In a traditional kitchen all working stations are isolated from the dining room, but in recent times at least one part of the kitchen operations is made visible to clients through a theatre cooking station, where one or more menu items are finished off in full view of the customer.

The layout of The Forster House's kitchen follows this modem n trend, with the main hot kitchen open to view by a glass screen, and a second, smaller hot kitchen directly facing the dining hall. This front section is called front-of-the-house, or theatre.

Now let's take a look at The Forster House's kitchen plan. The starting point is the door (goodsin), through which goods arrive from the storage area and are taken to the larder on the left (dry stores).

In our restaurant, the larder simply acts as a storage room for dry goods, while traditional larder activities are dearly taken up in the right hand corner of the main kitchen, and organised in three prep(aration) stations, separated into meat, fish and vegetables worktops. Here, the different ingredients, once measured, cut, chopped, sliced, cubed or whatever, are adequately combined according to recipe, and blended into a shape fit to be passed to the hot kitchen or directly dressed for serving.

 

Prep Stations

The first prep workstation is dose to the cold room (chiller), as it is meant for meat and charcuterie on one end and fish on the other. The prep counter incorporates a cool-air distribution system, that guarantees cool-top, E.safe-storage, and HACCP compliance in the preparation of meat and fish. On its worktop we can notice some utensils like a slicer, a chopping board, a vertical mixer/chopper for cold dishes preparation, with undercounter refrigeration and drawers where to keep knives and smaller utensils.

On the second prep station on the right, not far from the hot kitchen, the counter is provided with pan tops, to collect the clean, diced or sliced vegetables and with refrigerated drawer storage for ingredients to be processed. Next to its worktop, there is a sink for vegetable washing. On the third prep worktop next to the hot kitchen, three cutting boards show different colour codes for meat, fish and vegetables to avoid cross contamination.

 

Open Kitchen Heavy Equipment

The next passage leads us to the hot kitchen (cookline) of The Forster House's, considered the backbone of operations with its efficient equipment that greatly contributes to the restaurant's success. Here, the traditional kitchen design in a straight line has been transformed into an island suite configuration that provides space-usage advantages, as well as improved communications among staff and efficiency in workflow and production.

In particular, the hot kitchen is designed to work efficiently in tandem with the smaller but attractive front-of-the-housetheatre kitchen, with its display cooking equipment, that includes a new, high-tech induction hob and wok range.

Heavy equipment in The Forster House's hot kitchen indudes a range with heavy-duty open-top burners on the front and flattop burners at the back for flexibility in menu preparation. A convection oven is fitted below the range top and a cheese melter and salamander are mounted above. A charbroiler closes the hot station on the right, on top of an under-broiler counter with refrigerated drawers providing safe storage for fresh meat, as well as general produce. The broiler is flanked by a self-standing combination oven for roasting and steaming.

The opposing station on the left, designed with pass-through capability, includes an 80-gal. tilting steam kettle connected to a water filtration system, a frytop, a dual baskey deep fryer with a double drawer warmer base and a dual basket pasta boiler, for cooking pasta and regenerating cook-chilled vegetables, placed next to a convection steamer. At the end of the station there is a hot cupboard with a bain-marie on top and a plate warmer on the left side. The station designated for finishing includes a bain-marie and a salamander above, and a refrigerated undercounter for the starters section of the pass.

 

Theatre Servery

The theatre kitchen has been opened up beyond a glass screen, that provides an element of theatre for diners and allows most catering operations in the main kitchen to be on view but without the noise and the smell. Customers can see a clean kitchen and fresh ingredients and perceive that they will be receiving a dish prepared with care and quality ingredients. Moreover, in the front-of-the house theatre kitchen an exciting array of dishes can be cooked and finished off just there at the servery, in front of the customers.

A theatre kitchen requires space enough to work and various utensils and undercounter cabinets for all ingredients, so that the chef, once in position at his cooking station, doesn't need to be regularly moving back of house to replenish ingredients.

The most common items of equipment in a theatre cooking station today are induction ranges as they don’t involve open flames, which is an obvious safety benefit, and have fewer ventilation problems. Induction hobs provide high precision temperature control and enable the chef to experiment with new techniques and recipes in front of the diners.

