MKT, New Delhi
Four kitchens and a bar under one roof, planned as one business.
Read →Knowledge · F&B
Kitchen and back-of-house design.
The rules and working figures for a kitchen that flows, and for the service spine behind it. With a twelve-point design review.
The method
The menu comes first.
A kitchen is designed for a menu and a number of covers. Without those two facts the designer is guessing, and the owner pays for the guess in equipment that is never used.
We work in nine stages: concept, zoning, bubble diagram, adjacency matrix, schedule of areas, adjacency by size, layout, numbering with the bill of quantities, and specification sheets. One master drawing is kept live throughout.
Flow
Food moves one way: receive, store, prepare, cook, serve, wash, and waste out. Clean and dirty never share a path. Raw and cooked never cross. Every later rule of hygiene depends on this one being drawn correctly.
Robson, paraphrasedIf there are flaws in a hotel plan, they are usually in the back-of-house spaces. The owner pays for them in payroll for thirty years.
Kitchen benchmarks
Selected figures from the Excelsior build standards. The full standards are shared with clients.
| Element | Working figure |
|---|---|
| Main kitchen | 1.2 to 2.0 m² for each restaurant seat it serves |
| Banquet kitchen | 0.25 to 0.35 m² for each banquet seat |
| Show kitchen | Behind glass, with a back-up kitchen of 8 to 10 sq ft per cover |
| Clear height | 3.5 m in the main kitchen, for the hoods. 3.2 m in satellite kitchens |
| Ventilation | 25 to 30 air changes an hour. The kitchen held 10 to 15 percent negative to the dining room |
| Working temperature | Hot kitchen no more than 27 °C. Cold kitchen 16 to 18. Pastry 18 to 20. Butchery 12 to 15 |
| Cold rooms | Five chambers: dairy +2 °C, meat 0 to 2, fish −1 to +1, vegetables +4, freezer −18. Chilled waste store at 10 °C |
| Floors | Slip-resistant resin with coved skirting. Falls of 1 in 50 to the drains |
| Drains | No more than about 3 m apart in wet areas. Channel drains under the cooking line and at the dishwash |
| Lighting | 500 lux at the work surface, in sealed fittings |
| Dishwash | Enclosed. Soiled in and clean out by different doors. Final rinse at 82 °C |
| Dry store | About 0.5 to 0.6 m² per guest room |
| Chef’s office | 9 to 12 m², with a window onto the line |
| Service stations | One for every 20 to 25 covers |
| Wine cellar | 13 to 15 °C |
Back of house
| Element | Working figure |
|---|---|
| Loading dock | Two to three bays, 4.3 m clear, with security, receiving and waste beside it |
| Service corridor | 3.0 m wide. Goods never cross a guest route |
| Staff route | Entrance by security, then uniform issue, lockers and showers, then the cafeteria |
| Lockers | About 1.3 for each guest room. One shower for every 15 |
| Staff cafeteria | With daylight |
| Laundry | Sized for about 14 kg of linen per occupied room. Soiled and clean kept apart |
| Share of the building | Back of house and plant together take 15 to 22 percent of the built area in a luxury hotel |
House ruleNever cut storage. A storeroom removed from the drawings returns as cost in the operating accounts.
Kitchen design review
Twelve questions to put to the drawings before they are approved.
0 of 120%