Harvard plans to build a new kitchen in the passageway between Kirkland and Eliot Houses this summer in an effort to expand seating in the two dining halls and ease preparation and cleanup for food workers, officials said yesterday.

The new facility will cost about $500,000 and is expected to pay for itself within three years from money that now supports separate dishwashing and other services in both Houses, officials added.

Frank Weissbecker, director of Food Services, said that the space now occupied by the kitchen in each House will accomodate newly positioned serving lines and salad bars, clearing more space for tables and chairs.

"Initially the Houses were designed for waiter service, so [the current] serving lines are an encroachment on the dining rooms," Weissbecker added. The changes, he said, will "add to the delight of student dining."

Central Kitchen

The large, central kitchen serving Kirkland and Eliot--in addition to Leverett, Lowell and Winthrop--will still provide all food for the two Houses, but the new building will combine the preparation and cleaning functions now duplicated in small Kirkland and Eliot kitchens, said Richard Montville, director of the five dining halls.

Citing the greater control and supervision over kitchen workers and food quality that would result from the new building, officials declined to discuss what effect the consolidation would have on the number or distribution of food service staff.