There are plenty of sound commercial reasons to prepare professional kitchens for the post-lockdown period. The Bank of England has already predicted a big bounce back in the economy as people who have continued to earn their usual wages by working from home are ready to head out and spend their cash in the hospitality sector. Of course, no one can for sure exactly which restaurants will make the strongest comebacks and which will not. That said, one thing is going to be paramount – consumer confidence. In other words, your returning customers and future clients will need to feel assured that they are dining in a safe environment. Part of this will mean top-notch front of house cleaning but it will also mean deep cleaning your kitchens, as well.
During lockdowns, many professional kitchens have continued to be used. This might have been in the capacity of private catering provision or it could have been because restaurateurs have increasingly shifted to a takeaway model of doing business. Either way, kitchens which could have been exposed to contagious material at this time will need a deep clean to reassure prospective customers.
If you wait until lockdown restrictions are lifted, then you will necessarily be trying to carry out a deep clean when you would prefer your kitchens back up and running once more preparing orders. In other words, the time to carry out a deep clean – when you will be moving items around so you can get at all of the surfaces – is now. Do it before lockdown ends when demand on your kitchen is low.
Ideally, you will be able to find an established professional cleaning company which already undertakes deep cleans in restaurants and other food preparation areas. This is not something you can leave to casually employed staff or smaller cleaning firms which are only used to cleaning a few offices. In fact, this need for a professional cleaning firm is even more apparent if you have multiple establishments which will need deep cleaning in the near future. In short, you need the manpower and skills that only truly professional cleaning companies can provide.
As mentioned, it is not just your kitchens that will be key to reassuring the public. Although your retail and service areas may have been off-limits to customers since the end of last year, they should be cleaned, too. Otherwise, your first clients may come in and immediately notice that the place hasn’t been spruced up. In turn, this could easily lead them to doubt the cleanliness and overall hygiene levels in your food preparation areas. As such, all of your front-of-house should be cleaned, including the bar area, the toilet facilities and the dining areas, to ensure they are spotless ready for your grand reopening. Ideally, you will be able to hire a team of cleaners from the same firm that carries out your kitchen deep cleans. Although the jobs are quite different in their nature, coordination between the two can be a big logistical help.
