When it becomes clear that you need more facilities to reach your food service goals, the first step is to decide what type of kitchen you need – a prep kitchen, a commissary kitchen or a full-blown commercial kitchen.
What’s the difference?
准备厨房
A prep kitchen is just what it sounds like – a place to prepare food. That can mean different things to different chefs.
It might mean chopping up vegetables. It might mean measuring portions of ingredients, or of raw foods. It might even mean assembling dishes like fruit plates or charcuterie.
What it doesn’t mean is cooking. You won’t find an oven, a range, even a frying pan in a true prep kitchen.
Instead, prep kitchens typically range from 200 to 1,000 square feet and feature basic commercial equipment including prep tables, sinks, refrigeration units, and basic cutting tools. Access to ingredient storage is key, and packaging equipment can be a nice plus.
Why Rent for Prep?
Caterers, food truck operators, pop-up food stand purveyors all can suffer from lack of prep space. Cooking on location is a key feature of these mobile operations, but there seldom is space to prepare food properly before cooking.
A couple of hours in a properly equipped prep kitchen can make all the difference. Knowing you have the right size of chicken breast or the properly mixed salad dressing can turn a chaotic serving experience into a smoothly professional catered delight.
Trying to cook in the tight confines of a food truck is tough. Trying to prepare all the ingredients before cooking up that specialty is tougher.
Having all the right amenities – from stainless steel tables to sinks – is hard to imagine in your home kitchen. How about enough room for several people – or at least two – to work at the same time?
A couple of hours in a properly equipped prep kitchen can save a great deal of time on site, and maybe a bit of your sanity, too.
商用厨房
Sometimes called commissary kitchens, these spaces are designed to allow for start-to-finish meal preparation. Equipped with stoves, ranges, ovens and more, the space and appliances are designed to produce food on a commercial scale.
These are the proto-typical ghost kitchens, where chefs can try out new concepts, start a delivery-only business and more. They are close to both dry food and refrigerated storage.
In short, these kitchens have everything a restaurant kitchen has, except the overhead! Even chefs with brick-and-mortar outlets can use commercial kitchens to handle high demand periods like holidays, or try out a totally different concept.
Communal kitchens may accommodate more than one chef, either at the same time or on different days or hours. On the other hand, a kitchen can be customized for an individual operation, with plug-in ready appliance spaces, commercial vent hoods and more. These kitchens operate on longer-term leases.
It’s All Here
At Partake Collective, all kitchen options are available, from the basic prep kitchen to the customized commercial kitchen. All of the equipment is state-of-the-art, and rental terms run from by the hour to the month. Yearly leases are available too.
Renting commercial kitchens includes all utilities, cleaning supplies, storage access, ice machines and more. Partake facilities offer USDA certification capabilities and experts can help operators apply for necessary permits and licenses.
Partake’s range of kitchen options means chefs can grow their business at the same facility by moving from a simple start to larger and more complete kitchens. High-speed Wi-Fi facilitates online orders and bookings.
What’s Right For You
The choice between prep kitchens, short-term commercial kitchens and long-term customized kitchens can be determined by what goals are to be achieved.
If you are cooking and/or serving off-site but need room, prep space may be ideal. If you cater and/or take orders but need cooking space, a fully-equipped kitchen might make more sense.
Doing research always helps, and tours of both Partake locations are available. Partake Long Beach is at 456 Elm Ave. Partake Los Angeles (Glassell Park) is at 3729 Verdugo Rd To book a tour, go to partakecollective.com/book-a-tour.
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