Commercial Kitchen Services was founded by Steve Sandlass in early 2020. He had always liked to repair things and studied electronics in high school and college, working in the repair field for several years. But like many people his first real job was in a restaurant, he had become a young manager while still in school, loved the business and was drawn back to the kitchen once again. 

In 1988 he was given the opportunity to combine both careers and was hired by Commercial Parts and Service of Ohio as a Cooking Equipment Technician. Two years later he was offered the position of Service Manager. He inherited a six person team, but saw the opportunity to expand. At that time most restaurant service companies specialized in the cooking and processing equipment, they left the cold stuff to others. Tired of referring his existing customers to other vendors for refrigeration service repairs Steve decided to create his own refrigeration department. As his department continued to grow, he looked for additional revenue sources, Preventative Maintenance became one of those. In the mid 1990's this was a fairly new concept for the restaurant industry, and he had to build a program from scratch. During this time he learned how to work with the various stakeholders in the equipment industry. The manufacturers, the factory representatives, equipment dealers, consultants, the supporting trades and of course the end users. When Steve decided to move on in the fall of 2000, he had developed a 30 person service department, but it was time to return home to the east coast. 

Steve reached out to an associate at EMR in Baltimore looking for a position where his experience and talents could be utilized. He was hired to open a new office the company was planning in Philadelphia. Starting in the companies Delaware office to learn the company culture and systems, he helped to grow and turn around this operation. In 2002 the new EMR of Philadelphia was opened, over the next 15 years the operation grew to 20 technicians and support staff. It was time to make a move again when his youngest child moved away from home, he and his wife decided to make a jump to the Delaware Beaches. He was fortunate to be able to transfer to a sales position in EMR's Delmarva location.

After spending over 30 years in the restaurant service industry it was time for a new direction, he decided to utilize his experience to offer the benefit of an in house expert to every sized kitchen operation and created CKE-Consulting. While working with his clients he noticed a disturbing trend, the existing service companies were not delivering the level of service that Steve thought his clients deserved. And so he decided to pick up his tools and offer commercial service directly.