Catering to new demands

Catering to new to new DEMANDS

The changing nature of the hospitality business in dealing with Covid has caused many operators to re-think their businesses models and menus with delivery and takeout options, and hygiene considerations, to the fore as foodservice businesses continue to adapt.

DELIVERY FOCUS

Redbox is an innovative delivery proposal aimed at ensuring an incomparable quality of delivered food, as though it were consumed at the restaurant table, claim its supplier Gi.Metal.

The home pizza delivery, as with any other hot food suitable to be delivered, is a much requested service for many restaurants, having also experienced signifi cant growth in demand during the lockdown period. Indeed, this service is becoming more essential, feel Gi.Metal, but it is not always linked to the quality concept - a concept beloved by the pizzaiolo who engages all his passion, from the choices of fl ours to the rising of the dough, up to the selection of the ingredients for cooking fi rst class pizzas. Thus, when the pizza is delivered to the customer’s home, as opposed to being served at the table, the quality is often compromised, causing not only the discontentment of the customer but a dislike for the delivery services in general.

RedBox – a new box for professional home delivery – sets out to solve this problem by maintaining the quality of the pizza, and of any other hot food, by ensuring the maintenance of heat and crispiness thanks to a patented system of temperature and humidity control. Pizza, pasta, fried food, hamburgers and any other hot food can be maintained in the right degree of warmth and humidity, enhancing the most refi ned and sophisticated ingredients without compromising taste and quality, claim Gi.Metal.

RedBox allows for the adjustment and maintenance of constant, set temperatures for all deliveries, adjusting it from 65°C up to 120°C. The patented RedBox system is electric, powered by a specifi c lithium battery, and off ers a large capacity. It has also been designed to be used on all types of cargo scooters, both electric and gas, and on cars (four seats or more, with folding rear seats) cited in the trunk, with a special adaptation kit.

An appropriate control unit, special heat diff users, sensors and proprietary technology allow the set temperature to be adjusted and maintained (65°C/120°C) and patented temperature and humidity control system so that the food stays dry and its taste is preserved. RedBox features a durable stainless-steel structure which is easily washable and sanitised.

Currently, Gi.Metal Delivery Solutions say that they are off ering diff erent purchase options, rental or fi nancing to help operators off er the best delivery services, and personalised quotes can be provided according to a business’s needs.

SPEED MATTERS

“As the demand for hot food to go continues to rocket across the sector, so does demand for pieces of equipment that can keep up with the pace,

dry and its taste is

particularly within pizza outlets where operators are looking to serve a customer in a matter of minutes. It is therefore important that operators invest in a pizza oven that is equipped to keep up with this pace,” says Steve Hemsil, sales director – UK & Ireland, Welbilt (https:// www.welbilt.uk/).

“For example, Welbilt’s Lincoln Impinger II Express with FastBake® technology allows operators to bake up to 35% faster than other conveyor ovens, thus providing venues with the chance to increase turnover, whilst also reducing queues for customers.

“Also designed to ensure a crisp, even bake, time after time, the Lincoln Impinger II Express is a must for venues that are looking to elevate their pizza off ering. Plus, as this unit automatically takes control of the entire baking process, the user does not need to monitor the bake quality. In fact, this impressive pizza oven even automatically ejects the pizza from the oven at the optimal time!”

Boasting a spacious 28” baking chamber, the Lincoln Impinger II is also suited to venues that are looking to meet high pizza demands with no compromise on quality, claim Welbilt. And for venues that are looking for even speedier pizza solution, then Welbilt suggest their highest-speed Merry model - the eikon® e2s (operators can cook pre-baked pizzas in as little as 75 seconds, and frozen pizzas in under two minutes, with no compromise on food quality).

“Thanks to these exceptional speeds, operators will not only be able to signifi cantly reduce wait times for customers, but be able to generate additional revenue by turning over a high volume of pizza orders,” adds Steve Hemsil.

Jestic Foodservice Solutions (www.jestic.co.uk) reports that it has strengthened its equipment portfolio after securing a deal to become a trade distributor for the XpressChef™ range of advanced high speed ovens. XpressChef™ from ACP Inc. high speed ovens are trusted by QSR operations around the world to deliver high quality food, in a fraction of the time – and are available in a variety of footprints, capacities and cooking technologies. “We are delighted to be able to off er our customers the XpressChef range from ACP Inc. All three variants, the 2C, 3i and the 4i have the proven power and performance to rapidly cook a wide variety of menu items to a consistently high standard. Effi ciency and speed are complemented by ease of use with simplifi ed menu management and controls which can be used by staff of any skill level to give foodservice operators a competitive advantage,” says Steve Morris, sales director at Jestic Foodservice Solutions.

The XpressChef 2C combines a powerful 2700 Watt convection oven and a 1400 or 1900 watt microwave to produce high quality baked goods fast. Perfectly suited for front or back of house, feel Jestic, the 2C is compact but can still cook a 12” pizza and is stackable, to increase throughput and save valuable counter space. The XpressChef 2C also features a user friendly lift and pull handle and a full colour, multi-lingual LCD HD display (ventless models with catalytic converters are also available).

