How Ghost Kitchens Have Saved Restaurants

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You’ve probably heard the term ‘ghost kitchen’ throughout the last year of the pandemic, or even seen just how dramatically these kitchens have helped to save the industry over this time through delivery-only services. Since restaurants were told to close their doors and the first lockdown began back in March 2020, ghost kitchens grew in popularity and enabled many restaurants to continue their service in a COVID-safe manner. 

In simple terms, ghost kitchens are restaurants without the usual dining options you’d expect. They work through a delivery-only service, meaning customers can order what they want and have it delivered via takeaway services such as UberEats and Deliveroo. Not only have ghost kitchens kept businesses afloat during the past year of uncertainty, but they have also helped many households get restaurant quality food in the comfort of their own homes and support their favourite restaurants in the process.

Ghost kitchens have provided a lifeline for businesses

Some restaurants simply could not afford to keep running due to the effects of the pandemic, but for those who have managed to stay afloat, ghost kitchens have been a much needed lifeline to enable takeaway services to continue and keep money coming in. Many restaurants that didn’t offer takeaway services normally made the switch and sought the help of ghost kitchens to save their businesses.

However, choosing ghost kitchens were seen to cause some issues for restaurants:

– Interaction between restaurant and customer could be lost due to ghost kitchens operating solely through online takeaway services.

– Restaurants needed to keep an eye on their online reputation. Bad reviews can have a significant impact, potentially turning new customers and loyal customers elsewhere.

– Delivery services may provide much different customer service to what a restaurant would usually provide, meaning there is a risk of customers not getting the experience they would expect from a restaurant on a normal day.

However, with the pandemic leaving some restaurants with little choice, they’ve had to take the plunge and deal with what comes their way. In the bigger picture, ghost kitchens are giving restaurants a chance to keep running when times are tough, the majority of which has proven to be successful. 

They’ve helped to lower operating costs

Without having a physical restaurant to run, many restaurants have turned to ghost kitchens to not only continue to offer their services to loyal customers, but to also save money on operating costs. As well as this, new menus and food offerings can be changed with ease by updating information on their chosen delivery sites.

They’ve allowed restaurants to meet/exceed online demand

With a high proportion of diners using take away apps to order food, many restaurants have seen an increase in orders and exceeded usual demand for their meal offerings. Many have thrived online, which will in turn make their move back to a physical restaurant much smoother if they haven’t haven’t already done so.

Allow Swift to help you create the ultimate commercial kitchen

Whether you run a ghost kitchen or you’re sprucing up your restaurant kitchen upon reopening, we’re the team to get your space where you want it to be. We have four decades of experience in commercial kitchen design and installation and we love nothing more than helping kitchens get the best equipment to provide an unrivalled experience for their customers.

Find out more on our website or feel free to book an appointment by calling the Swift team on 0121 505 4001.

Food Safety and Storage Advice For Commercial Kitchens

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It isn’t just the quality of meals that commercial kitchens need to focus on to succeed in their daily service, but how food is stored and kept safe is equally important. Catering and foodservice staff must not only take on this responsibility to keep diners safe and be more organised in the kitchen, but in doing so, they can also reduce costs and ensure they’re always giving their customers a flawless service each and every time.

There are a number of things that any commercial kitchen needs to focus on for food safety processes as well as for storing food in a safe and hygienic manner. We’ve put together a list of advice to help make your daily food safety and storage operations as efficient and effective as possible to create a commercial kitchen to be proud of.

Food safety

There are four main steps to food safety which can prevent illnesses and food poisoning from food being improperly stored and used. 

– Clean

– Separate

– Cook

– Chill

Clean

You must ensure hands and surfaces are cleaned frequently to prevent those germs that can easily be spread around the kitchen. Twenty-seconds of washing with soap and water before and after dealing with food can keep those germs at bay. 

Separate

Cross-contamination of foods such as raw meat, seafood and eggs can make your diners ill. These foods should always be separated by using separate chopping boards, utensils and surfaces as well as keeping them away from other foods in a fridge. 

Cook

Cooking foods at the right temperature is obvious, but it’s useful to know that the temperature throughout food needs to be high enough to kill those germs before being consumed. Food thermometers are essential to ensure all food is at a safe temperature. For more information on correct temperatures, see FoodSafety.gov’s Safe Minimum Cooking Temperatures chart.

Chill

It’s important to refrigerate food properly as bacteria can grow rapidly at room temperature. Perishable foods should not be left out of a fridge for over 2 hours and frozen foods should be thawed out in a fridge over being left out on a kitchen counter. 

Food storage

Use by and best before dates

Use by and best before dates should always be taken into account, using up older foods first to prevent any waste. Use the ‘first in, first out’ rule on stock to make sure all food is used within their use by dates. Any foods within these dates that look or smell different to what they should need to be thrown away. It’s always good to do visual inspections and ‘smell tests’ on all foods before they’re used for cooking to ensure they’re safe for consumption.

Storing chilled and ready-to-eat foods

It’s a legal requirement to store chilled foods at 8°C or below, with ambient foods being fine to store at room temperature. Of course, raw and cooked foods should be stored separately to prevent cross contamination.

In order to keep foods at their freshest, you’ll need refrigeration equipment to cater for your every need. Here at Swift, we supply some of the industry’s leading commercial refrigeration equipment to ensure you reduce food waste, lower costs and meet strict food hygiene measures. Get in touch with us if you need any advice or recommendations!

Choose Swift to ensure your food is safe and stored correctly

We’ve got over 40 years of experience in commercial kitchen design, ensuring kitchens have the right storage space and refrigeration solutions available to safely store food. If your commercial kitchen needs sprucing up or your equipment could do with an upgrade, we’re the team to speak to.

Give us a call today on 0121 505 4001 or fill out our contact form.