The company that invented combi steaming, Rational, is 40 years old in 2013.  Now Rational is celebrating the anniversary by giving UK caterers the chance to win the world’s most popular combi steamer – the Rational SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency®.  The prize, a six-grid model, is worth over £8,000.

The competition is a simple free prize draw.  To enter, all caterers have to do is book and attend a Rational CookingLive demonstration between June 1 and November 30, 2013.   The demonstrations take place every month at over 90 venues across the UK, last about two hours and are free to attend.

To find out more visit www.myrational.co.uk.

“We wanted to do something special to mark the 40^th anniversary,” says Lee Norton, managing director of Rational UK.  “We know that UK caterers love the SelfCookingCenter – it has over 60% share of the combi steamer market – so what better way to say ‘thank you’ than by giving one away?  Of course, if the winner wants to, they can put the value of the prize towards a larger unit, and we will sort out a specially discounted rate for them.

“It’s very easy for caterers to attend a Rational CookingLive – there are so many venues to chose from, most people will be within a few miles of their nearest one.”

The Rational CookingLive gives caterers the chance to see the latest combi steamer technology in action and get hands-on experience of the SelfCookingCenter, with expert help from master chefs.

Everyone attending a CookingLive between June and November 2013 will be entered for the free prize draw.  The winner will be announced in December 2013 – which should make a great Christmas present.

Andrew Biggs is head chef for contract caterer Elior at one of London’s most iconic buildings, Lloyd’s at One Lime Street.  Recently a Samsung microwave CM1929 was installed, for use in the busy pastry section.  However, it’s been a hit with the rest of the kitchen too. 

“It fitted into our needs perfectly,” says Andrew.  “Most of the other sections in the kitchen get great use from it.  Actually, it has surprised us all how a good, powerful microwave can fit into our operation.”

The CM1929 is Samsung’s flagship commercial microwave oven, featuring 1850W power and an internal capacity of 26 litres – 35 per cent more than comparable compact microwaves.  It has touch control pads, seven power levels and the facility to pre-program settings for popular menu items. “It’s a great size and is industrial enough to be used constantly with its programmable settings,” says Andrew.

“Microwaves are usually shunned by chefs due to the ‘cowboy nature’ of using them,” he adds.  “But the Samsung has transformed the way we think.  One of our chefs even used it to showcase his coral sponge for fine dining meals.  It’s very good for tempering vast amounts of chocolate, and it’s also easy to clean.

“It’s now a piece of equipment we use constantly, on a daily basis.”

The Samsung CM1929 at Lloyd’s was supplied by Nisbets.  It is distributed in the UK through Uropa Distribution, via authorised catering equipment suppliers, and is backed by a full three year warranty.

Samsung is one of the world’s largest microwave oven brands.  Samsung Professional Appliances offers a comprehensive choice of commercial microwave ovens, from large-capacity, ‘super-heavy duty’ 1850W units down to light-commercial, budget-priced 1100W models. 

For more information visit www.samsung.com/uk/professional/microwave

or www.uropa-distribution.co.uk

Maguire’s Chip Shop in Rowlands Gill, Newcastle is a family-run business. John Maguire and his wife Carole opened the shop in 1989 and it has been serving takeaway fish and chips ever since. John and Carole have now been joined by their daughter, Karen and son-in-law Michael Sutherland, to take the business forward.

Following frequent enquiries from customers for gluten-free fish and chips Maguire’s decided to look into other ways to cook their classic recipes. A critical issue was what new equipment would need to be purchased. In November 2012 Michael, who manages the shop, attended a Rational CookingLive event at St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United FC.

“I’d heard about the SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency and wanted to see it in action before making a decision,” explains Sutherland. “As soon as the Rational chef put the machine through its paces I realised it was just what we needed to expand our menu options. It’s in a different league to other cooking appliances.”

Maguire’s ordered an electric ten grid SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency straightway and it was installed in late November. Already it’s proved to be a valuable addition. Maguire’s operates as a takeaway six days a week from 9am-2pm and 5pm-9pm so there isn’t a lot of free time for learning how to run new equipment.

