The service industry especially the hospitality segment is extremely dependent on commercial kitchen equipment that play an important role in day-to-day working environment of a commercial food outlet, or kitchens. The fact that they can make or break a business proposition of a kitchen is well-known and hence, it becomes pertinent to look at all possible factors that could help you plan your kitchen better in hotels or restaurants.

Although, kitchen consultants can guide you a fair bit about choosing the equipment while planning the kitchen, but it would be wise to indulge yourself along with your team through the thick-and-thin of your kitchen's potential cooking needs. It is particularly important to do so in today's high energy cost environment.

So what can you do to keep yourself informed about modern equipment before you handover your kitchen design and equipment selection responsibilities to a hospitality kitchen consultancy firm? Let me give you three points that will give you a firm ground of understanding while a consultant and his team starts poring you with suggestions about different equipment.

1 – Intelligent solution: It is very important for entrepreneurs to go for latest technology that could address most country-specific norms (and global norms) that they have to abide by. Also, it is important to know whether new technology would sync with the existing line of equipment that you might have pre-decided to purchase. Here, it is better to look at the entire horizon of equipment in line with technology that could make your operations smarter.

2 – Correct dimensions / specifications: Try to get yourself familiarize with the latest options that could potentially be able to address the quantity of procurement (mostly perishables) that the kitchen would identify based on the scope of business. Also, experienced professionals in your team would be able to find out the right size of the walk-in chillers, refrigerators, tables, dishwashing machines, etc., that your kitchen (s) would have to rely on.

3 – Energy efficiency: It is one of the strongest points in today's times to identify the effectiveness of equipment as energy-efficient capital assets. Energy is one of the critical costs that can significantly impact the profitability of a business outlet. Food service outlets are expected to maintain necessary ambient conditions-be it temperature, humidity, etc.-in order to ensure that the quality of taste of processed and un-processed food, especially perishable products, such as meat, fish and dairy products, is maintained. In this case, there is a constant energy consumption taking place through refrigeration equipment. Here, you have to see which types suit your requirements optimally and save energy simultaneously. On the other hand, there are many heating equipment that need to be extremely efficient while consuming electricity, giving you maximum output. All these points make it vital to have a judicious approach towards selecting electrical equipment. So, try investing in energy-efficient equipment that could be customized to your needs, and see if the machines of future can give you a long-term life cycle that you need to support your bottom lines.

In the next five years, it is estimated that by 2021 end, the revenue generated in the industrial refrigeration equipment market around the world would be US $ 61.44 billion. The segment would grow at a CAGR of above 9% between 2016 and 2021. This highlights that the innovation level will be faster in this segment, making commercial kitchen equipment technology quite progressive. So, choose your equipment diligently and carefully listened to your consultant, before making a final judgment. Always think about five years ahead of the present time to keep you investments profitable.