Kitchen Bench – Getting Exactly What You Need

After the layout of your kitchen had been established, the time is ripe to choose the most suitable bench top for your Sunnybank kitchen bench. Some of the considerations include the aesthetics of the design (beauty), how functional should it be, and how suitable it would be for your purposes.

Bench tops are your primary places of work in the kitchen. All in all, it has to be practical and cannot be underplayed. Choosing the right bench would need such factors as style, durability, maintenance and costs.

Choices

Given the number of choices in the market, getting one for your use can be daunting and overwhelming. Some of the more popular (and available) materials in the market include high pressure laminate, natural stone, reconstituted stone or quartz, acrylic, and solid timber.

The others top choices include stainless steel, glass, polished concrete, and tiled medium density fireboard. Any one of these surfaces would fit well on any bench top. The only question is, would it fit your needs?

Looking for the right bench top materials would take some close scrutiny because all of these materials normally perform well. However, there are three main factors that can help you narrow down your choices. They include cost, style and level of maintenance needed.

Materials and installation

The first aspect is cost because there is a big difference in price between the most affordable top on the market and the most expensive of the lot.  For instance, marble and granite need to be shipped, prepared specifically for your needs and installed using special methods.

On the other hand, the cheaper laminate bench tops can be ordered by the meter at your local kitchen supplier and cut to fit on site. Concrete may be cheap in terms of raw materials, but it required a highly specialized manufacture and installation.

Style / texture / color

One of the big factors in bench tops to be used in the kitchen is the matter of style. Some materials are simply better suited to a particular style of kitchen than the others. Wood, for instance, is perfect for a French provincial kitchen while polished concrete fits perfectly to an ultra-modern minimalist kitchen.

One thing to consider when choosing a top made of stone or timber is the fact that since both are made of natural materials, there may be many variations in texture and color in different batches.  Your selected sample may not exactly match the final product.

Maintenance

Stone surfaces like granite and marble are beautiful but they come with the responsibility of keeping them pristine and well-maintained. A tinge of orange of juice eats away its protective coating and can leave a permanent stain on the stones.

Acrylics and laminate products will not take well having hot cookware placed on top of them. Timber and polished concrete need to be periodically treated to ensure they maintain their resistance to moisture, heat or scratching.

Whichever is your choice for a bench top, it has to fit exactly with what you had planned for with your Sunnybank kitchen bench – your needs, your aesthetics and your budget.

Induction Cooktop – The Future of Cooking

Induction cooktop is currently one of the biggest breakthroughs in cooking. Compared with the cooking we know using traditional cookware, the induction type of cooking uses the heat produced by the cooking vessel (sauce pans, pots) itself. 

The technology is the use of electricity to heat up the pot by way of magnetic induction (hence, the name). The cooktops are made up of or contain a magnetic metal like steel or cast iron that directly heats up when power is turned on.

Also, a copper pot or some other non-magnetic steel and can still be used. They are simply put on top of a ferro-magnetic disk that functions like a conventional hot plate and cooks the food inside the pot on top.

Like all things considered, there are always two sides about the new technology notwithstanding that it does have its pro aspects outweighing the cons. Here are the pro items.

Instant heat

When using a cooktop that works with induction, you get instant heat. People usually think you can also get these from gas stoves or the latest in electric stoves. However, the induction heats up a pan much more quickly than any of the gas or electric contraption can.

The technology was conceived with the idea of no waste in energy. The cooking in induction heats up the cookware and not the whole surface. Experts say this type of cooking is up to 70% much more efficient than either the conventional gas or electric stoves.

Safety is also a big factor in the new cooking style. This comes into context with the idea of children around in the kitchen. When the pan is taken off the burner, the unit automatically switches off. You can even touch the burner seconds after without burning yourself.

Cleaning

Like the technology’s main point, the power is quickly out when turned off. There is no residue of the heat except perhaps on the pot or sauce pan itself where the food was cooked to perfection.

You can clean off the cook top like an ordinary item because there is no burnt food residue on it, the surface is cool. .

This might sound frivolous, but cooktops are now designed to blend in with your kitchen décor. It may not be as important but working around the kitchen can be more fun if things are nice-looking.

Some cons

At present, these cooktops cost more to buy than the old traditional electric or gas models. The technology, however, is much more advanced than it was before in working on one of our basic need of food.

You can however think of the savings in energy bills when cooking food and using energy are much quicker.  In the long run, the extra you paid for the utensils will pay for itself.

The cookware issue is that you have to buy a new set of pots and pans to be able to work on the cooktop. However, you need not replace all of them since cookware that magnets can stick onto will work with induction. Springfield Lakes induction cooktop seemed destined to be the future of cooking.

Catering Equipment – Main Component in the Catering Business

For a food company in the catering business, catering equipment is the whole set of tools that a caterer needs for the business. There is also a set up of commercial kitchen to anchor the business well enough for the equipments that will be used in their type of food business.  

For this kitchen to be successful there will be very distinct and important components that are set up in a particular pattern. This organizational system is done in order to optimize the performance and the efficiency of the business.

Main parts

The commercial kitchen is composed of five main components. The catering part covers all of these elements and provides an efficient and organized kitchen. The important components include cleaning and washing, food storage, food preparation, meal cooking, and the service.

The Springfield Lakes catering equipment made of stainless steel does not just add style to the kitchen. They also play an important part in how the business can succeed. The vital consideration is that your equipment can handle the commercial pressure of the kitchen.

Choosing the best equipment also help in boosting the efficiency (and sales) of the entire business. The following are some of the advantages in getting the best catering equipment for your kitchen.

Space design

Another important note is how to use the kitchen space in the best of ways. It is important that the kitchen is designed so that the necessary equipments are at hand within the kitchen. Congestion is not ideal and employees need to move freely for quick efficiency.

The equipments should be able to fit inside the kitchen with comfortable space for people traffic. The equipments are a mix of big and small appliances that include stoves, refrigerators, storage units, utensils, beverage dispensers, dishwashers and maybe an ice cream machine.

A professional kitchen’s success also leans on the high quality of the equipments.

Work flow

The professionally-designed kitchen can provide excellent environment for efficient work. Time is very important in the restaurant business. Customers prefer places that have fast services. Menus are delivered fast and orders should be completed appropriately fast.

When the staff and the servers can move freely about, the service becomes excellent due to quick service. It also saves the kitchen form the usual chaos and confusion. The placement for the equipments has to be planned so they won’t be obstructions to the workplace for everyone.

Saving energy / health codes

The planning is also beneficial for better energy efficiency as well. Equipments like refrigerators, stoves, fryers, steamers, etc. need to be placed correctly so they can also be saving energy.

There are various ways on how to decrease power consumption of the equipments. The energy saved is not just power but human energy as well.  Another help would be the use of energy star rated equipments to use in the kitchen.

A kitchen needs to ensure that it follows all the local health codes and its standards. A properly planned kitchen is easy to clean, not just saving energy and all. An excellent kitchen design and the best Springfield Lakes catering equipment add value to customers and the restaurant but also to the employees.