How to Design a Culinary Arts Training Facility

by Devra Gartenstein

Overview

A successful culinary arts training facility should provide learning opportunities both in the form of observing instructors while they explain their cooking, and it should also include work stations for students to learn through hands-on practice. It can be tricky to integrate these two aspects of a culinary arts training facility, because hands-on practice can be noisy, creating distractions that interfere with students' ability to see and hear instructors. In addition, work stations tend to be islands where students gather around their equipment, sometimes facing away from instructors. A successful culinary arts facility design finds ways to gracefully integrate these two functions.

Step 1

Design an instructor work station with a stove, a handwashing sink, a prep sink, and a work station. Make it big enough that students can gather around it. Position it so that the instructor will be facing the students when they are at their own work stations.
Step 2

Position a video camera over the instructor's stove and another over the instructor's prep station so students can see the instructors' activities up close even from the back of the room. Place viewing screens on either side of the instructors' station facing the classroom, and also in the back of the room if students will be standing on all sides of their work tables.
Step 3

Minimize obstructions that can interfere with the ability of students to see and hear instructors. Use quiet fans for ventilation systems so the instructors will be audible, and situate ventilation hoods high enough that they will not obstruct students' view of the instructor.
Step 4

Use stainless steel or other easily cleanable material for all work stations. Use nonporous tiles for the floor and ceiling. Use slip resistant floor tiles to minimize the risk of accidents.

Overview