Kitchens are very often too large, have oversized, poorly utilized devices and the team cooks with one method. That’s why commercial kitchen enterprises are often not as profitable as they could be. Those who wish to re-organize their operations need to carefully analyze all options.
Which areas does a kitchen chef focus on? Do they offer low cost dishes, is a high level of freshness important for them, do the cooking processes have to run very quickly, do they use convenience products intensively, or do they have to produce very efficiently and optimize their workflow in the kitchen? Would they like to cook directly in front of the guests and need flexibly useable equipment for this, which they can use in the classical production, as well as in front cooking? Is their budget so tight that they have to buy the most reasonably priced goods that they can find on the market, or is it important for them to keep costs low, over the entire term of their investment, which is usually only possible with expensive equipment, because they are more energy-efficient and wear resistant? Do ecological considerations like lower use of resources, heat recovery, minimization of emissions, etc. play a role? But perhaps they also look for a compromise between all of these possibilities and therefore faces the interesting challenges of having to combine different procedures with each other.
Sous Vide equipment
One of the cook’s considerations could be to prepare sensorial food, which is particularly sensitive like vegetables, in a plastic bag “under vacuum” at low temperatures in special Sous Vide cookers. With this type of cooking, the food doesn’t come in contact with cooking water during the cooking process so that the nutrients and flavorings are not washed out, but are preserved to a large extent. The same applies for the product-specific consistency. The devices have a precision thermostat, which keeps the temperature constant at + 0.5° C and high-performance re-circulation pumps. These allow the water to circulate optimally and ensure an even temperature in the cooking chamber. Because this is low, this cooking method minimizes weight loss, but cannot be used for large amounts of food to be cooked. These devices offer currently a cooking volume of maximum of 25 l.
Cooking at low temperatures
The level of the temperature is also an important issue, especially if large amounts of meat have to be prepared. With traditional cooking processes, meat loses up to 25% of its weight. This is economically not justifiable in this day and age. Kitchen professionals can reduce this loss by 60%, when they cook their meat overnight with varying temperatures in a special low-temperature oven. This succeeds very gently with devices, which are equipped with the so-called “heat ring technology”. With this technology, the air in the cooking chamber is not distributed by a fan, but by special heating wires, which are laid in many windings around the heating chamber. Therefore the heat comes from many heat sources and not, like with hot air steamers, from one. Due to the fact that the air from ovens with heat ring technology is almost not in motion, the specialists refer to this as “serene air”. It is less aggressive and heats around the meat, especially if the cooks have even put the meat on grills and not on baking sheets. Thereby, the meat retains its moisture.
Pressure cooking
The pressure cooking technology in multiple function devices like those that the companies Frima, MKN or Elro offer also minimizes cooking losses, but requires a relatively high investment. In the cooking chamber, excess pressure is generated, which brings about a higher temperature and shortens the cooking time. A cook, who uses the system from Frima, requires 116 minutes in order to cook 60 kg goulash.
Regeneration with thermal contact heat technology
If food is supposed to be heated up or kept warm, the thermal contact heat technology is an efficient procedure. Special hot plates make not only optimal, but also energy-efficient heating possible. This technology transfers the warmth precisely over to the meals. Depending on the features of the devices or distribution trolleys it is also able to recognize, which areas on the plate are covered. The system heats them either completely or partially. Plates that are not heated won’t even be heated. Thermal contact plates are built into trolleys, with which food is distributed, be it that the trays are already portioned or in large containers. Since recently, there is even a regeneration oven available, which is equipped with them. The staff can program the thermal contact plates individually. Therefore it is able to regenerate the food gently. It has a choice between four heating temperatures and can therefore regenerate or keep warm different types of foods simultaneously. Therefore, it is in the position to bring deep-frozen vegetables and cooked chicken legs, which have prepared with the Cook & Chill method, simultaneously to the optimal eating temperature.
