Restaurant Smallware Essentials 101

So you have decided to enter the business world and venture into the food are. Well that´s a great idea, after all, everybody has to eat, right? But before you go on a shopping spree trying to get all the things you need, there´s a couple of things you may want to consider first.

The main issue with small restaurant owners is that if you are a professional chef, most of the conventional stuff -things that are essential but are mostly taken for granted- are already there, so when starting your own business, they might slip your mind.

As for the new owners, the ones that have no experience cooking or have done it before but not professionally; it can be difficult to determine which kitchen tools are really necessary and which ones are just showy but not that helpful in a restaurant´s kitchen.

Therefore, in order to help you make your purchases, Culinary depot offers you a list of steps to follow in order to get your cookware essentials.

It starts with a list.
I know, it seems kind of obvious, but if you have already decided on an image and theme for your restaurant, a list can be particularly helpful if don´t have any idea of where to begin with, and want to get your brain running. In fact, to make sure nothing essential is forgotten and you cover all your bases, diving the list in "categories" would be ideal.
For example, you can separate your list in:

• Sanitation
• Hot Line
• Utensils
• Dry Storage
• *Furniture
• *Table tops
• *Refrigeration

Any other categories you can think of could be added to the list and would warranty it is packed with more than equipment and tools.
Look at your Kitchen
And by that, we refer to your house kitchen because believe it or not there´s stuff there often use even in professional kitchens, such as measuring spoons, cut tables, mixing bowls, wooden spoons, colanders or fine-mesh strainers, dry ingredients measuring cups and liquid ingredients measuring cups, etc.

As stated, just look around your house kitchen and think about the utensils which you couldn´t do without; after that consider if there is a machine that could replace it and think about said tool or utensil on a larger scale since it wouldn´t do to buy only 3 mixing bowls for a restaurant´s kitchen, even if it is a small one.

Check and mark
If you have already a provider, visit their store and check out everything, if there´s no store close to you check their catalog or take a look at specialized websites like ours -culinarydepotinc.com-. The point is to see what they have to offer and all of the things you would like to have. You can always circle them if you have a catalog or write them down to pick at them later on.

Take a look at the things you marked to make sure that they go with the theme of your restaurant, are what you really want but most of all what you need.

Ask for advice
Don´t be scared of asking for some help, after all, not everybody is an expert and Rome wasn´t born in a day. If you are a chef with cooking experience maybe asking for help right away won´t be your ideal, but if possible you can still visit your previous workspace, go and do so, see what you were working with and analyze it: would you need that? Is it feasible for you?

Now if you have no experience whatsoever, ask your staff, which utensils do they use the most? which ones have they used? brands? any information they can give you can be studied later and considered in order for you to make the best purchases you can.

Last but not least, it goes without saying that you should have a budget and try your hardest to stay within it. In most cases this will mean that there are things out there that you going to want and buy, but won´t be able to do so, or at least not for now. In does cases just give it a rest and move on, you´re just beginning and in the future you´ll surely be able to get more stuff. So good luck and happy shopping