open kitchen or closed kitchen

Okay what does everyone prefer open or closed. One where the only way you see the dining room and the guests is when the double doors open and you get a quick peek, or when its all wide open for everyone to see. I myself prefer an open kitchen. I love the rapport I get with the guests when they come in and leave. The sparkle in their eye when they have had an awesome experience.

Open. Of course, one has to watch one's language. A small price . . . .

Open, But that is only if one has control of their kitchen. If it is crazy with people running around looking like chickens with their heads cut off, you don't want the customers to see that, then again what good chef doesn't have control of his/her kitchen.

I have always prefered an open kitchen. It promotes uniformity in
kitchen staff dress code. It also promotes a sense of pride and an
added need for self control in respect to line cooks. Probably the
most import thing is the proximity to the dining room. There are virtually
never any heat lamps to speak of on an expo line. The food is that
much closer to the customer. Because of appearances the line cooks
have to produce food in union. Never one dish far ahead of the rest.
The communication with the guests can also be pleasant, to a point.

Then there is the down side. I have had a gas explosion from a fryer
on an expo line. I have also had a police chase ending up with a
Ford F150 in the restaurant dining room. You also will eventually
end up with cooks that stare at customers or you may even get
a new cook one day who picks his nose or ears inadvertently. In
restaurants it is always a mixed bag of nuts!!!

That's a good one. :)

I prefer a closed kitchen. All too many times I've had a dozen or more tickets in my window and then the customers decide that's the perfect time to strike up a conversation with the kitchen. Open kitchens are fun sometimes - on slower nights when customers want to watch you cook you can put on a little show, but I still prefer a closed kitchen.

Hello

Well, i think an open and a closed kitchen has good and bad things. Maybe it can sounds silly but im in the beggining.

When i was in open kitchen i had to say "good morning" ,, "thanks for coming",, i had to smile all day (it was an obligation), it wasnt bad,,, but many time customers came and asked me, i want some butter,, i want some napkins,,,(we had to say ask to ur waiter please) , but it was difficult to work with some much people asking u everytime. A good thing was my boss couldnt shout me, im a little sensitive maybe but when someone shouts me i feel angry and very sad for long days, it makes me feel very bad. Well in a closed kitchen i feel more confortable for cooking, nobody is checking if im smiling or not, hehe,, thats it

Gus

Open if I'm the diner....even Waffle House holds an attraction for me, love the way they have a system for each menu item.

Closed if I'm cooking...unless it's the open stage of the market when I work at my speed.....last Christmas I was cooking for a dinner and behind the eight ball, the rental company left out the clamps for the S table skirting and it backed up the event....guests coming through to tour the kitchen during preparations....it was one of my least favorite parties of all time.

[QUOTE=shroomgirl]Open if I'm the diner....

I agree with you there. If I'm on the eating end, I like to watch. But I think that is possibly a bit selfish of me, because I have been on the other side.

When I was in the kitchen, they were closed, and I liked it that way because I could focus and get things done.

What do I like most about having a view of or access to the kitchen? I can thank the cooks when I leave for working so hard, and wink at them during prep so they know I appreciate them ;-).

I have the open. Great when none of your cooks speak enough English to be able to offend people!

I like closed. I prefer not having to interrupt what I'm doing while somebody tells me how the Iron Chef made that same dish using platypus liver instead of lamb.

I don't know, maybe I just like the ego boost. I absolutely love display/open kitdhens. yeah, you got to watch your language, you have to be neater and cleaner about everything. But, dang, its like a show on the food net work only live! And you are the star! I really think the dining public love it also. They want the flames of the pans, the smoke from the broiler. Seeing all of us moving at 120 miles an hour. Dining is not just about going out to a very formal setting. Its becoming a performing art. And we are the actors. I love it!

I have worked as a waiter in both (yes, I know, you all hate me now and will ignore my post :p) and I prefer the open. There are many benefits to it and I'm sure that you could design things to minimize the drawbacks. First, it is a great show. It doesn't have to be the focus of what you're doing, but it is always nice for the guests to be able to see things going on. Second, it really gives people confidence in what they are eating. If they don't know your establishment, they can take a peek at the kitchen and see how clean and well organized I hope you are. It also creates a culture to the place. People can see/hear what goes on in a real kitchen. It can be a marketing point in that you can use space for a kitchen table or counterspace that would otherwise be dead space in your restaurant.

I don't recall many times anyone on the hot line being bothered for anything. I would suggest keeping the open kitchen away from the flow of traffic around the restaurant. Also, you want to be sure that people can't just walk up onto the line or can bother the chefs so you need to keep it spaced out properly.

so far ive only ever worked in closed kitchens and while i would like to work in an open one sometime i think it would get old fast. im nervous enough when trying to finish a dish with an overzealous runner glaring at me, let alone a dining room full of customers. i mean it is a great show for the diners but id rather not be part of the focus. not to mention, i cant imagine having to behave myself on the line.

Closed, ur gonna give out your secret recipe? :confused:

Rapport is great, but, I prefer a closed kitchen because I reserve the right to spit in the food of customers that wear bow-ties to my restaurant

I hope thats a joke

I don't know if it was or not... but I'm definitely adding it to my list of rules. :p :D

I cannot STAND to have some as$hole staring me down as I make his pizza or some italian dish.

