Whether you’re planning to revamp your commercial kitchen or conducting an inventory of your kitchen supplies, it’s a good idea to ensure you have a complete set of kitchen utensils.
Use this guide as a refresher course on selecting the right utensils for your commercial kitchen. From food prep and cooking to creating a stunning tablescape, here’s what you need to kit out your hard-working kitchen.
Insist on durable, high-quality pieces
It pays to invest in high-quality pieces for both front and back of house.
Better quality pieces last longer. Commercial dishwashers are famously hard on kitchen utensils, blasting every piece from utility tongs to prep spoons with strong detergents and extremely hot water every day.
You can buy cheaper utensils, but you’ll replace them sooner than expected. If your utensils aren’t perfectly clean before entering the dishwasher, pieces of stuck food can cause spotting and staining on inferior utensils, rendering them unsightly and unsafe for use in a commercial kitchen. Buying the same piece twice in a short period will cost more than buying a durable tool from the outset.
Solid utensils improve the cooking and dining experience
Quality pieces look more attractive and feel more comfortable in the hand. Chefs and other kitchen staff appreciate ergonomically designed utensils because they’re nicer to handle. Your wait staff will love working with exceptional serving spoons and other pieces because they’re easier to hold and maneuver and less likely to be damaged if dropped.
And your diners will respond positively to superior forks, spoons, and knives because they look impressive on the table and feel comfortable in hand.
Stocking your dining room utensils
To delight your diners and support your serving staff, you’ll need these flatware and serving utensils:
Teaspoons and dessert spoons
Whether you’re serving iced or hot tea, you’ll need a spoon perfect for stirring. Look for long-handled spoons if you serve your tea on ice and smaller ones for hot tea in teacups. Ideally, a collection that offers both, like Balmoral, will do the trick.
Dessert spoons are often overlooked, but desserts like mousses, jellies, and ice creams require a smaller spoon. (While you’re at it, don’t forget the ice cream scoops!) The Millennium collection offers a wide variety of spoons.
Table spoons and soup spoons
A good spoon is an asset to any restaurant dining room. A table spoon is perfect for hearty stews, but a soup spoon is better for thinner food products, like soup or bullion. Valencia offers five different spoon designs.
Restaurant forks
When selecting your restaurant fork, you want sharp tines and a gorgeous handle design that feels good in your hand.
But depending on your menu, you’ll likely need more than a basic restaurant fork. Salad forks, dessert forks, and fish forks are each designed for a specific task and should appear in your tablescape with their dedicated food item. Perola has good examples of each type of fork.
Restaurant knives and butter knives
A solid restaurant knife is a mainstay of your table setting. Look for a blade with ample serration and a stainless steel handle that feels weighty in the hand.
You might not think of butter knives and butter spreaders as a necessity, but they elevate the standard of your tablescape and add a hint of sophistication to your dining experience. Troon has lovely examples of specialty knives, including dessert and fish knives. Each blade is uniquely shaped for its task.
Steak knives
You’ll need a steak knife if you serve steak or any other food that needs a sharper, heavier knife (like pork chops). A steak knife blade is sharp with a point at the end, perfect for slicing strong cuts of meat. Our Madison collection features an oversized steak knife.
Serving pieces
Your servers will thank you for investing in excellent serving pieces, especially if you offer a buffet. Better-quality serving pieces mean fewer spills for servers and self-serve buffet lines alike. When you buy quality, you’re investing in a brilliant dining experience for your patrons and easy cleanup for your staff.
Las Palmas offers a wide variety of serving pieces, from ladles and slotted spoons to carving knives and cake spatulas, all with attractive handle designs.
What you’ll need in the kitchen
Most chefs need these basics to run a productive and safe kitchen:
- Chefs knives
- Spoons for mixing and tasting
- Ladles
- Utility tongs
- Prep spoons
- Spatulas
Advice for selecting kitchen utensils
It’s popular for cooking and food prep utensils to feature a nylon handle. And it’s easy to understand why. Nylon handles are usually heat resistant, making them safer for chefs to grab without an oven mitt or other safety tool.
While we exclusively stock serving and flatware collections which feature a stainless steel handle, we give a well-earned nod to the nylon handle when it comes to kitchen utensils.
Avoid plastic and wood
Wood, while a wonderful, natural material, isn’t usually the best choice for a commercial kitchen. A restaurant’s dishwasher will make short work of wooden products, causing the wood to splinter and crack quickly. Those fissures in the wood are a breeding ground for bacteria, so it’s best to steer clear of wood utensils in a commercial kitchen.
Plastic utensils are a poor choice for a commercial kitchen, too. Like wood, plastic doesn’t hold up in the intense heat of a restaurant dishwasher. Plastic utensils will erode and discolor, possibly contaminating food with plastic microparticles.
Rely on the quality and durability of Corby Hall
We’re well known in the restaurant industry for providing gorgeous flatware, dinnerware, holloware, and serving pieces that withstand the pressures of a restaurant kitchen.
Talk to our team about finding the right handle design and pieces for your restaurant or club. You’ll find beautiful collections made from quality materials that everyone in your kitchen and dining room will love.
