Annual sales within the restaurant industry are substantial. Recent figures show that they have reached $783 billion a year.
Even though many Americans will go out for fine dining experiences on a regular basis, 34% go out to a casual dining restaurant once a week. Consumers that participated in Technomic’s “2016 Pizza Consumer Trend Report” found that 41% of their participants ate pizza once a week. Furthermore, a Harris Poll found that America’s favorite comfort food was pizza.
Mexican restaurants are also quite popular. As of 2011, there were 38,000 restaurants that served Mexican cuisine. You may be interested to know that there were more Mexican restaurants than chicken rotisseries, Chinese restaurants, Italian bistros, or seafood shacks in the United States during that year.
It’s also interesting to note that Americans are increasing their meat consumption. Rabobank, which is a research and advisory firm, projects that meat consumption will increase by over 200 pounds a year per capita by 2018.
This is good news for the restaurant industry, particularly when establishments specialize in various types of meat dishes or meat toppings. Furthermore, this also means that it’s vital for business to have the highest quality commercial grade restaurant equipment. While it does depend on the type of restaurant and the cuisine that is being offered to patrons, commercial grade restaurant equipment such as the following should be found in these and other restaurant kitchens:
- Commercial dough mixer, sheeter, and roller
- Commercial meat cutter, grinder, and tenderizer
When it comes to providing proper maintenance for your meat grinder, it’s extremely important to keep it cold. To keep your industrial meat grinder at the right temperature, Serious Eats recommends that you place all of its parts except the motor in a freezer an hour before grinding. They also recommend ensuring that your meat is sufficiently chilled until you’re planning to grind it in a professional meat grinder.
Restaurant cleanliness is also vital to a business’ success. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that this can be accomplished with a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach placed in a single gallon of water. Countertops, cutting boards, and utensils can all be sanitized with this solution.
The USDA also states that this bleach solution can be used to clean and sanitize small wares as well as items that can be rinsed. It will, however, damage the finished surfaces of bakery equipment and meat grinders.
Whether you’ve just opened a restaurant or are planning to do so in the near future, chances are that you will need commercial grade restaurant equipment. Just imagine how efficiently your kitchen will function with the equipment mentioned above.