“It’s great for baked, steamed and dressed fish. The results are actually better than when fried,” says Sutherland. “We also use it for jacket potatoes.  It’s so quick and easy to use and we didn’t have any trouble getting started. We just select what we are cooking and the Rational does the rest. It even tells us when it needs cleaning.”

As well as the gluten-free options, Sutherland has plans to roast joints of ham and other meats so Maguire’s can offer sandwiches and baguettes – something they couldn’t contemplate before installing the SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency.

“We’re taking it slow,” says Sutherland. “There’s just so much we could do with the Rational. We’re listening to what our customers want and adapting our menu options to suit. If we need advice, Rational experts are on hand to help.”

At the moment Sutherland estimates that the Rational is used for about 20% of the menu. He is going to experiment with blanch-frying the chips and then finishing them off in the Rational for a lower fat option. Chips cooked this way have at least 80 per cent less fat and 36 per cent less calories than those conventionally deep fried.

The new Rational SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency can replace 40-50% off all conventional cooking appliances such as ovens, tilting pans, boilers, steamers or grills. It is this multi-functionality, in a small footprint, that is so useful for chips shops and other takeaways. The Model 101 measures just 847mm (w) x 771mm (d) x 1,042mm (h). Through the new HiDensityControl and Efficient Level Control, it delivers consistency of cooking, whether in small or large batches.

With the Rational, Maguire’s now have the option of responding to all sorts of special dietary requests, expanding their menu options and building up a reputation for customer care and food quality.

“We hope to reach more customers now we can offer more choice,” says Sutherland. “Businesses have to be able to adapt to keep ahead of the competition.”

FRIMA has appointed Graham Kille to head its UK operations.  Graham is a familiar face in the foodservice market, having worked for Rational UK for the last 11 years covering many different roles, most recently as a regional sales director. He also knows the operator side of the catering industry, working as a chef in a wide variety of venues, from hospitals to top London hotels.

“The FRIMA VarioCooking Center (VCC) is a genuinely exciting product,” he says.  “Worldwide, it’s the best selling multifunctional appliance in its class.  Although the Frima VCC has created a huge interest in the UK, sales have been slow compared to those on the continent. 

“My challenge is to show UK customers how to transform their kitchen operations through the benefits and flexibility the VCC can deliver.”

Graham feels that the time is right for the FRIMA VCC.  “We embrace the benefits technology brings in our everyday life, to help make it easier, with smart phones, laptops and so on.  It’s time to bring modern cooking technology into the kitchen, to help the chefs with their ever increasing workloads.

“Modern kitchens simply don’t need the old conventional appliances like six ring burners, fryers, bratt pans, griddles and so on: the VCC does all the work they used to do, in less space and using less energy.”

Graham points out that in Europe the FRIMA is becoming one of the first pieces of equipment that is specified into refurbishments and new builds, as a matter of course.  “It’s very simple to understand why, when you can use the VCC for braising, frying, boiling, searing, soups, stocks, sauces and cooking under pressure.  The VCC gives our customers and designers the opportunity to transform their operations, at a time when there are enormous pressures on kitchen design in terms of space saving and energy efficiency.”

The feedback from existing UK customers underlines Graham’s comments.  “Michael Caines says what he likes most about his VCC is its versatility: at Gidleigh Park they use it to braise, fry, boil, pressure cook and for overnight slow cooking.  He describes it as ‘precision technology that helps us do stuff well.’  That’s a great endorsement from a top chef. 

“We have equally passionate advocates in just about every sector of the market, from schools to hotels to stadia to colleges.”   

Graham welcomes the launch of ‘me too’ versions of the VCC.  “It shows that the concept is now accepted.  However, our competitors don’t have the technology to deliver the flexibility, speed or energy saving of the FRIMA.”  FRIMA also has the advantage of being a specialist in the field.  “We only produce the VCC Multificiency, so we focus on delivering the best benefits to ensure our customers get the best results every time.”

