Commercial baking startup guidance
Hi all, I am seeking some guidance for starting a commercial baking operation in a restaurant. I have previous experience only baking in my home, small scale, and selling about 15 loaves at a time. I recently received an opportunity to become a full time baker for a restaurant that is about to open to produce 3 types of bread to start- artisan loaves, Japanese milk bread, and brioche buns. I am wondering for those of you with experience baking at the commercial level, what your recommendations are for ovens, mixers, and other equipment needed to perform a job like this. We are already equipped with plenty of containers, racks, etc so mostly electrical equipment is my question. We will need to purchase a mixer, I am looking at a 20 and 60qt used hobart mixers on FB marketplace. They currently have 2 ovens, a blodgett and imperial I believe convection ovens (see pictures). From my research these may work for the Japanese milk bread and brioche buns but I’m not sure if or how to bake hearth bread if there is no steam option. Any guidance or advice is much appreciated, feeling very overwhelmed and anxious on this opportunity! Also, if any of you have made the transition from home to commercial baker if you have general advice…it seems like a great opportunity to learn and grow more but also very daunting having no commercial experience. It would give me access to a commercial kitchen for my personal business which would be one bonus. Thank you!
