Chef Forum banner

Hi - Aspiring Entrepreneur

8K views 71 replies 10 participants last post by  chedar 
#1 ·
Hi,

My name is Henock. I want to open up my own food delivery business, preparing the food myself.

Whats the maximum amount of customers can a commercial kitchen serve in an hour? 
 
#4 · (Edited)
Go get a job with a caterer.

Start at the bottom and work your way up ...

Do a bit of research and start working on a business model/plan.

This is not something a stranger can do for you (well not for free on an internet site lol) nor can you put one together by reading google searches as there is a lot of "stuff" that comes before your question can be answered with any degree of certainty.

What are you doing to pay your bills now?

mimi
 
#5 ·
Go get a job with a caterer.

Start at the bottom and work your way up ...

Do a bit of research and start working on a business model/plan.

This is not something a stranger can do for you (well not for free on an internet site lol) nor can you put one together by reading google searches as there is a lot of "stuff" that comes before your question can be answered with any degree of certainty.

What are you doing to pay your bills now?

mimi
I already have a business plan, quite detailed.

But i need to sort out the kitchen component, hence my question.

Willing to pay a consultation fee in fact, looking for professional chef to help out with the logistics of how this would work.

Im currently a project manager at a construction company. Strange i know.
 
#6 ·
I want to know what sort and size of commercial kitchen i must have to serve lets say 1000 customers at lunch every day between the hours 1pm-2pm.

The food will be prepared in this kitchen then delivered to them, every working day.
What type of items or menu? Cold sandwiches take different equipment and space requirements than do than do hamburgers.
 
#7 ·
#9 ·
What you want is a production kitchen.

You also need to grasp the entire concept if a working kitchen. Lets start st the begining.

Ingredients are ordered and recieved. You need a loading bay and walk in coolers or freezers, dry storage, and paper/packaging storage

Ingredients are processed. You need prep sinks, work tables, meat slicers, shredders, food processers, ovens, tilt skillets or ranges and pots, and steam kettles. A steamer and a vacuum packaging machine would be nice too. For this equilment to operate, you will need a ventilation system, grease trap, and extensive electrical, plumbing and gas fitting upgrades. You will also need a dishwasher and dish pit.
Oh, and you will also need staff.... And at least one needs to know what they are doing, do you gotta pay this one a wage to endure s/he stays for a while

Hot food has to be chilled down or kept hot and seved hot. You need tray trolleys, space in your walk ins, sinks to cool down. A blast freezer would be nice. To serve hot you will need steam tables, prep tables, and insulated containers like the Cambro units.

Food is packaged. You will need prep tables, large inventory of packaging materials, as well as labels and some kind of printing system for the labels.

Food is delivered. You will need refrigerated trucks, a staging area, and a loading bay. You will also need knowledgeable driving staff.

Final analysis:

The devil is in the details, if it was easier, everyone would be doing it.......
 
#10 · (Edited)
Forgive me for suggesting you were somehow lacking in experience.

We get a ton of questions from the starry eyed whose family and friends have told them to start a business because their **** (plug in whatever) is the best they have ever tasted.

Most times when they get their feet wet and discover most of the work is done at a desk they decide to continue down their original path (minus the life savings spent getting things up and running).

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smiles.gif

Carry on....

mimi
 
#11 ·
What you want is a production kitchen.

You also need to grasp the entire concept if a working kitchen. Lets start st the begining.

Ingredients are ordered and recieved. You need a loading bay and walk in coolers or freezers, dry storage, and paper/packaging storage

Ingredients are processed. You need prep sinks, work tables, meat slicers, shredders, food processers, ovens, tilt skillets or ranges and pots, and steam kettles. A steamer and a vacuum packaging machine would be nice too. For this equilment to operate, you will need a ventilation system, grease trap, and extensive electrical, plumbing and gas fitting upgrades. You will also need a dishwasher and dish pit.
Oh, and you will also need staff.... And at least one needs to know what they are doing, do you gotta pay this one a wage to endure s/he stays for a while

Hot food has to be chilled down or kept hot and seved hot. You need tray trolleys, space in your walk ins, sinks to cool down. A blast freezer would be nice. To serve hot you will need steam tables, prep tables, and insulated containers like the Cambro units.

Food is packaged. You will need prep tables, large inventory of packaging materials, as well as labels and some kind of printing system for the labels.