For information and brochures, or to come to a free Cooking Live demonstration, call FRIMA UK on 0845 680 3981, email info@frima-uk.co.uk or visit www.frima-uk.co.uk

The George of Stamford is one of the most beautiful and historic hotels in the UK.  It’s also one of the most popular, not only with customers but also employees: it’s constantly busy and its staff are passionate about their work – many of them have been there twenty years or more.  “People can’t believe how much business we do, or how jolly our staff are, even first thing in the morning!” says General Manager Chris Pitman, who started as a chef at the hotel 40 years ago.

The hotel has 47 beds, two restaurants, two busy bars and two private dining rooms.  In the morning it will serve 200 coffees (excluding breakfast), the informal Garden Room Restaurant is busy at lunch and dinner, while the 90-cover fine dining Oak Panel Restaurant is constantly booked.  Plus The George is a popular venue for weddings and other events. 

“Being so busy creates an enormous amount of crockery and glasses,” says Chris Pitman.  “We had a big rack conveyor dishwasher but we wanted to free up some space, so we looked for something more compact, but which could cope with the numbers.   After checking out a variety of options, we invested in a Winterhalter GS502 pass-through.”

Chris admits that initially staff were sceptical.  “They thought we’d need two of the Winterhalter units to cope with the work.  But they soon realised that it was very fast, very efficient and more than capable of handling our volumes.”

Along with its other duties, the GS502 looks after all the washing for the fine dining restaurant.  “Obviously quality wash results are vital, especially in the Oak Panelled Restaurant – it’s famous for the quality of its cuisine and service, and for its superb setting.”

Sustainability was another key issue when The George was selecting its warewashers. The GS502 pass-through is an Energy model, which uses heat exchangers to recycle energy from waste water vapour, using it to heat up the cold water supply. “It produces very little waste steam, which is great for kitchen staff, and it uses less energy – it was the best in terms of efficiency in our survey.”

For glasswashing, the hotel has two Winterhalter UC-M undercounter machines, fitted with the company’s RoMatik ROXS compact reverse osmosis water treatment system. The ROXS unit means there is no need for glasses to be polished by hand after washing – Winterhalter guarantees they can be used straight away. “The system is amazing – we didn’t believe it would be able to do what Winterhalter claimed, so we got them to take us to three busy sites already using it.  No one had a bad word for it.

“We save so much time – for example, before, if we had an afternoon wedding, then it would be all hands on deck to polish the glasses in time for the evening service. Now we don’t have to worry – we just put the glasses through the UC glasswashers and they come out sparkling.”

Chris Pitman is enthusiastic about the new warewashers. “The Winterhalters are great products.  They save energy, they’re easy to use, they give great results and they’re very economical – for example, we save a lot on chemicals, our old system used to eat them!

“We looked at three or four competitors and we found Winterhalter to be honest and professional – and the machines were ready and fitted on time and in budget.  They also helped us design the wash area, so that we have a very ergonomic traffic flow which works really well.

“We use Winterhalter for our chemicals and they service the machines, too.  If anything goes wrong, we know who to call!  I’ve been in situations where the machine supplier blames the chemicals and vice versa.  This way, we just leave it all to Winterhalter. That’s a big advantage for us.”

Winterhalter at The George of Stamford

The GS502 Energy pass-through or hood dishwasher can process up to 60 racks per hour.  Single-button control with colour coding ensures ultra-simple operation, so washing is always done correctly. High-power nozzles develop enormous washing force for the best results. The hygienic interior and automatic self-cleaning programme guarantee the highest standards of cleanliness. The Mediamat Cyclo filtration system cleans the wash water of floating particles, minimising water consumption – the machine uses only 2.4 litres per wash cycle. Ergonomic handles simplify and speed up the work.

The UC-M undercounter glasswasher has an elliptical washing field that ensures extra washing power. The fourfold wash water filtration system with soiled water sensor minimises consumption. VarioPower controls the water pressure in every washing programme, so that staff can adjust the wash for tough beer mugs or fine wine glasses.  The short programme, for light soiling, can process up to 77 racks per hour.   UC machines come in four sizes, small, medium, large and extra large – The George has the medium machines, which hold standard 500 x 500mm racks.

