The Basic Layout of a Commercial Kitchen•••

Table of Contents

 The Kitchen Brigade

 The Sauté Station

 The Grill Station

 The Fry Station

 The Pizza Station

 Other Kitchen Stations

 The Kitchen Line

 How Many Stations Will You Have?

BY 

LORRI MEALEY

Updated on July 29, 2019

A typical restaurant kitchen has a layout featuring several different stations. A station is a designated
area where a certain type of food is prepared. Stations help keep a restaurant kitchen running smoothly.

The number of stations in an establishment depends on the restaurant’s menu. One restaurant might
have several stations with specialized equipment, while another might have just one or two areas that
are designated for cooking certain menu items.

The Kitchen Brigade 

As fine hotels — including their fine restaurants — became more common toward the end of the 19th
century, commercial kitchens had to scramble a bit to catch up with the trend. The brigade de
cuisine was born, which is effectively a nice, French way of saying the "kitchen staff." 

The mother of all brigade de cuisines  might be the one that's credited with being the first, created by
Chef Georges Auguste Escoffier in the later 1800s. His included more than 20 cooks and dozens of other
staff to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

But the term "staff" doesn't really do a kitchen brigade justice. Some of these professionals are highly
trained and accomplished chefs, while others might simply be learning the ropes, perhaps placed in
charge of creating salads. Some might man a single kitchen work station, whereas others oversee the
entire kitchen operation. 

Kitchen brigades have decreased in size over the last century as technology has advanced, allowing
fewer people to do the same work that once required multiple hands. Think of food processors when
chopping and dicing were once painstakingly accomplished by hand. And restaurants tend to be smaller
and more intimate these days than the grand establishments of the 19th century. But a chain of
command still exists, and meal preparation is still sorted by stations in most establishments. 

The Sauté Station

The most experienced cooks tend to work at the sauté station because this is where the most
complicated dishes are prepared. A sauté cook must be skilled enough to cook several dishes at once
during the dinner or other rush hours. In an extensive kitchen brigade, you might find the saucier here,
the chef responsible for creating the sauces that accompany some dishes. Sometimes the saucier will
also serve as the sauté cook, responsible for sauces as well as all sautéed or pan-fried entrees. 

A sauté station is typically equipped with a multiple-burner gas range, sauté pans and tongs. It usually
has its own prep area with all the cook’s necessary ingredients, as well as a cutting board, cooler, and
seasonings.

The Grill Station

The grill can be a charbroiler or a flat top, and the grill station also usually has a cooler for grill items
such as chicken, beef, or kebabs. You'll also find tongs and a grill brush here, along with whatever house
seasoning you use.

The grill cook should also have a great deal of experience. Like the sauté cook or saucier, he's often
cooking several dishes at once. He needs to know how to properly cook beef to well, medium, and rare
temperatures, as well as fish and poultry.

The Fry Station

The fryer — or fryolator as it's sometimes called — is for foods like chicken wings, onion rings, and
French fries. A great deal of food that goes into a fryer is frozen, so most fry stations have their own
freezers. Other necessary equipment includes fry baskets, tongs, and bowls for breading.

The fry station is a good entry-level cooking position, ideal for someone just starting out in a restaurant
kitchen. But one individual might assume the roles of both grill cook and fry cook in some kitchen
brigades, particularly in smaller kitchen establishments. 

The Pizza Station

If the pizza has a prominent place on your menu, you'll need a pizza station. A combo reach-in cooler
with a prep area is a good choice for a pizza station. And, of course, you'll need an oven. You can invest
in a specialty pizza oven or use the ovens in your gas range. A large oven that can cook several pies at
once is your best bet if pizza is the focal point of your restaurant and you plan on serving a lot.

A well-stocked pizza station should also have pizza screens for cooking and serving, a pizza paddle, pizza
cutter, and sheets of wax paper.

The pizza chef is also often an entry-level position. There's room for advancement from here. 

Other Kitchen Stations

Restaurants with enough space might add a salad station or a dessert station as well, or these might be
incorporated into the wait station. Many modern kitchens include a garde manger position here as well.
The garde manger, often a cook rather than a chef, creates salads as well as cold appetizers and might
plate some desserts as well.

The garde manger position can be much more advanced in larger, busier kitchens, however, and might
be entrusted to create and oversee a wide range of chilled or cold dishes and even ice carvings. A chef
typically mans this area.

A well-stocked salad station includes coolers for lettuce, vegetables, salad dressings, and plates. A
dessert station should have a cooler for deserts and spaces for plates and dessert forks. It should include
an area to assemble the desserts.

The Kitchen Line

Last but certainly not least is the kitchen line, the area where the servers pick up their food,
although “the line” sometimes refers to the line of stations in a kitchen. It's often manned by the
expeditor — the individual who's responsible for sending dishes to the dining room looking great. In
larger kitchens, the expeditor might also communicate the waitstaff's orders to the cooks in the brigade.
The line should have garnish, plates, a spindle for order tickets, and heating lamps to keep the waiting
food hot.

How Many Stations Will You Have? 

Budget, space, and your planned menu are the biggest considerations in determining how many stations
your kitchen will need. Many of these can be combined to save space and money, and you certainly
don’t need a cook at each station during slow shifts.