot. Thoroughly work your way over stove tops in commercial kitchen with a damped rag.
• Dispose the garbage the moment trash cans are filled. It depends on how much customers a restaurant manage per day. In-short, trash cans shouldn’t overflow so you should always keep a watch. Meanwhile, it’s important not to dump the mess in public places or over pedestrian walkways. Spray disinfectant and fragrance in the kitchen after you clean the trash.
• Next step in kitchen cleaning is to freshen-up the floors. Sweep the floor first, then mop with hot-soapy solution twice till you feel the floor is cleaned. Get a bucket full of plain, hot water and wash carefully; allow it to air dry. Cleaning experts say that you should sweep and mop the floor after every shift or thrice within a day; just make sure it remains spotless without any spill or debris. Repeat the process daily by end of the day!

Tips & precautions

After cleaning the entire kitchen from top to bottom including cutlery, tools and equipments; make sure you’ve placed each in their respective places. This way, chefs coming after your shift won’t have difficulty finding things or dealing with messed-up situation. Lock commercial kitchen’s refrigerator even if it’s empty so no wannabe trouble maker would fiddle with it!

Conclusion

A clean and organised kitchen is a sign of standard health and quality living so make sure yours remain spick and span all the time.