The XpressChef 3i provides speed and performance in a compact, front of house footprint. Available with an impressive 4000 or 5000 Watts of power, the three cooking technologies – impingement, convection and microwave - make cooking a variety of foods on-demand quick and easy, claim Jestic. The ventless 3i can be positioned anywhere, saving on the expense of ventilation systems. It also benefi ts from a number of safety features including the cleverly engineered gasketless inner door, which drops well below the cooking surface for the safe removal of food from the cavity.

The 4i, with its the generous 38 litre cavity makes high-volume, speed cooking easy - harnessing impingement, convection, infra-red radiant and microwave cooking technologies to give operators a fast, powerful and fl exible cooking solution. Operators can bake, roast, grill, steam, and toast. The easy to use 7” True Touch™ HD Touchscreen is fully customisable, and incorporates a HD image-based menu to eliminate any language and literacy barriers. The 4i is also easy to clean thanks to a host of features including pre-installed non-stick oven liners, two cleanable air fi lters, with a ‘clean fi lter’ reminder and the gasketfree, easy-clean door seal.

XpressChef joins Jestic Foodservice Solutions’ impressive range of leading brands including Henny Penny, Josper, Wood Stone, Vitamix, Alfa, Metro, Edge, Sveba Dahlen, Venix, Irinox, Rotisol, Rosinox, Frontline International, Moduline, Antunes and Carlisle Foodservice Products.

TRADITIONAL DECK

For operators seeking to add to, or boost, their pizza off ering quickly, and with minimum fuss, electric deck ovens off er a good solution. Blue Seal Commercial pizza ovens, for example, are traditional Italian style, stone base deck ovens, perfect for cooking delicious deep-base or thin based pizza, claim the company. Designed for everyday professional use, these powerful electric ovens can cook at the all-important high temperatures necessary to help ensure fast service, as well as great cooking results.

They can also act as an alternative to wood burner stoves, or gas ovens, point out Blue Seal, which for some operators can mean higher maintenance, as well as require more specialist and costly extraction systems to take away smoke and fumes. Blue Seal’s ovens can accommodate four 12” pizza per deck, are compact, versatile and very operator friendly, point out the fi rm.

Single deck and twin deck ovens, which operate up to 400°C giving optimum cooking temperatures for decks of their size, are available in their range. The single deck can be stacked onto the twin deck very easily so as to create a capacity-boosting triple deck, as well as helping to maximise the output from the fl oor space. The Blue Seal oven chambers also all function independently, allowing the pizza chef to control temperatures and bake more types/sizes of pizzas at once, therefore reducing serving times for busy restaurants.

“We appreciate that restaurants need uncompromised, consistent quality results from the equipment they use,” says Blue Seal’s David Chesshire. “That’s why Blue Seal pizza ovens use accurate thermostatic temperature control and eco-compatible material for thermal insulation, and their high quality refractory stones which provide excellent heat retention.

“Each chamber has top and bottom temperature control, so the pizza chef can adjust the performance of the chamber to suit baking pizza either in pizza pans, or traditionally straight onto the stone. These ovens compliment the rest of the Blue Seal product range very nicely, maintaining the power/ performance and reliability expected from our brand.”

HYGIENE AND CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

Wrapmaster – the award-winning professional dispensing system – has launched a new food safety hub to keep kitchens virus free and get businesses back on track. Bringing together consumer insight, need to know information and top advice from Covid19 food standard experts, the Wrapsafe

hub has been designed to provide simple solutions to keeping chefs safe, and kitchens hygienic, say the fi rm.

Available at www.wrapsafe.co.uk, the portal features a specialised video from top food safety expert and Covid19 standard advisors, Safer Food Scores to help identify the best hygiene practices for kitchens, and over on the Wrapmaster video page, chefs can also access six individual videos examining and advising best kitchen practice. Presented by Audrey Deane, technical director at Safer Food Scores, the videos off er straightforward and practical guides when it comes to food prep, team safety, catering equipment, as well as kitchen cleanliness during and after service in the new normal.

“Wrapsafe is designed to provide easy, achievable steps to keep kitchens safe and reassure diners. As a foodservice partner, Wrapmaster is focusing on helping kitchens navigate this new normal and now more than ever our team is passionate about helping chefs rebuild their confi dence with a fullservice approach. We hope through Wrapsafe – as well as our hygienic and safe dispensing systems – we can help operators get back to business,” says Adrian Brown, managing director, Cofresco Foodservice.

“Consumers are hyper aware of just how important hygiene and food safety is. A staggering 93% of diners would feel reassured if pubs, restaurants, and takeaways took steps to update equipment that can be cleaned out and sterilised regularly. Simple upgrades like swapping to Wrapmaster will have a direct impact not only on your hygiene,

Carluccio’s install wood fi red pizza ovens

Chimfl ue and exodraft report that they have been working with several of the Carluccio’s restaurants following a buyout of the brand, saving 31 restaurants in the chain.

