I am desperately trying to get my home kitchen licensed so I can finally be free to do whatever cakes I want from my home. I am having a REALLY hard time with the three-compartment sink sizes. I know each county will have their own regulations, but can you guys please tell me how large you have been required to make your sink basins to get them approved? I am told that my sinks must be large enough to soak my pans completely submerged for one minute in the sanitizing solution. My largest pan at the moment is a 16" round, which means that would have to be one HUGE sink to soak that baby in. How do you all do this? Are your sinks just THAT big? Or do some counties allow you to stick them in one end at a time? Maybe I should just refuse to do cakes this size.

Please, please, please...I would very much appreciate knowing how large your sinks are! Thank you!

We have a standard commercial 3-compartment sink for Wash, rinse, sanitize, and it was approved for use without the 20qt mixer bowel being able to be completely submerged. This might be up to the individual inspector's discretion, but there wasn't a larger option, so it was approved. When it is used, it is rotated in the sanitizing sink so that all surfaces are in contact for the required time.

you can either ask your inspector (and risk bringing up a 'grey area' that they would then have to address) or not mention it and not have present at your inspection the 16" pans (knowing full well that you will sanitize them properly, but not making it a possible issue at time of inspection).

good luck

In order to comply, my sink is nine feet long. Two drain boards were required and my largest sheet pan had to be able to be 2/3 submerged. Each area is different. A restaurant supply store will be able to rattle off the specific size you will need for your area and your pans. But I will say this, that is one great sink! Huge, but so convenient.

Thanks for your input guys!! Needless to say, the whole process of getting your kitchen licensed has a lot of ups and downs!!

SCP1127, that nine-foot sink sounds tremendous!! And it's in your house?

One other thing that I've been wondering about it how they treat your personal items. I mean, I guess in order for it to be licensed, you have to use your kitchen as a commercial kitchen 100% of the time? That may sound like a dumb question, but from a legal standpoint it would seem like they can't exactly license your kitchen as following the proper health and sanitization procedures if you're only following those procedures when you're cooking for customers. Does that make sense? Does anybody have any input on that?

My commercial kitchen is on the first floor of a three story house. They don't allow home kitchen use in my two states. This is a separate kitchen only connected to the house by the staircase door. We hadn't used the space in years. I have about 1200 square feet, so that sink is great. But no matter what my circumstances were, that sink had to be that big.

The kitchen is for business use only. I can have canned drinks for myself, but that's about it. I am licensced fully for food too, so I had to know the rules about chicken, etc., but I am a bakery only. I do bake family desserts in the commercial kitchen because all of the equipment is down there, but that's ok, it just was baked in a licensed kitchen.

My biggest mistake: I am only 5'1". I asked for the sink to be the same height as a standard kitchen counter. Was I wrong! The sinks are so deep that I have to bend over. One day I'll fix it. Make the depth of the sink right for your height.

Around here, the sink has to be big enough to submerge 1/2 of your largest piece of equipment, generally a sheet pan. I only have half sheet pans. My 20 qt mixer bowl counts as a "clean in place." It sort of *becomes* a sink.