Italian restaurant’s combi steamer is ‘a fantastic cooking machine’
La Riviera’s traditional Italian cuisine, cooked perfectly in hi-tech Rational SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency®
La Riviera has been one of Glasgow’s favourite Italian restaurants since 1992. It’s well known for the quality of its food and service, all in the traditional Italian way. But now owner Franco Costantini has welcomed a very modern cooking appliance into his kitchen – a high tech SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency combi steamer from Rational.
“When we got it, it was like a new toy in the kitchen, some of the chefs were a bit scared as it is so advanced,” says Franco. “But we soon got used to it – it’s easy to operate and it delivers fantastic quality.”
La Riviera is in the busy West End, an area full of students with plenty of new residential developments. “We’ll do 50 covers a night during the week, 100 or more at the weekends,” he says. “The speed of the Rational has been a huge benefit.”
Franco has been cooking for over 35 years and has three other chefs in the kitchen. “It’s easy for me to prepare the recipes that people love to eat here,” he says. “But for newer members of the team, it can be a problem. The Rational makes it easy for less skilled staff to duplicate our signature dishes, and maintain consistent quality.”
Up to 75% of the restaurant’s food is cooked in the Rational, a SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency six grid unit (SCC-WE61). “It does so much for us – chicken, pork, steak, fish, both poached and pan-fried. Steamed vegetables come out looking beautiful, full of colour. Roast beef is beautifully moist, and cooked perfectly.”
Franco is impressed by the Rational’s very practical technologies. “I had a combi before and it was nothing like as good. For example, with the Rational we can fill it right up with rosti and it all comes out just the same, from the top shelf to the bottom.”
This consistency is thanks to HiDensityControl, which uses patented dynamic air mixing technology to channel heat and humidity to exactly where it is needed, depending on the state of the product being cooked. HiDensityControl not only delivers outstanding cooking quality, but also allows chefs to maximise output, since they can load up to 30% more food, compared to previous models, into the same size cooking cabinet.
“We have a large menu and we’ve found that the Rational can adapt to a wide range of dishes. We mainly use it for bulk cooking, but we’re finding new uses everyday – it has so much potential and we’re getting there!
“It’s a fantastic cooking machine.”
For information and brochures, or to arrange to come to a free SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency® ‘Rational CookingLive’ seminar, contact your dealer, freephone Rational UK on 0800 389 2944 or see www.rational-UK.com. Visit the iPhone app store for the Rational SCC Expert App.
For more on La Riviera visit www.la-riviera.co.uk