Most Indian kitchens are laid out by the equipment fabricator, whose incentive is selling equipment, not workflow. This generator does the planning step that should come first: for your format and area, it allocates the kitchen across the nine standard zones, sizes each in square feet, lists the equipment schedule per zone, and prints it with the one-way workflow rule and compliance essentials attached.
A commercial kitchen splits into nine zones: receiving, dry stores, cold storage, pre-prep, hot line, cold kitchen, pass/packing, wash, and utility, with the hot line taking roughly 24-30% of kitchen area. The governing rule is one-way material flow: receiving to stores to prep to cooking to pass, with wash off to the side and raw never crossing cooked.
| Zone | Share | Area | Key equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving & weighing | 6% | 25 sq ft | Platform weighing scale · Receiving table (SS) · Crate wash point |
| Dry stores | 10% | 42 sq ft | SS racking (4-tier) · Ingredient bins (FIFO) · Pallets — nothing on the floor |
| Cold storage | 10% | 42 sq ft | Reach-in refrigerator · Deep freezer / walk-in (above ~1,500 sq ft kitchens) · Temperature log point |
| Pre-preparation | 16% | 67 sq ft | Prep tables with under-shelves · Veg wash sinks (2-bowl) · Wet grinder / food processor · Colour-coded boards rack |
| Hot cooking line | 26% | 109 sq ft | Cooking range (2-4 burner) · Chinese/high-pressure burner · Tandoor (if menu needs) · Fryer · Griddle · Exhaust hood over full line · Salamander (casual/fine) |
| Cold kitchen / garde manger | 8% | 34 sq ft | Refrigerated prep counter · Salad/sandwich station · Display chiller (café) |
| Pass / packing | 10% | 42 sq ft | Pass counter with heat lamps (dine-in) · Packing station + sealer (delivery) · KOT printer/screen |
| Pot & dish wash | 12% | 50 sq ft | 3-sink wash line or dishwasher · Soiled/clean landing tables · Glass rack (bar formats) |
| Staff / utility / gas bank | 2% | 8 sq ft | Gas bank (outside kitchen, ventilated) · Staff lockers · Hand-wash stations (one per zone minimum) |
One-way workflow is the rule that decides everything: Receiving → Stores → Prep → Cook → Pass, wash off to the side. The printed blueprint includes the full equipment schedule and compliance essentials.
Three classics: a hot line sized to the equipment they want to sell rather than the menu, wash areas squeezed into leftover corners so soiled plates cross the cooking line, and no receiving space at all, which is why so many kitchens weigh nothing and lose 3-5% at the door. A zone plan brought by the client prevents all three.
The working band is 30-40% of total area for full-service formats: below 30% the kitchen chokes at peak and prep spills into service hours; above 40% you are paying dining-room rent for storage. Cloud kitchens invert this: 70-80% kitchen, since the front of house is a delivery shelf.
The schedule lists the standard kit per zone for the format; brands and capacities come from your menu and covers. For sourcing, verified HORECA equipment suppliers quote against exactly this kind of schedule on Hospiverse, an itemised blueprint gets sharper quotes than a vague brief.
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