The RoMatik ROXS is a highly compact reverse-osmosis water treatment system, designed to work with undercounter glass and dishwashers.  It combines all the benefits of a full-size system with low running costs and long service intervals.  This mini-system measures just 469mm (h) x 142mm (w) x 515mm (d), small enough to fit beside or even on top of the warewasher and capable of processing up to 90 litres of water per hour, removing 98% of particles.

Keeping ahead in the foodservice industry means maintaining the highest possible standards of customer service at all times. Increasingly, restaurants are turning to high-tech tools to improve service and attract customers.

Call Systems Technology (CST) has recently teamed up with USA manufacturer HME Wireless Inc to bring up-to-the-minute advances in communications technology to British restaurants. The latest being HME’s new downloadable Restaurant Paging App Suite, designed for use with iOS and Android devices. This gives busy restaurants a complete guest, waiter, and table status system in one easy-to-use app suite that is compatible with standard pagers and most smartphones.

The Restaurant Paging App Suite contains four separate apps to help restaurant staff operate more efficiently while also delivering a more enjoyable dining experience.

CustomerCall enables staff to track wait times and page waiting guests.  It also provides detailed reporting on many aspects of restaurant operations.

WaiterCall keeps waiters, kitchen staff and managers in constant communication for improved waiter efficiency.

Push Button lets users page staff or managers with important updates to keep the restaurant running smoothly.

TableScout lets staff update table statuses instantly for faster and more efficient seating of guests.

The app suite only needs one transmitter, the iStation, and works with all HME Wireless pagers for seamless integration with a restaurant’s current system.  Restaurants can download the whole suite or individual apps to meet their needs. “This is a major breakthrough in restaurant management,” says David Barrett, Sales Manager at Call Systems Technology. “It allows managers to integrate the latest technology with their current paging systems but also means they can use smartphones as well.”

For details, Freephone Call Systems Technology on 0800 389 5642 or call 020 8381 1338, email the company at solutions@call-systems.com or visit the CST website www.call-systems.com

Coffee shops and cafes in hospitals are often open long hours, from early morning breakfasts to late night suppers. A vast range of dishes need to be available throughout the day as visitors and patients pop in and out depending on their schedules.

Rational’s new SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency is equally at home cooking eggs and bacon for breakfast, muffins and pastries for mid-morning coffee, as well as more substantial main meals for later in the day, to keep the cafe well-stocked at all times. There’s no need for late night service to compromise on quality.

The SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency is incredibly easy to use. All staff have to do is load up racks and select what is being cooked and how it should be cooked – the Rational does the rest. It calculates when each rack will be done and even indicates what items can be cooked together. For example, different pan-fried dishes, grilled vegetables, pizza and other bakery products can all be cooked at the same time.

Using the SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency substantially improves the quality of food as consistency between batches is ensured, no matter who is doing the cooking. This is especially useful in hospital cafes where the long serving period means different personnel will be on duty as the day progresses. The SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency is very fast so that menu items can be replenished on a rolling basis and customers get food that is fresher and tastier, as it is not hanging about throughout the serving period.

For managers concerned about sustainability and carbon footprint, SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency ticks the boxes. It uses up to 70% less energy compared to a traditional kitchen without a combi-steamer.

What’s more, there’s no time-consuming oven cleaning at the end of the cooking session, as the SelfCookingCenter automatically cleans itself. All staff have to do is pop in a couple of cleaning tabs, when the unit instructs them to do so, and the unit’s CareControl cleaning system does the rest.

Wood veneer and laminated trays may be attractive initially, but their lifespan is limited and they are costly to replace. Cambro’s latest VZ trays from Foodservice Equipment Marketing (FEM) are constructed from SMC standard performance fibreglass material, which is highly durable and resistant to the everyday wear and tear of the commercial catering environment.

Fibreglass is water resistant; therefore the Cambro VZ trays are far less prone to the damage caused by regular cleaning than their wood veneer and laminated counterparts. This means they need to be replaced less often, saving businesses both time and money.

