I recently attended a full-day seminar that focused on the multiple uses for this astonishingly versatile piece of equipment. A question arose amongst the other attending consultants and operators: Why are so many end-users still reluctant to use this flexible piece of equipment?
Skittles™, a brand name trademarked by one equipment manufacturer, and generally called Combi Pans (CPs), are kissing cousins to tilting skillets or braising pans, about which I wrote in my last article. Not unlike the versatility of tilting skillets, CPs perform the functions of seven pieces of kitchen equipment: steamer, skillet, griddle, fryer, kettle, roaster and holding cabinet. It is the steaming capability that sets it apart.
As far as I am concerned, tilting skillets, also called braisers, hit the top of the multi-functional equipment list. They are similar to large cooking pans, with deep sides and a lid, in which food can be braised, fried, blanched, simmered, thawed, steamed, griddled, poached, browned, boiled, simmered, grilled and stewed.
Maybe you’ve heard this, but it bears repeating: energy consumption in American foodservice kitchens is mind-boggling. I recently explained to a client why energy-efficient equipment and practices must go hand-in-hand and, secondly, why new energy-efficient equipment is worth the investment for the long-term even if the price stings a bit now.
Some pooh-pooh it – but it is more than a trend. Daniel Boulud already knows it. As does Colin Alveras, Boulud’s DBGB beverage manager in New York City who claimed it to be the wave of the future. However, many erroneously think that tapped keg wine is cheap wine. But Google wine taps to see how many savvy operators running quality wine programs have embraced keg wine.
“During the past decade a technology revolution has taken place in the restaurant industry. What once was viewed as equipment and systems that made economic sense for only large, multi-unit restaurants, are now common place even among smaller, one-restaurant independents.” Restaurantowner.com
As one web site states, “No kitchen exhaust = no cooking = no restaurant… or so most of us used to think.” Indeed, there was a time that the idea of creating a real menu from a kitchen without hoods would have seemed nearly impossible. Enter the ventless kitchen – something I am encountering with more and more frequency.
Though not yet required in professional kitchens everywhere, it is my projection that within five years blast chillers and/or freezers will become mandatory. With the outpouring of public concern about food safety in restaurants and foodservices in the U.S., coupled with the ever-present news of food-borne illness outbreaks, cooling food properly will become a paramount area of concern by Health departments.
Several recent projects have reinforced in my mind the connection between concepts, menus, facility designs and kitchen equipment. Most restaurant financial experts will advise operators to hold fast to a two-to-one sales to investment ratio if they want to pay off their debt load within three years (desirable). What this means – and few want to hear it in the planning process – is that if operators are projecting $800,000 in annual sales, they need to keep fully loaded expenses in the start-up to $400,000 maximum.
The upcoming annual SFM Conference will include a discussion of rising commodity prices and how menu engineering, waste management and reductions in energy consumption can provide more beneficial, more corrective solutions for operators compared with raising menu prices. As a MAS consultant, this leads me to my favorite topic: How foodservice equipment plays a significant role in easing operational challenges and can protect profits.
My love affair with cook and hold ovens (we called them prime rib ovens back then) began in 1983 when I was Menu Development Director for a large group of restaurants in Seattle. Our prime rib program relied on these ovens to produce perfect beef consistently that could be held for hours with no quality degradation.
I’ve only got about 500 words to clarify this abused cooking method, a favorite of nearly every culture since the ancient Egyptians. With attention to healthful eating at an all-time high, deep-fat frying has taken on ugly connotations. That’s too bad.
As I’ve written before, it still amazes me when I am asked why commercial kitchen equipment fascinates me, since I am not a kitchen designer. All I can say is potential -- for enormous creativity, profit opportunity, consistency, labor savings -- and quite simply, equipment is cool!
Thermal immersion circulator? Thermal circulating bath? Sous-vide? Are these parts Japan needs to repair its damaged reactors? Or a sequel to a foreign science fiction film? Close, but no. These are kitchen terms that are being heard more and more in U.S. facilities. While relatively new in American kitchens maybe, sous-vide is not so new to European operators.
Chefs are often passionate about tradition! And new equipment, though more flexible and energy efficient, is often viewed with skepticism. Induction is such a technology.
Used for years in Europe in the finest restaurants – often as the only source of countertop heat -- induction is the first technology that offers all of the benefits of cooking with gas, with none of the drawbacks.
