From school meals to cookery club, Rational combi-steamer takes the biscuit

Rational’s SelfCookingCenter speeds up catering at Aldborough village primary school, Norfolk

Aldborough SchoolSchool meals are never far from the headlines. Often the focus is on nutritional values, but currently the proposed introduction of free school meals for all children from reception to Year 2 is causing schools to question their catering arrangements. Aldborough Primary School in Norfolk is a typical village school with a role of around 140. The kitchen not only caters for pupils at Aldborough but acts as a hub for two other primary schools, Colby and Erpingham situated nearby. Altogether the Aldborough kitchen produces between 100 and 150 cooked lunches per day. Recently, to cope with demand and ease working practices in the kitchen, Aldborough has installed a ten-grid Rational SelfCookingCenter combi-steamer. “It’s brilliant,” says Tracy Hindry, cook at the school. “We cook everything in it now, we don’t use any other cooker. I can’t imagine how we managed before.” Work in the kitchen starts at 8.15am for Tracy and her assistant, Kerry James. The first 40-60 meals for the satellite schools need to be ready by 11.40am. “Now with the Rational we can cook the vegetables just before loading them into the insulated transport containers,” explains Tracy. “That means they are so much fresher at the other end. Staff there have commented on the improvement.” For the Aldborough children’s meals Tracy finds she can cook the broccoli in 3-4 minutes in the Rational. This means she starts cooking as the children file into the dining hall, so they are getting the freshest, most delicious cooked vegetables possible. “It’s been easy to learn how to use the Rational,” she says. “We can now put on new menu items such as toad-in-the-hole. My old ovens just weren’t hot enough for this but now I can cook it in about 15 minutes. “We’ve even started using it for custard, we can just steam the milk, add the custard powder, give it a quick stir, pop it back in the Rational and that’s that – no lumps at all.” When the extra free school meals start in September Tracy anticipates she will have to cook an extra 50 meals per day. “That would have been a challenge with our old ovens,” she says. “But with the new Rational I don’t think we’ll have any problems. I intend to use the overnight roasting process more to get ahead and free up the oven more during the morning.” Tracy and Kerry also run an after school baking club once a week for 14 pupils. The Rational has helped here too. It’s so quick the children can mix up cakes, biscuits and pastries for Tracy to load into the Rational and they are cooked in time to be taken home at the end of the session. The Rational’s Efficient CareControl feature is a great hit in the kitchen at Aldborough. “Last thing on a Friday we pop in the special cleaning tabs and leave it to clean itself while we are away. When we come back on Monday morning it’s all clean and ready to go. It couldn’t be better,” says Tracy.   The 10 grid Rational at Aldborough Primary School

  • Model: SCC we 101, 3-phase electric, SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency combi steamer
  • Capacity: ten 1/1GN trays – typically 80-150 meals per day

The latest Rational SelfCookingCenter 5 Senses includes:

  • HiDensityControl uses patented dynamic air mixing technology, which precisely controls the speed of the unit’s fan to channel the heat and humidity to exactly where it is needed. This not only delivers outstanding cooking quality, but also allows chefs to maximise output, since they can load more food into the same size cooking cabinet. It also reduces energy consumption and cuts production time compared to previous models.
  • iLevelControl tells the user which different foods can be cooked together at the same time and intelligently controls the cooking time for each rack. It means that everything is cooked to perfection, every time.
  • iCookingControl regulates the cooking processes – even the most complex of cooking routines can be initiated at the touch of a button, thanks to the simple control system. However, numerous new cooking options allow chefs to adjust the cooking process according to their own recipes.   They always know exactly what’s going on, since they can see the status of the cooking process via the control panel. This means no more time-consuming routine tasks, such as monitoring food, and more time for essentials such as creativity.
  • Efficient CareControl further enhances efficiency by detecting the build up of cooking residues in the SelfCookingCenter and always suggesting the appropriate cleaning level. This saves up to 40% in terms of energy, water and chemicals. .
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