Article contributed by Maria Rhodes
Sanitation and cleanliness must absolutely be the top priority for restaurant owners and foodservice operators.
We all know that if whether the FOH or BOH is not sanitary, then you’re risking violations, which will lead to fines and possible closure. Not to mention that a dirty restaurant or kitchen space is a breeding ground for foodborne illness. By neglecting a seemingly unimportant issue – cleanliness, you run the risk of turning away customers, both existing and potential from your business.
This is in fact the first and the most vital aspect to take into consideration if you’re running a commercial kitchen space. Everything else – décor, ambience, food, variety, price – which determine the success of your business come after. So, the day you set up your own commercial business, create a small restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist for keeping all the nooks and corners of your restaurant’s kitchen (the hub of food preparation) neat, tidy, and sanitized.
Why is it Necessary to Keep the Restaurant Kitchen Clean?
As mentioned above, a clean, hygienic, and well-maintained kitchen is the primary success measure for your restaurant. Imagine if your customers manage to get a peek into your restaurant kitchen and find dirt, grime, or creepy creatures like ants and rats crawling all over the countertop and floor space merrily, what impression would they get of your restaurant? Needless to say, it’s only going to take your business graph downward.
Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Making your own checklist on how to clean kitchen can help maintain a regular (daily, weekly or monthly) cleaning routine for your cooking space.
For your convenience, you can break up the checklist into three sections:
Daily Cleaning
Your commercial kitchen space is of course quite different from that at your home. Therefore, there’d be a greater number of areas to be cleaned. Maintaining all of them on an everyday basis may not really be feasible, considering the high inflow of customers daily which would keep you on your toes. Therefore, here are some kitchen cleaning hacks for daily use.
Your everyday cleaning checklist may include the following:
- Wiping off the kitchen walls.
- Cleaning countertops, grill, griddle, cooking range, and fryer with a soft cloth and disinfectant several times a day. All these areas need to be cleaned on the inside too because that’s where all the food spills collect! You may also need to soak the grill grates in soap solution to break up the grease. Besides, empty the drip trays too under the grates to clean them.
- Changing the foil lining atop the cooking range, grill, and countertop every day.
- Wiping spills off the tea/coffee maker, microwave, toaster, or slicer with a soft brush and warm soapy water.
- Keeping all the kitchen slabs/preparation areas and garbage bins disinfected using special tile-based disinfectant sprays.
- Keeping the beverage dispenser heads and soda guns in beverage machines clean at all times.
- Unclog the kitchen sink after every use.
- Washing kitchen rags, towels, aprons, and staff uniforms
- Sweeping the walk-in fridge and other storage areas in the kitchen using vacuum attachment or microfiber cloth. You can also use a warm water-vinegar mix cleaning solution to scrub off any grease stains from these areas.
- Mopping the commercial kitchen floor with disinfectant liquid or a mix of warm water and vinegar. How to clean grease stains? You may need to use a high-grade degreaser for this purpose.
Weekly Cleaning
There may be certain areas which when cleaned thoroughly once in a week may be good to go for the whole week thereafter. Here’s are some important kitchen cleaning tips:
- The walls, doors, and racks of the oven should be wiped off with a soft sponge.
- Sinks and faucets which need to be delimed, meaning they need to be freed of minerals deposited from hard water.
- Deep fryer which can be boiled out for thorough cleaning.
- Walk-in fridge and freezer can be washed and sanitised well.
- The drain of the kitchen floor needs to be cleared of collected garbage by using special degreasers.
Monthly Cleaning
Certain equipment, appliances, and areas in your restaurant kitchen may just need to be cleaned once in a month. For, they may not be used in daily working and may be last for a month once cleaned and maintained thoroughly on one day of the month. You may cover the following in your monthly kitchen cleaning checklist:
- Wash the area behind the hot line with a damp cloth/sponge.
- Pour cleaning agents in tea/coffee makers and let them run through for effective cleaning of the machine.
- Clean and disinfect the ice machine, freezer, and fridge condenser coils using a stiff-bristle brush and vacuum to get rid of all dust and grime. Emptying and cleaning the drain pans and tubs regularly may also help prevent dirt build-up.
- Empty the grease traps in the kitchen.
- Wash all the kitchen walls and ceilings with a soft wash cloth or soft-bristle brush and warm soapy water to get rid of grease accumulation.
- Wash all the hoods of the vent to prevent airflow getting restricted, particularly if you use a deep fryer quite regularly. Clean the filters too and get them repaired in case of any rips or tears.
Besides these, it’s also important to clean all the appliances used in your commercial kitchen on a regular basis. For this, we recommend looking up the instruction manual of each specific appliance to know how and how often to clean them. For instance, the dishwasher used in your restaurant kitchen daily may need to be cleaned in a specific manner and particular time, as mentioned in its user manual. Follow the instructions for thorough cleaning and maintenance of the appliance.
Summing It Up
Commercial kitchen cleaning is as important as maintaining your home kitchen. Remember that dirty floors and countertops not just put off customers but are also easy hubs for bacterial growth, resulting in multiple illnesses. Now you wouldn’t want that for your restaurant business.