Although I've only worked at 1 open kitchen, I didn't enjoy it needless to say.

Open

Open. I get to show off. It makes this cooking thing we do all worth while to impress them with a show as well as with our great food.

I totally agree with you. Like i said, I like the ego boost.

I swear too much for an open kitchen. Though I might be able to deal with a kitchen the customers can see into, but not hear.

Closed; when a server mistakes a butterflied filet for a strip or a grouper for a halibut... I have to let out some tension.

i worked in 2 closed kitchens and one open. its strange, cos for the first few days, the open kitchen was really cool and all in showing off and such, but then after a while, it just felt like any other kitchen. i guess it was cooler since it was a restuarent in a shopping centre so the air con was stronger and such. so if that, then open.

I haven't had the opportunity to be in an open kichen, but I think I would like it- I'm a bit of a show off too(hey at least I'll admit it) I definately like it as a diner. Last weekend I was at a restaurant in Oakland that had an open kitchen, but it was separated by a plexigrass wall. We could watch but the plexiglass seemed to keep diners from bothering the chefs. I was very nice to sit and watch someone else cook. You definately would have to watch your language though (or learn to cuss in another language??:cool: )... the kitchen I work in is right next to the dining room, so we have to watch our language even in a closed kitchen.(but you get really good at finger and hand gestures...LOL):suprise:

I have worked in both open and closed kitchens as well and I rather like the open kitchen concept..we also had our fish cutting station out in the open as well, it was fun to have conversations with people wanting to know all about the differant types of fish we served. Yeah sure you have to watch what you say...but I think it is a good experience.:cool:

Like a few posters have mentioned, I prefer an open kitchen when dining as a customer and a closed one when I have to handle a big menu especially on weekends. Needless to say, the kitchen is like a mad house!

It depends on the situation (eatery setup):

- Cafe/Resturant-types and larger: Closed Kitchen
* I prefer a closed kitchen because the kitchen is a smoky, 'smelly' (some folks are quite sensitive about the smell of cooking), noisy (order being read out, exhaust hood) and to me the basic thing about not feeling guilty handling food with bare hands cos the customers can't see it (to me I can work faster overall in a closed kitchen (guilt-free).
Most people just don't want to see what their food used to look like uncooked, they might love meaty steaks but they don't want to know it was a bloody slab of dead animal.

- Short Order style cooking: Open Kitchen
* I currently work in a short-order establishment, and I love the open kitchen setup mainly because it's easily the most comfortable kitchen I've ever been in. Heck I sweat more in the hour's worth getting to and from work than I do in the kitchen.
Our company has rules that doesn't allow us to eat or drink anything in view of the customers, so not even a glass of water at the hot section. So at home I sometimes get cramps from 'dehydration' after a long day, yes I know... I can easily work around it to take better care of myself.

Open kitchen allows a short order cook like me to better suit dishes to customer, some folks don't want the vineragrette with their salad and before I add it, they can see it and request accordingly.
Customer interaction is good in a short order because the cooking is fairly simple and you've got time to chat with customers especially the regulars.

I just wish I could use my bare hands more and do it guilt-free, but with customers watching me I prefer not to. We use vinyl gloves and I more or less hate them, when I got use to the fairly tactile latex gloves the switch to the vinyl ones wasn't too nice for me, took a quite awhile to get used to them. Still feels like cooking with oven gloves on.


All depends on setup of the estaiblishment and menu, if it's 'simple' I say go Open, if it's more complicated go closed kitchen.

I agree, when you work in an open kitchen long enough, you sort of learn to tune everything out and it feels perfectly normal. Of course at our open kitchen we're partially blocked by the heat lamps, a long rack of dishes and so forth so it's not as "open" as I've seen in other restaurants, but I have found that I don't need to watch my language unless there are people sitting at the two closest tables to the hot pass.

There's such a thing as a closed kitchen? Not to me! :)

I have this 'quirk', don't remember when it started but it's become a bit of a joke with my friends when we go out to eat and they generally try and hide the fact that they're with me when it occurs. But I walk straight into the kitchen, (or service window depending on setup) everyone looks up to see what this wierdo is doing and I say hello, and proceed to discuss what they recommend I should eat (not to the entire kitchen usually, primarily the expeditor/chef)

I'm sure this developed at some point because I visit so many restaraunts where everyone knows me and vice versa and I just got comfortable being in and out of the kitchen, and I'm sure I must freak out some folks in the kitchen from time to time when I'm at a new place. What can I say, I know it's wierd. You'd think they would be irked at someone interfering with their hectic pace, and god knows why they don't send me packing with a string of obscenities, but virtually always the expeditor/chef is happy to be asked their opinion and in many cases they end up making something off the menu that they think I should try.

I have no idea why I have such a thing against servers, they've never done anything to me to deserve it, but when it comes to making decisions about what to eat I want to deal with the people who are most invested in the food. If there's a sommelier in the house I can't imagine asking my waiter what would pair well with my dish instad of them, I think of food the same way. And I must say that I end up having some of the best meals because of my odd proclivities.

God help the kitchen if many people become as brain damaged as me though.