Stainless steel tables are essential pieces of equipment in many businesses and industries as a whole, and come in a wide variety of options in which to choose from.
All restaurant kitchens utilize heavy duty stainless steel work tables
Due to extraordinary stringent health codes (which of course benefits everyone), these tables are a needed staple found in every restaurant kitchen. They are low maintenance, durable, and when the stainless steel table is used as a food surface, will clean off completely, with no chance of retaining food particles that can lead to growing bacteria and food contamination. A wood top table surface can quickly develop cuts, scratches, and miniscule holes that will retain, among other substances, meat blood (in certain cases). If this is retained in the surface, the surface can easily get harmfully contaminated, and bacteria may mix in with food prepared on that surface in the future.
Some different styles are popular
Perhaps the most common heavy duty stainless steel work table has an under shelf for storage of dry goods or other materials. The distance from the undershelf to the top surface can vary in height. The shelf can be a few inches off the floor, or can be much higher. When possible, many restaurants prefer an under-shelf to be high enough off the floor to enable a broom and mop to be used under the table.
If no specific need is seen for an undershelf, open base work tables are a good option. With no shelf to get in the way, cleanup on and around the table area is quicker and easier.
Also very popular is the enclosed base work table. Coming with any number of doors, they help keep goods stored within clean, and out of the way of airborne food particles, or other detritus that may get onto materials stored there. As opposed to dusting off or wiping down stored materials there on a regular basis, a quick wipe down of the table’s doors is all that is needed to clean that specific work area.
Yes indeed, size does matter
No matter what style of table it is- open or enclosed- a wide variety of table sizes are available, with options available in length, width, and height.
On the longer side, a heavy duty stainless steel work table with a length of 144 inches, or even longer in some cases, is very convenient in restaurants when it comes to food preparation that requires several ‘steps’ in coming up with a completed product. Some refer to this as an ‘assembly line’ process. Two or more people working on churning out pizza orders is one good example of this. Cook number one may sauce and cheese the dough, sliding the pan down to cook number two, who may add some ingredients, then sliding the pan down to cook number three. The pizza at the end of the process will then get thrown into the oven. This way of product ‘manufacture’ can be much easier and more efficient, and is best done on a longer work surface.
Very often, the restaurant kitchen can be a rather tight, compact area in which to work, with space utilization in the kitchen coming at a premium. Oftentimes, a longer table is either impractical use of space, or there just isn’t enough room for such a longer table. Freestanding tables of a wide variety of sizes, placed in strategic, needed areas of the kitchen, can provide the functionality the worker needs while saving room for other kitchen necessities such as equipment or storage racks or facilities.
Other options that may be taken into consideration
Depending on the food preparation requirements for the kitchen, different gauge tables are available for each individual table. Most common are the 16 gauge standard duty work top tables, and for heavy duty operations, such as what is used in butcher shops, 14 gauge stainless steel.
A nice option that can be featured on a table is a backsplash. With heights of varying measurements, it can greatly assist in keeping the workplace cleaner and easier to maintain. Tables with backsplashes are best utilized on tables against the wall, when sauces or other food can leave the table off the back side of the table surface, hitting the back wall, often sliding down, making for difficult cleanup. The backsplash is not good for tables located in the middle of the kitchen so much, particularly when the table is utilized by two workers working on the same item at the same time, standing on opposite sides of the table.
For safety, convenience, and long lasting durability, work tables with a stainless steel composition are the choice by restaurant owners, laboratory facilities and other industrial work environments, and are by far the best options available on the market today.