Kitchen Layout

I have made a few observations about the layout of the kitchen, during the month that I have been working here at the Marriott. (Already been there for one month, hard to believe.)

The keys:
The is my biggest issue, just for the sheer amount of time it wastes. Apparently someone was stealing salmon from the walk-ins, so now they must all be locked, at all times.

Meaning that we need keys to get into the fridges, freezers and dry storage rooms. The only exception is the fridges in the kitchen - I'm assuming this is because someone is around to see food being stolen - though they all have locks to lock up at the end of the day.

I made a little rough map, so you can get an idea of how far away some of our fridges are. Light blue is fridge, dark blue is freezer, lightening bolt is unlocked/located in our kitchen. Purple is the dry storage. My station is the red star, keys are the orange star.

If I want to go get 1 pint of strawberries, I have to go get the keys, than walk to the fridges. While the location of the fridges cannot be changed, the key issue can be. Think of how many time people grab something out of a fridge or freezer, or dry storage. There's 44 North, Banquets, and Pastry all working on one shift. Plus those keys also go to the chemical closet, so our dish pit staff use them as well. If the keys are in their place, it is a fairly quick trip, but if they are not, you have to hunt them down, or wait for them to come back. Hunting them down isn't a possibility, as they could be in any of the fridge locations, while waiting for them makes you feel like you are wasting time.

Logical solutions:
Cameras - People will get caught stealing if they put up cameras in the hallways leading to these fridges. It will also cut down on people going to the fridge to text on their cellphones.

More sets of keys - A set in each department would be fair, or a set for each fridge (though they all use the same key, with dry storage being the only exception.)


Plates/bowls:
It seems that every time I go to plate up dishes, I do not have enough flatware. In this case I have to go upstairs (which is where the banquet rooms are, with a larger dish pit in behind everything) and ask around to try and scrape together more dishes. Or I can look in our dish pit, or steal some from the restaurant. The latter is frowned upon.

Logical Solution:
I always seem to be short under 10 bowls. So a new box of flatware would solve this issue.

(I asked Chef once, and he did find another box, so this was solved for medium sized plates.)