Aspects of Food Premises: Equipment

Ian: It is important that all equipments are appropriately chosen and appropriately as well as their materials as different kinds of kitchens dish out different styles of presentation and cooking methods . Just like the Chinese kitchen for example . You cannot use western stove ranges to achieve the Chinese “ wok hei “ maybe you can but that is nearly impossible to achieve without using a jet flame in due time . Therefore , A stove range that is suitable for an air blast flame must be designed . Rather than having many vents which evenly distribute heat around the pot . A centralized pressure point of heat with high powered gas exit is designed to achieve such . Also stone is used to contain the heat so that heat is not immediately cut once the flame is turned off therefore , easier handling of heat . I can go on and on but this is not about the Chinese kitchen .

Lay out and materials are the bare essentials of what kind of food is a kitchen going to be able to dish out . For example a full fledged Chinese kitchen will not be able to dish out risotto . A dish which requires low and slow heat and constant simmering to be able to achieve the right texture and doneness . Leave that to an air blast stove and your rice would be burnt before it would be cooked as all the stocked that is used to cook the rice would have been evaporated . Therefore the choice of materials and equipment lay out determines the food that is going to be churned out .
Without proper organization of equipment . the chefs and cooks will not be able to deliver up to their fullest potential and may prove hazardous in certain situations . Just like how easily a jet flame would enable a grease fire as it is so powerful . Leave it to an untrained individual and the risk of a grease fire would loom .

The choice of equipment I feel would determine the quality of food as well . Just like how a good knife is able to sustain it’s sharpness longer due to the quality of steel . Also , it’s weight would enable stability to it’s user . With a cheap wobbly knife that is made of cheap metal might dent on impact as it is not durable . As it is flimsy , it would mean that it is not stable and without weight it would mean that more strength would have to be exerted and that would mean the cuts would not be precise . Also with the knife being unstable , the risks of getting cuts are higher . This would disallow any cook or chef to work in their top form , therefore the quality of the food would be affected and also , as a very impatient person , I would be personally very annoyed by dull or flimsy blades , with that I would spend more time trying to get the cuts right therefore delaying the amount of time I need to finish whatever cutting job I need . With also good equipments . They will grant you more time  as they will last longer enabling chefs to get comfortable with them . And if equipments do not spoil easily . It would mean that less time is spent trying to salvage situations due to faulty equipment buying more time to do what a kitchen is meant to do – Help produce cooked food .

However , with good equipments require good care . And one of the simplest forms of care is to keep them clean . To enable a Chinese wok for example to be use cleanly . One must be able to burn the wok at least once in awhile till red hot to enable all the dirt and carbonated food to be released from the wok in order to prevent them from dropping them into each others food . Scientifically , these black substances contain a lot of carcinogens which contains free radicals , This in the long run is not good for the human body . Therefore in this case keeping your equipment clean will ensure the health based safety of your customers . If a wok is not properly maintained the risk of getting harmful substances into others are definite therefore cleanliness of equipments must be maintained in order to produce safe food .