Laminated and wood veneer trays can harbour harmful bacteria over time, making them unsuitable for schools, universities, hospitals and other environments where germs are easily spread. VZ trays can be washed daily, and their stacking lugs make drying quick, simple and hygienic.

VZ trays are available in both low and high profile shapes, and in several different sizes. There are four different finishes to choose from: light speckled mocha, light echo grey, light pebbled grey and light speckled smoke. Cambro’s durable VZ trays are supplied with a year warranty.

Drake & Morgan also cuts wait times, improves food quality and increases customer spend with ConnectSmart kitchen automation solution implemented by CST

When it comes to lunch, workers in the City tend to have high expectations but only 45 minutes to meet them. Which is a problem for restaurants. But Drake & Morgan, the female-focused, London-based restaurant and bar group, has managed to cut wait times, increase spend per head, quicken table turns and improve food quality across all five of its sites. How? By using the ConnectSmart® kitchen automation software and hardware technology, developed in the USA by QSR Automations® and supplied in the UK by Call Systems Technology (CST).

“We’re all about dining in beautiful surroundings, great food and presentation, and friendly, customer-focussed staff,” says Rob Mitchell, group executive chef. “We cater for the female market in the city. Our menu features a mix of British and European dishes, we offer fifty different wines by the glass and we look for consistency and quality across all the sites.”

Capacity management was a key issue for the Group. Typically a lunch table would wait 15 or 20 minutes from ordering to eating. Given the increasing business, plus the 45 minute window, things needed to speed up so that the restaurants could turn more tables and cope with demand.

Rob admits he was sceptical about kitchen automation at first. Then he saw the system in operation in the States. Benefits like improved food quality and reduced order wait times were clear but one thing really struck home. “Usually in busy restaurant bars there is tension at the pass between kitchen and front of house, as busy waiting staff chase their orders. There are tickets to lose, orders to miss. Not with QSR’s ConnectSmart Kitchen (CSK) graphical software. The system decides what chefs cook. It’s on the screens for everyone to see. No arguments and a lot more harmony!

“It means floor managers never have to come to the kitchen to chase an order, they can spend their time front of house, looking after the customer.”

With CSK, waiting staff automatically send orders straight from the EpoS system to the kitchen.  Here CSK analyses orders and automatically allocates them, via screens at chefs’ stations. “CSK takes the pressure off, by telling chefs what to do next so they can just get on with cooking,” says Rob. The system ensures that, however long each element takes to prepare, all the separate parts for a table’s order arrive at the pass simultaneously, whether it be steak, soufflé or salad. “That means the food doesn’t hang around at the pass but goes straight to the table, so customers enjoy the best possible quality.”

On top of the seventy ‘standard’ menu items, all the Drake & Morgan sites have their own specials of the day – three for lunch and three for dinner. Each head chef decides on these, and inputs them onto their site’s EpoS, which is seamlessly interfaced with ConnectSmart.  “It takes about five minutes to load all six, so it’s no big deal.” The CSK screens also ensure that all kitchen staff have the information and specs they need to prepare the specials.

Rob says that CSK has slashed order completion times from up to 20 minutes to just eight, which has huge ramifications.  “The main thing, of course, is that customers are happy. Also, because they get their main course so quickly, they have enough time for a dessert. Plus, the speed of service means table turnover is increased.”

The system is easy to adopt and CST’s expert support team is on hand to ensure a smooth implementation and answer any questions.  “It takes chefs about a day to get used to the screen and whenever there is an issue, not that there often is, CST are here within a few hours. It’s very good service.”

From being a dyed-in-the-wool ticket man Rob has become a kitchen automation advocate.  “Reduced order wait times, better food quality, increased spend per head, increased table turn, not to mention peace at the pass. QSR’s ConnectSmart delivers on all of it.”

To watch a video interview with Rob Mitchell on the CST website, click here.

Call Systems Technology is the strategic partner for QSR Automations in the UK and Europe.  For details freephone 0800 389 5642, call 020 8381 1338, email the company at qsrautomations@call-systems.com or visit http://www.qsrautomations.co.uk/.