Food prep stations

Today's food preparation stations are becoming easier on the eyes—as well as the back, legs, neck and shoulders. Kitchen designers across the f/s spectrum are responding to trends and operator feedback by creating prep stations that are attractive enough to sit inside most dining rooms while ergonomically safer and more efficient in terms of minimizing unproductive movement.

The result is a station that requires less walking, twisting, turning, bending, reaching and stretching; puts more equipment within reach of the employee; and can stand up to the scrutiny inherent in serveries doing exhibition cooking.

Ergonomics: "The biggest thing I've been seeing is ergonomics," says Jeff Gardner, a consultant with Cini-Little, Intl., based in Rockville, MD.

"We're being asked to develop prep stations where the operator has everything within an arm's reach," he notes. "We're having multiple tiers of shelving above the work stations. The key components of whatever they're assembling are directly in front of them, either above the work station level or below, in a refrigerated compartment. Then off to the side are their ancillary components, still within the wingspan of a person."

The large-scale increase in designs that reflect these values has come about, Gardner suggests, because of what he describes as a "more prevalent philosophy. More people are aware of the injuries caused by repetitive motion. For that reason, we're working to minimize how many steps you have to take, how much bending you have to do. We're trying to make it more friendly for the operator."

This attention to human motion became one of the biggest kitchen design trends in restaurants, Gardner says, "and now it's making its way into production kitchens. For years, the production kitchen has been, for prep, a two-compartment sink, a large work table, a (food processor) and a slicer—that was it. Now we're trying to bring that into the 21st century."

A friendlier environment: More and more, production kitchens are placing automatic slicers into prep areas. They can do this because the newest models are safer and a lot more user-friendly than their predecessors.

"For that reason we are now starting to put those into places where we wouldn't before," Gardner notes. "Again, we're removing that repetitive motion from the operator and allowing him to have it right there."

One fast feeder who regularly turns up in a variety of non-commercial settings has redesigned its prep area along the same lines—for the express purpose of cutting down on the amount of walking employees must do when assembling product. Another feature of the prototype design, which is now in test in the Northeast, is a cold well area large enough to accommodate every food product needed, obviating the need to bend and reach into refrigerated compartments.

Work stations have also been brought closer together to permit one employee to easily cover for another who has to walk away momentarily. Expediting has also been moved closer to the service counter to, once again, cut down on walking. The result is greater productivity and labor efficiency.

Moving out: "Certainly the trend relative to prep stations is not so much what is happening to them in the back of the house," notes Mary Allen, dir. of marketing and business development for Philadelphia-based Aramark's Design Solutions group, its in-house design division. "It's the fact that they're moving out of the back of the house to the front of the house."

From B&I accounts to campus feeding, she points out, operators are pushing food prep and assembly to center stage, in full view of customers. Doing so often means making a choice. "'OK, do you take a kitchen counter and modify it? Or do you take that former prep station and modify it?' It's kind of a marriage of the two."

Although stainless steel is still the preferred food surface, many are opting for more colorful designs and materials precisely because customers can now see them. "There are laminates going around them," she says. "They're becoming enclosed and starting to look like other counter-top and service areas in the servery."

All in one: The way in which a particular preparation station is configured stems largely from the demand, says Allen. "It starts with the customers who tell our front-line mgrs. what they want or need, and they then work with us. We look to meet their changing needs. And of course we're working with equipment suppliers to actually design equipment that will work for this purpose."

Additional functions are being brought together in today's prep stations. As Allen notes, "Bases are being enclosed, and utilities are inside. The same prep sinks and hand sinks are now being dropped into the unit." Until now, she points out, "you might have in the kitchen a stainless steel area with a hand sink and a prep sink nearby. You would finish washing your produce, for example, and then turn to another station to actually do your prep. Now that is all happening in one area, creating a lot of convenience for the employee. It is also in close proximity to where the cooking is going to take place. Often they have flat tops, so it's really become dense space, if you will."