A Guide to Essential School Kitchen Equipment

Tips For Choosing School Kitchen Equipment

When you’re investing a lot of time and money into your school kitchen, you need to feel confident the equipment you’re choosing is useful, powerful and reliable. But how do you know which model is right for you? We’ve pulled together our essential school kitchen equipment guide to help get you started.

Pick High-end Appliances

Midland’s Catering Projects only provide high-quality commercial kitchen equipment from the most reputable suppliers. Our engineers are Gas Safe approved too, meaning any equipment can be fitted straight away without a third-party gas engineer. Our equipment also comes with a 24-month manufacturer warranty so in the event of a fault, we can replace equipment quickly to keep your kitchen operating.

Consider Cold Rooms or Refrigerators

Refrigeration is a big part of your kitchen as it stores fresh supplies, ensuring they’re kept within health and safety regulations – a vital standard for school kitchens. The great news is they’re multiple styles and options available to meet your kitchen’s needs, budget and available space. It’s important you not only choose the right refrigerator to match your menu but you choose a reliable supplier; you don’t want your refrigerator breaking down, spoiling valuable food and causing potential kitchen downtime, or overheating and increasing your energy bills.

Choose A Combi Oven Or Commercial Oven

With such a high footfall including different time slots, meal options and dietary requirements, you need an oven that’ll support this demand. Your kitchen’s layout and budget may determine what type of oven you need but many school kitchens are choosing the more energy-efficient combi ovens. Their compact design and versatile cooking style mean your staff can manage multiple options at once; saving time, energy and resources. We recommend choosing models with glass doors too, so chefs can monitor the content as it’s cooking.

Keep Things Clean With Dishwashers

These may feel like a costly investment but they provide big savings in the long term. Not only do they wash faster and more effectively, they wash at a higher temperature (150 – 160 degrees) to ensure proper hygiene standards are met. They also have short cycle options; keeping up with the quick turnaround of students. Again, there are lots of different styles and sizes available to meet your school kitchen’s layout and requirements, leaving your staff confident that there won’t be plates piling up.

Review Your Ventilation

Whenever you plan your commercial kitchen, you must consider effective ventilation and extraction to create a healthier, cleaner and nicer working environment. Functional ventilation will also keep your appliances performing at their peak and reduce potential breakdowns. There’s a variety of ventilation options available from tapered wall canopies and single canopies to odour and noise control systems. Our expert team can advise the most suitable option for your kitchen

Planning Your School’s Kitchen

A big factor when it comes to your school kitchen equipment comes well before choosing which appliances you need. By effectively reviewing your available space and budget, you can design the most productive kitchen layout. This highlights where particular appliances can fit and therefore which appliances you need. Our team of experts will conduct a site visit and consultation to help you plan and design your school kitchen, advising on the best commercial kitchen equipment to meet your requirements.