Operations
How central kitchens improve restaurants’ bottom line
Central kitchens may improve the guest experience, decrease costs and increase revenue while streamlining operations.
July 14, 2021 by Jeremy Cooper
By Jeremy Cooper
Although the central kitchen is nothing new to the hospitality industry, today, it's seen in a different light among restaurant operators that are increasingly adopting its use. The central kitchen of yesterday might conjure up images of a large, industrial food concept that pushes out moderate-at-best-quality food for the masses — think military bases, airlines, cruise ships or educational institutions.
And while the concept of central kitchens has been around for decades, restaurants concepts are increasingly embracing them. That's because when done right, central kitchens can improve the guest experience, decrease costs and increase revenue — all while streamlining operations to help run the business for improved efficiency. Let's explore each of these areas, along with best practices for implementing a central kitchen.
Why bother with a central kitchen?
A central kitchen has several other names — commissary, prep kitchen, and more recently, kitchen as a service. Through a hub-and-spoke business model, the central kitchen handles the bulk of the product prep for a brand's multiple sites. From ghost kitchens (where food is prepped for delivery only) to shared-use kitchens where multiple brands cook under one roof, these digital dining spaces are enabling foodservice providers — including notably big names like Chick-fil-A and Wendy's — to expand operations to meet the ever-growing demand for off-premise orders.
Regardless of who uses them, central kitchens enable food prep work to be consolidated into a single location, providing several benefits from a guest experience and a revenue standpoint.
Improve the guest experience
Traditionally, each restaurant site handles all prep work needed for its anticipated sales. Prep work taking place at multiple locations and by different employees can lead to inconsistent product quality, which could result in guest attrition. Adding a central kitchen to your portfolio allows a brand to centralize all product prep done by a single team. This ensures the prep of product at Site A is the same as the prep of product at Site B. Consistency for diners is king, after all.
Increase profits
According to a 2020 report by the National Restaurant Association, 86% of restaurant operators claimed lower profit margins compared to pre-pandemic levels. Use of a central kitchen, however, can increase the bottom line, especially since it decreases labor, training and real estate costs. Without a central kitchen, each individual site employs kitchen staff trained on each of the prepped products. But a central kitchen cuts down on the number of employees needed and the time it takes to train them.
Think, too, how using a central kitchen enables lower bulk pricing and lower real estate costs. Removing a large amount of kitchen prep work from each site enables smaller footprints or a larger seating area to accommodate more guests.
Streamline operations and improve efficiency
A number of restaurant companies have already adopted the concept of a central kitchen with great results. For example, Chef Josh Henderson of Seattle's Skillet Street Food and Huxley Wallace Collective relies on a central kitchen to prep food for full-service restaurants, food trucks and a catering operation. This kitchen drives efficiency for the growing restaurant group – where both prep time and space are maximized.
Some of the efficiency wins of adopting central kitchens include having a single location for collecting and composting food scraps, minimizing waste by having prep at one location, and reducing food prep and clean-up time. Plus, when catering takes place in a central kitchen rather than an individual restaurant, guest orders become the sole focus at each site.
Lastly, it's more affordable to purchase superior restaurant technology for use in a central kitchen than buying it — think blast chillers, vacuum sealers, sous vides and Hobarts, for instance.
Central kitchen best practices
So, if your brand is considering a central kitchen, consider the following:
- Identify the right location. Try to locate the central kitchen within one hour of the sites it services since after the prep, items will need to be delivered fresh and ready.
- Know how long you'll need the central kitchen. If prep for all sites takes place in four hours, look at options for shared kitchens and KaaS or think about renting the space to other restaurants.
- Determine what products need prepped centrally. Although it's great to prep most items in the central kitchen, things with short shelf lives or those requiring special handling should be done on site.
- Use software that consolidates individual site sales mix forecasts into a single prep forecast. Software can eliminate the guesswork of what's needed at each site and minimize the time spent figuring out how much product needs prepped.
- Keep new technologies that can help retain product quality and freshness on your radar. Sous vide batch cooking in sealed packages, for example, allows for precise pre-cooking and easy-to-transport products that can be quickly reheated and prepared in the restaurant.
Understanding the benefits of a central kitchen and applying these best practices, can help improve the guest experience, bottom line and efficiency. Hopefully, it will help individual sites excel so your brand keeps guests coming back for more great food, atmosphere and experiences.
About Jeremy Cooper
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