Innovative refrigeration
It is not unusual for cooks to cool off their cooked hot food in the cold storage cell or freezer room. As is known, it can take hours and depending on the type of food even clearly more than a day until the HACCP required storage temperature of = 7° C has been reached. The germs increase explosively in such a so slow cooling down medium. That’s why blast chillers and shock freezers are standard features in professional kitchens. For operations, in which it is cooked “time-delayed”, they also belong to the basic equipment, because they cook their food up to two to three days before serving, blast chill or shock freeze them, and then regenerate them shortly before serving the food. In this way, large amounts of servings can be waited on table at events with very many people without a major loss in quality in a short period of time. In hospitals or senior citizens’ homes, the food often has to be distributed over a large area. In Germany, this process has to be completed within three hours according to the so-called “good hygienic practice”. Time can get short with the distribution of warm food. With Cook & Chill, on the other hand, this is no problem. The food is either transported to the stations in a cooled food distribution trolley and regenerated there, so that the patients or senior citizens receive their meals with a temperature of 65° C, or the food is heated up in transit. By the use of this pre-production, the establishments need less personal on the weekends. But Cook & Chill or Cook & Freeze can also be a solution to problems in gastronomical establishments, and also in those of large hypermarkets. All of the components of the dishes that are offered are pre-produced, blast chilled or shock frozen, usually stored up to 72 hours, and after the guest’s order regenerated “à la minute”. An important effect of this cooking process is that considerably less of the prepared food has to be thrown away.
Modern blast chillers main features:
• The cooling process must start immediately after putting in the hot components, i.e. even with a core temperature of 92° C. • Cooling down rice and mash potatoes in gastronome containers 1/1-65 should not exceed 90 minutes. High performance devices chill vegetables with a core temperature of 88° C even in 40 to 50 min. down to under 5° C. • The temperature in the interior should be a constant +1° C, so that no moisture is drawn out of the food. In this way, the freshness is kept. Moreover, the device never has to be defrosted. • The cooks must be able to add cooked hot food at any time without affecting the ongoing chilling process. Only then can the capacity of the thermal and refrigeration devices be used optimally. • Every blast chiller has to have a refrigeration unit available that the manufacturer of the blast chiller has also delivered with the blast chiller and is optimally adjusted to it. Only then is it assured that the blast chiller can deliver the necessary top performance at any time. Kitchen professionals should ask for a function check by their supplier in order to check the performance target before the purchase of the device. By the way, this also goes for each device, which an establishment purchases.
Medical care units
A hospital company, which runs the three hospitals, senior citizens’ homes, hospitals and medical care units, would like to serve food to all of their patients, senior citizens, employees, and external guest according to unified standards. That’s why it has invested EUR10 million in their own Cook & Chill logistic center. The persons responsible planned the procedures so that the cooked food could be driven directly to the blast chiller and then from there to the cold storage room without detours. For economic reasons, they planned a capacity of 4, 000 midday meals in food containers resp. of 2,000 trays. From the beginning, it was clear that the facilities of the operating company would deploy only too well 30% of the new operation. Therefore in the medium run, additional marketing possibilities had to open up. Within one year after the start of the production, the operations manager could raise the basic capacity by additional 40%. He acquired a large external customer and expanded the business of “mobile meal service for older people at home”. The business makes a profit, but his production has to be utilized better in terms of profitability. That’s why the operating manager is looking for other customers.
Switching from Cook & Hold to Cook & Chill
In production, the same employees work, who up to now have cooked decentralized in the houses under the system “produce, keep warm for some time, serve ”. It has turned out to be a big challenge to familiarize these employees with the new cooking concept “Cook & Chill”, because the time-delayed cooking processes require completely different planning and operation procedures like the distribution of food, which is warm as well as high precision and this in several respects: For example, by contrast to Cook & Hold, shortages can’t be compensated by cooking something again quickly, because on the day the food the food is distributed, other dishes are on the production schedule. Moreover, the regulatory agency controls systematically the compliance to the strict regulations for EU accreditation; the team also had to get use to that. This and other factors forced all of the employees to a fundamental change in thinking and posed big challenges for the executive personnel. Seamless monitoring of critical checkpoints were required as well as the analysis and removal of the reasons for the deviations. They had to point out to the employees again and again to follow the procedures completely, and had to communicate with them intensively and motivate them. The manager summarized the job profile briefly: “Our executive personnel have always to keep their know-how up-to-date and have to be convincing, decisive, and assertive as well.“ In the meantime, the changeover has been completed. The employees have succeeded in adjusting to the new system so that the persons responsible are able to concentrate on fine-tuning the usual fluctuations during the typical workday. This example demonstrates that modern kitchen cooking and refrigeration units are connected very closely to each another. The devices are becoming smaller and smaller, but are nevertheless more efficient and can be used flexibly. They use less energy than the older ones and offer the cook extensive programs with fully automatic processes. Innovative solutions come about not only from innovative devices, but also from their innovative combination.