In Spring 2010, Porter Khouw Consulting (PKC) was hired by the prestigious Johns Hopkins Health Systems to assist with the design of a brand new Central Production Kitchen and associated support galleys. The hospital is building a new clinical building adult tower and a new clinical building children’s tower. With the addition of the two new towers, Johns Hopkins will have a total capacity of 1,200 beds as well as introducing a new room service-style option for patient feeding that will allow patients to order made-to-order food when they want it. The additional beds and the change in service required that the kitchen and food prep area (specifically the tray make-up area) be modified for this new style of service.
In addition, the hospital currently produces food at various sites throughout the medical campus and hospital administrators wanted to improve efficiencies by consolidating all of the food production into the main kitchen.
PKC designed a 32,000 square foot central production kitchen that can support patient feeding as well as food production for the other on-site dining outlets and for catered events. The new kitchen includes the following functions/areas: cook/chill, central bakery, produce production, garde manger, ingredient room, sanitation/washing areas and freezer and refrigeration rooms.