Food is delivered. You will need refrigerated trucks, a staging area, and a loading bay. You will also need knowledgeable driving staff.

Final analysis:

The devil is in the details, if it was easier, everyone would be doing it.......
Say i want to be able to serve 1000 customers in a 3 hour window (around lunch). I will be delivering the food, no walk ins.

How big would it be then?
 
#12 · (Edited)
With what you are proposing there doesn't have to be a set timeline.

What is so attractive re catering is that the menu items can be prepped days before...even to the point of filling the single serve containers.

Even the actual "lunch boxes" can be put together the nite before as long as the temps are safe.

Add the hot and/or cold items and load up the van and you can be out the door in an hour or so.

mimi

I could do a thousand simple cold cut lunches with a side and dessert in an area as small as my kitchen/laundry room if I was super organized for it.

...would never try to do it by myself tho.....

That would be silly.

Just build the man hours into your plan and pay yourself less.

mimi
 
#13 ·
With what you are proposing there doesn't have to be a set timeline.

What is so attractive re catering is that the menu items can be prepped days before...even to the point of filling the single serve containers.

Even the actual "lunch boxes" can be put together the nite before as long as the temps are safe.

Add the hot and/or cold items and load up the van and you can be out the door in an hour or so.

mimi

I could do a thousand simple cold cut lunches with a side and dessert in an area as small as my kitchen/laundry room if I was super organized for it.

...would never try to do it by myself tho.....

That would be silly.

Just build the man hours into your plan and pay yourself less.

mimi
Problem is the business will be a lunch subscription service, subscribers will have until say 10am of that day to decide what they want for lunch (what you are saying gives me an idea that maybe they'll be encouraged to decide one day before what they want tomorrow for lunch) and then the food has to be prepared because from 11h30 i want deliveries for the furthest places to be already on the way (fortunately my city is like only 30km wide).

Wont it be a risk to prepare food the night before when you dont know who is going to order what?
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
Not if you have a set menu and (like you said) get the orders (and deposit IME) the day before.

You could even have a Monday...Tuesday.... Wednesday (you get the idea) set menus.

Have a couple of choices for entrees and sides.

mimi
How would this work? Because i want to be flexible to my customers.

Would the subscription conditions be then:

1. You have until 5pm to decide what your lunch tomorrow

2. If we did not get an order before the time specified in Condition 1. your order will be randomly selected from the meals of the day

Something like that?

And will that not make it obvious to customers that their food is prepared the "day" before? Which as you said is not a problem if food is stored properly at the right temperatures but "freshness" is a huge marketing factor when it comes to food.

Unless Condition 1 is modified to say:

1. You have until 8pm to place your order for tomorrow; Our Admin will sort the orders for our chefs until 12pm and our chefs start cooking 8am pronto.

Then the business questions become:

1. Will that be a lie and the chefs will be preparing the food throughout the night?

2. Are there chefs willing to work basically night shifts the entire year? (or have them swap with the day chefs maybe, although the night chefs will outnumber the day chefs)

3. If the 8am cooking thing is true, since i want the first deliveries to be going out at 11h30am, will 3 hours 30 minutes be enough to prepare say 1000 orders or more?

4. The biggest question i have: How big should a kitchen that can process at least 1000 orders be and how many cooks will it need?

This is the menu:















 
#16 · (Edited)
A sports stadium's kitchen can serve up over 20,000 meals in an hour. Does that help?

How do intend to keep the hot foods hot and cold foods cold? How well do you think sunny side eggs will be received by your lunch customers who open a container of them made hour(s) earlier? Take out fries that are in closed containers for an our or more are a soggy mess. I

If you somehow managed 1,000 orders (a lofty goal) I seriously doubt they would ever order a second time based on that menu. Nothing is conducive to holding in a container and serving hours later.
 
#22 ·
I believe Maple works through cooperating restaurants and delivers locally. Food is prepared at the time of delivery.
I read somewhere they have their own kitchens.

Plus the food will be delivered as soon as its ready, its not like if you start cooking at 7am the food will be ready that time. Im looking for a kitchen solution that can prepare half the meals by 10am (delivery starting at 11h30am) then the rest by 12pm (delivery starting that time)
 
#25 ·
With two threads going here on this same subject and you not getting it, I would suggest that you hire a chef and let him or her tell you what they need to accomplish what you want (and what food is feasible). That is unless you intend to do the preparation yourself too...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top