Cafés
Café Kitchen Work Zones for Cafés
Arrange preparation, cooking and washing around the way meals are actually made, including more than one cook.
Explore the ideas
Plan in this order
- Map the route from food storage to preparation, cooking and serving.
- Keep landing surfaces beside the appliances and sink that need them.
- Test two people working at once and remove crossing paths where possible.
Worked example
Two cooks make breakfast together, but one must cross behind the other to reach the refrigerator.
Map the actual food-to-prep-to-cook sequence and move the most-used ingredients closer to prep, leaving a separate pass-through.
How to test it
Rehearse a typical meal with cabinet doors and appliance fronts open.
Apply it to this space
- Layout
- Keep hot preparation adjacent to the pass and route used dishes toward wash-up on a separate side.
- Detail
- Use wipeable splash surfaces and task lighting at plating and wash stations.
- Trade-off
- A more complete kitchen increases menu flexibility but reduces front seating.
- Trace a food order and a dirty dish return
- Check appliance doors clear the prep route
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