Quick cooking’s rapid rise: how more hospitality venues are embracing the fast life

Cheevers says: “We use it for everything. We bake our own bread, and it’s great for that. We can also set it going to prepare batches of canapés throughout the day, knowing they’ll come out exactly as we want them thanks to the programmable recipes.”

Hotels hurry to realise rapid cooking

Hotels too are plumping for the iVario and iCombi Pro. The Smiths at Gretna Green hotel in Scotland is relying on the systems to serve quality meals quickly as well as catering for multiple weddings in a single day.

Head chef Charles Gachomo says: “Before Rational, I used a six-ring burner and a traditional hot plate, which was predominantly gas. Ever since I purchased the iVario, it’s a lot more energy efficient, more consistent and faster. The chefs in the kitchen enjoy using the iVario – I consider it the Lamborghini of the kitchen.”

Gachomo praises the iCombi Pro for its finishing processes, particularly for the plated vegetables and cooked meats served at weddings. He explains: "It only takes eight minutes to finish a plate that’s ready to go to the guest, and it’s as if you’ve cooked everything from scratch. It’s an amazing piece of equipment and a great additional chef in the kitchen.”

Quick culture at cafés

Speed is of the essence at cafés too, as demonstrated by Jamaica Blue’s portfolio of UK coffee shops, part of the global Foodco Group that also includes Muffin Break. As the brand looked to expand, it wanted to ensure efficiency and consistency at scale, and so reviewed its existing kitchen template of an electric oven with a split-top gas hob and griddle, twin-basket fryer and full kitchen extraction system.

After a trial at Jamaica Blue’s Eastbourne store, the chain chose Alto-Shaam’s Vector H4H SX Series multi-cook oven as its new key appliance. The oven can cook twice as much food up to two times faster than its traditional counterparts, helping Jamaica Blue keep up with demand. The unit’s patented ‘structured air technology’ enables high velocity, focused heat for fast, even cooking, while four independent chambers can each be set at different temperatures, fan speeds and cooking times.

Jamaica Blue’s choice of new equipment means it has eliminated the need for gas cooking and multiple appliances, which has reduced costs.

Themed sites want to go faster

Meanwhile, Dublin’s Thunder Road Café, an American-themed restaurant in the heart of Temple Bar, was in search of equipment that would improve speed of service, reduce labour costs, improve profitability and alleviate stress from its staff. It selected Alto-Shaam’s Vector H Series multi-cook ovens and the Cook & Hold Smoker oven, as well as a variety of the brand’s hot holding solutions.

Alto-Shaam’s heated holding solutions are helping to reduce prep time and labour costs, allowing Thunder Road to prepare food before peak service and hold it at the optimal temperature for the best quality and reduced ticket times. Integrating warming drawers, hot holding cabinets and hot food wells alongside the ovens has also improved speed of service.

Owner Patrick Gallagher says: “We feel that by having the best kitchen technologies, it will allow us to retain and attract the best staff to our restaurant. We also liked that they are low energy, waterless and ventless, meaning we saved on our energy and water bills.”

Swift school success

Educational establishments too are grabbing a slice of the speedy cooking action. At the University of Surrey student union, the recently-opened Manor Park social has to rapidly provide students with a range of food and drink from stone baked pizzas through to halloumi fries and paninis, alongside a fully stocked bar. James Lackovic, head of venues, production and safety, opted for Welbilt’s Merrychef conneX 12 and conneX 16 high speed ovens to ensure that Manor Park could be operated easily and quickly by non-qualified students themselves.

Lackovic says: “Students are busy people and often come in between lectures or before going out. Due to the speed of the oven, we can turn most orders around in 5 minutes from the order coming through to the kitchen. 75% of that time is in the preparation and then it takes just 1 to 2 minutes to cook the product in the Merrychef conneX and to get it plated up. The speed of the ovens is paramount in ensuring our success.”

Space saving at speed

With space at such a premium in kitchens, it’s important that rapid cook appliances are compact and can perform multiple roles. Italian-headquartered manufacturer Unox believes it has created the solution to this conundrum with its Speed-X self-washing combi speed oven, which is designed to marry all the capabilities of a combi-oven with the speed and flexibility of an accelerated oven.

Unox UK’s managing director Scott Duncan says: “To successfully manage busy services, chefs working in tight spaces need to produce high volumes of quality dishes – consistently, and on time. We wanted to offer a forward-thinking application that could support chefs in overcoming these challenges. For the first time ever, operators no longer need to choose between the functionality of a combi oven and the speed of a rapid cook oven.”

Getting creative with microwaves

There is a clear divide in the accelerated cooking market between those extolling the virtues of traditional microwave technology and others who believe the cooking method can easily impair food quality if not used correctly.

On the latter side of the argument is supplier Commercial Catering Products (CCP), which represents the Mychef brand in the UK. One of Mychef’s key offerings is the Quick high-speed oven, which uses ‘3D impingement’ to produce impinged heat from three sides to generate temperatures up to 270°C. This is designed to deliver similar cooking times to other accelerated ovens but without using microwaves.

CCP director Rob Gibson says: “It was deliberate move not to use microwaves, as the feeling was that microwave technology can dry out a product, making it rubbery in the case of protein such as chicken, or in the case of cheese, overheat and make it too hot and runny.”

He adds that the Quick oven’s success is supported by a recent trial with a major hotel chain, which resulted in the brand using the oven in its front of house lounge operation.

There are still staunch microwave technology supporters to be found though, including Jestic Foodservice Solutions, which supplies XpressChef accelerated cookers, and Electrolux Professional, which offers the GourmeXpress high-speed cooking solution, both of which combine impingement, convection and microwave methods.

Jestic’s product director Michael Ayre points to XpressChef 3i and 4i’s simple on-screen operation as meaning that food will be prepared exactly to the chef’s demands and consistently served in perfect condition. Electrolux Professional UK and Ireland’s foodservice partner sales manager Alex Reed believes that for GourmeXpress’s technology, “each heating method adds a unique benefit, such as the speed of microwaving or the flexibility of impingement intensity that adds a ‘just grilled’ look on a selection of dishes”.

Meanwhile, Panasonic lauds the traditional microwave as being able to facilitate more complex dishes. Andrew Whyte, European product and planning manager professional kitchen, says: “While the technology initially saw a significant uptake in the grab-and-go market, particularly on the high street, we’re seeing increased interest from gastropubs, formal restaurants and luxury hotels.

“Many businesses are finding truly creative ways to use the equipment, including baking, grilling, roasting and browning, all to highly repeatable standards, using the latest technology.”

It’s exactly this creativity that will see even more hospitality venues entering the fast lane, with dishes progressing ever quicker from ready to cooked, bypassing the ‘steady’ stage along the way.

Suppliers

Alto-Shaam www.alto-shaam.com

CCP www.commercialcateringproducts.co.uk

Electrolux Professional www.electroluxprofessional.com

Jestic Foodservice Solutions www.jestic.co.uk

Panasonic www.panasonic.co.uk/pro-cooking

Rational www.rational-online.com

Unox www.unox.com

Welbilt www.welbilt.uk