Prep Tables & Worktops
Refrigerated preparation surfaces at the station, including raised-rail salad and pizza formats and freezing workbenches for frozen prep.
Refrigeration for restaurants and central kitchens
A restaurant kitchen and a central kitchen buy refrigeration for different reasons, but both fail in the same place: the unit is chosen from a catalog page instead of the food flow it has to support. The selection sequence is the same. Only the batch size changes.
Where kitchen refrigeration goes wrong
Commercial kitchens are hot, crowded and short of clear wall space. Ambient temperature near cooking lines sits well above the assumption behind a mild-room rating, and every cabinet placed there pays for it in recovery time. When a unit cannot recover between service peaks, the first symptom is soft product at the pass, not a failed compressor.
Four repeated problems drive most bad purchases:
- Sizing a prep line by kitchen length. The working unit is the pan, not the meter. Rail depth, pan format and the number of pans in active use decide whether the table supports the station or slows it down.
- Confusing an undercounter unit with a prep table. They occupy similar footprints and do different jobs. Undercounter storage serves a station; a prep table is a work surface with refrigeration underneath.
- No separation of raw and ready-to-eat storage. A single cabinet forces staff to stack incompatible products, which is a hygiene and workflow problem rather than a temperature problem.
- No defined chilling step in a central kitchen. Cook-chill production needs a planned chilling stage before product enters storage, with the target and window taken from the site food safety plan.
Equipment families that cover the workflow
A working kitchen or central kitchen normally combines four to six families rather than standardizing on one:
Upright Kitchen Refrigeration
Reach-in refrigerators and freezers, drawer sections and dual-temperature cabinets for bulk storage and staging.
Blast Freezers
Batch chilling and freezing after cooking or portioning, specified from load weight, entry temperature and process time.
Cold Rooms & Walk-Ins
Bulk chilled and frozen storage for central kitchens, with the room specified from daily load and traffic rather than floor area.
Countertop & Bar Display Cases
Back-bar and countertop refrigeration where the bar or service counter is the working position.
Beverage Display Coolers
Front-of-house drink storage and display where visibility matters to the service model.
Selection parameters that decide the model
Prepare these inputs before requesting a model recommendation. Written values avoid a second round of technical review.
| Pan and rail format | Gastronorm pan size, pan depth and rail configuration set the useful working capacity of a prep table. |
|---|---|
| Worktop height and reach | The bench height has to suit the people using it and the aisle behind it. Confirm with the site, not from a drawing alone. |
| Load per service or per batch | Kilograms entering at a defined temperature per service or per production batch. This drives the refrigeration duty. |
| Ambient at the unit position | Measure the temperature where the cabinet will stand during the busiest hour. Kitchens vary widely from wall to wall. |
| Opening frequency and access type | Drawers, solid doors and glass doors behave differently under heavy use. State how often the unit is opened and by how many people. |
| Chilling target and window | For cook-chill production, give the target core temperature and the time window your food safety plan defines. |
| Footprint and service clearance | Aisle width, door swings, cleaning access and space to pull the unit for service are all site constraints, confirmed per project. |
| Utilities and documentation | Voltage, frequency, phase, drainage and ventilation, plus the destination market and its documentation requirement. |
Common procurement mistakes
- Buying a prep line from a width and price comparison without mapping the pans and the station workflow.
- Ignoring measured ambient temperature near cooking equipment.
- Using one cabinet for raw and ready-to-eat product, then compensating with operational rules that staff cannot follow at peak.
- Expecting undercounter storage to carry the duty of a prep table, or the reverse.
- Planning a central kitchen without a defined chilling step between cooking and storage.
- Leaving service access and spare-parts planning until after the kitchen layout is fixed.
- Sending an RFQ without the destination market, which delays the compliance and documentation review.
What to send with the RFQ
Send the station list, the product held at each station, the pan format, the load per service, the measured ambient, the footprint and aisle constraints, the utilities and the destination market. For central kitchen projects, add the batch size, the cooked product entry temperature, the chilling target from the food safety plan and the daily storage volume.
SHEHOPE is based in Foshan, Guangdong, China, and works through a shared manufacturing system with more than 20 years of experience, a 20,000 square meter production facility, four production lines, an annual capacity of approximately 50,000 units and an ISO 9001 quality system. Typical production planning runs 15-30 days, confirmed by model, quantity, season and customization scope. CE, CB and RoHS documents are confirmed per model and destination market, and warranty terms are confirmed per project.
Equipment families used here
Prep Tables & Worktops
The working surface of the prep line, in chilled and freezing versions, selected by pan format and station layout.
Upright Kitchen Refrigeration
Reach-in and dual-temperature storage for bulk ingredients, staging and service backup.
Blast Freezers
Batch chilling and freezing after cooking or portioning, specified from load weight and process time.
Cold Rooms & Walk-Ins
Bulk chilled and frozen storage for central kitchens and high-volume sites, sized from daily load.
Countertop & Bar Display Cases
Working refrigeration at the bar and service counter where the operator position is the storage position.
Beverage Display Coolers
Front-of-house drink display and self-service storage for restaurant and cafe service models.
Frequently asked questions
Prep table or reach-in refrigerator for a kitchen line?
A prep table is a work surface with refrigeration underneath, so it belongs at the station where ingredients are assembled. A reach-in refrigerator stores product between services. Most kitchens need both, and the quantity of each follows the station count and the menu, not a fixed ratio.
Does a central kitchen need a blast freezer?
It depends on the production plan. If cooked product has to be brought down to a defined condition before storage, a planned chilling or freezing step is part of the process. The unit is then specified from batch weight, entry temperature and the time window in your food safety plan, confirmed per project.
How do we decide between undercounter, drawer and upright units?
Decide by access, not by volume. Undercounter units suit a station with limited reach space, drawers suit frequent small withdrawals, and upright cabinets suit bulk storage with a walking aisle. Confirm door swing, drawer extension and aisle width on the layout first.
How many prep tables does a kitchen need?
There is no standard ratio. Work from the number of stations, the pans in active use at each station, and the products that have to stay in condition during service. Send the station list and we can map formats against it.
What production lead time should a project plan for?
Typical production planning runs 15-30 days, confirmed by model, quantity, season and customization scope. Project schedules should also allow for drawing approval, documentation review and shipping time, which are confirmed per order.
Plan this project with us
Send the layout, menu or product mix, target temperatures and site conditions. We reply with the equipment list and the questions that still need answers.