In theatre kitchens, the induction method is highly favoured, because there is no open flame, which makes it safer and cleaner than the traditional open burners.

Here the induction hob and wok are used as table-top units for front-of-house cooking with ancillary items such as a chilled holding and a warmer display cabinet, a bain-marie, and a ceramic hotplate on top of under-counter refrigerated wells, next to pan and utensil drawers.

 

Dishwash Station

At The Forster House's, only the hot kitchens are in full view of the diners, while the dishwash station, the still room, the baking/pastry station and the cold storage room, are in separate areas so that each can have their own cimate-controlled environment.

The washing area is in the far left corner with two doors, for in- and out- traffic flow.

The dishwash station, also called plonge, incorporates a sink, a dishwasher, on glasswasher and a custom made two-tiered rotating carousel designed to protect fine china and crystal from breakage.

The pot washer is outside, in the main kitchen, for easy reach of the brigade. Table crockery and cutlery is also kept here in large cupboards.

 

Stillroom

A stillroom is usually dedicated to breakfast or brunch prepration. At The Forster House's, a special American brunch is offered on the Sunday menus, mainly for American tourists who feel nostalgic or for customers looking for an exotic low-cost table d'hôte menu. Equipment in the stillroom includes an espresso coffee machine with coffee grinder, a boiler for tea and filter coffee makers, pour-and-serve units, toasters, juicers, milk-shakers and an ice-crusher, plus all the utensils needed for a really American brunch: waffle irons, and crepe machine.

 

Pastry Station

The pastry area is dedicated to dough-made food, like bread, pasta and sweets in general. Its equipment includes a well-insulated three-deck baker's oven as well as a large convection oven, to cater for the different types of bread and pastry cooking. A dough mixer and a multipurpose pasta machine help in the making of fine rolled pasta sheets for all dishes. Special attachments provide pasta for ravioli, tagliatelle, and gnocchi in different shapes and sizes. The traditional white marble slab at the centre is meant to keep all pastry cool. Special racks and cabinets keep in store the many pastry moulds and baking trays. The room, specifically designed to keep a medium-low temperature, can store chocolate at peak conditions. A fryer for doughnuts and other small pastry completes the equipment.

 

Cold Storage Room

The cold storage room contains a number of refrigerators and freezers where food must be coldstored according to category. General purpose fridges stand next to double door meat refrigerators and fish cabinets; double door freezers and chest freezers complete the cold room equipment. However the kitchen fridges and freezers are not all here, but fitted as heavy-duty undercounter freezers and fridges in almost all stations. The icemaker and the blast-chiller have been placed in the main kitchen for ready use, while the ice-cream machine and freezer are in the pastry room.

 

Glossary

end: estremità

pan top: piano di lavoro verdure

cutting board: tagliere

colour code: codice colore

display: a vista

induction hob wok range: piano di cottura a induzione con piastra e wok

burner: fornello

open-top burner: a fiamma viva

flattop/solid top: tutto piastra

convection oven: forno a convezione

cheese melter: graticola

salamander: salamandra

charbroiler: grill

drawer: cassetto

tilting steam kettle: bollitore con base inclinabile

frytop: frytop, bistecchiera

dual basket deep fryer: friggitrice a due cestelli

warmer base: base scaldavivande

dual basket pasta boiler: cuocipasta a due cestelli

cook-chili: precuocere e refrigerare

convection steamer: forno a vapore a convezione

hot cupboard: scaldavivande

bain-marie: bagnomaria

plate warmer: scaldapiatti

servery: bancone, postazione di servizio, tavola

range, cooker: cucina a gas o elettrica

chilled holding: postazione d'attesa refrigerata

warmer display cabinet: vetrina scaldavivande da banco

two-tiered rotating carousel: alzata girevole a due piani

china: stoviglie in porcellana

pot washer: lavastoviglie per pentolame

waffle iron: piastra per cialde

three-deck: a tre piani

dought: impasto, pasta da oane/pizza ecc.

slab: lastra

mould, mold: stampo

baking tray: teglia da forno

blast-chiller: abbattitore di temperatura