Several of the rescued sites are being developed to include wood fi red pizza ovens - a focal point in the restaurant to deliver perfect, wood fi red pizzas and the theatre of having the pizzaiolo in the centre of the restaurant.

The Carluccio’s chain was established in 1999 by the late chef Antonio Carluccio, and was a great success for many years, with more than 70 locations opened UK wide. However, with such fi erce competition in the restaurant sector followed by the catastrophe of lockdown, unfortunately the company went into administration. 1000 staff lost their jobs and 40 sites were closed, but in a deal that saved the brand, the Boporan Restaurant Group bought the name and 31 of the restaurants saving more than 800 jobs (the group is also the owner of Giraff e, Ed’s Diner, Cinnamon, and Fishworks, as well many other brands in food production).

Chimfl ue engineers and their installer team designed and fi tted extract system for the new oven at Carluccio’s in Solihull, during their refurbishment. The centre piece is a beautiful copper-clad Mobi pizza oven installed in the restaurant area, with a glass walled seating area surrounding it.

The dual fuel fi red pizza oven was connected to a Poujoulat Therminox TI twin wall fl ue which passed around the existing ceiling void before rising to termination above roof surface with an exodraft RSV016 - guaranteeing perfect draft to the oven at all times.

The control system coupled with this fl ue and fan incorporated CO and CO2 detection along with current monitoring. This arrangement allows an interlock to be installed into the gas supply to the oven and also ensures automatic running of the extract in the event of out of hours spillage being detected – all in line with the guidance set out in DW172.

These works were carried out in a matter of a few days by one of Chimfl ue‘s experienced installation teams and the restaurant was soon up and running on schedule serving a delicious range of pizzas for both dine in and takeaway customers.

Don’t delay combi-cleaning, warns Rational

Rational is warning that it’s essential for kitchen staff to follow the cleaning procedures recommended by their machine’s manufacturer to keep combi steamers operating safely and effi ciently.

The company says that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, some operators are delaying cleaning in order to save money, but this can lead to the build-up of dirt and scale, which may compromise cooking results, increase energy consumption and running costs and ultimately lead to equipment breakdown.

Typically, combi steamers should be cleaned every day as part of the kitchen routine. Most quality machines have self-cleaning programs that make what would be a time consuming and unpleasant chore eff ortless. On Rational’s new iCombi Pro, the iCareSystem tells operators when they need to run the programme to clean the combi, minimising the use of chemicals – because it only asks for a clean when it’s necessary (call 01582 480388, freephone 0800 389 2944 or visit www.rationalonline.com). but also consumer perception in the months ahead.”

“Working with Wrapmaster and through the Wrapsafe project, we want to show the simple steps, tricks and solutions that will reduce levels of viruses and bacteria in kitchens. They’re all easy, achievable and by changing some old habits chefs really can boost hygiene standards in their kitchen,” adds Audrey Deane.

“With 71% of consumers saying they will now check hygiene standards online or with operators before booking a table, improving hygiene back-of-house can have a big impact on what happens front-of-house (Toluna data). The Wrapsafe hub also off ers downloadable interactive guides and infographics to help operators understand their diners’ worries.”

Jestic has been adding a number of hygiene and sanitation-related equipment to its portfolio of products in recent times, having expanded its range of Metro commercial storage and shelving products with a fl exible range of PPE and sanitiser storage solutions, including a PPE Tree, a Multifunction Mobile PPE Station and a PPE Check-In Station which off ers mobile and secure storage.

The four-sided PPE Tree, for example, increases the availability of hand sanitiser and PPE in high traffi c areas, whilst handy shelves provide the fl exibility to store supplies, other PPE, or hold a waste container The Multifunction Mobile PPE Station includes Total Lock castors which make the station easy to reposition and stable when in use, plus rails can be reconfi gured or used for mounting signage. The PPE Check-In Station off ers safe and secure PPE storage and access for a kitchen brigade or work shift and comes complete with two single glove box holders, one x gallon sanitiser holder and one x 2 two litre sanitiser holder in Metroseal grey with antimicrobial protection.

The company has expanded its Venixlife range too with the O3 box – a fl exible and compact ozone sanitisation cabinet, suitable for a wide variety of foodservice and workplace applications.

“With Coronavirus still a very real danger, ensuring the safety of staff and customers remains a priority. The O3 Box incorporates an ozone generator and laboratory tests have shown it can eradicate up to 100% of viruses and

bacteria after a full cycle - so operators can rest assured that a wide variety of items from plates to glassware, to cookware and even work uniforms are sanitised, hygienic and safe to use,” explains Steve Morris.

“The stylish stainless-steel cabinet will fi t seamlessly in commercial kitchen environments and with a footprint of just 600mm x 630mm operators will also appreciate the space-saving design.”

Adjustable shelves in the O3 Box incorporate specially designed slots so the ozone can circulate freely to ensure a complete and eff ective sanitisation.

If there’s one area of foodservice hygiene that consumers are aware of, it’s ice. Every year the media carries stories about problems with ice hygiene in pubs, fast food outlets or shops. One of the issues is in the cleaning of the ice machines, which is why Hubbard Systems say that they have recently launched the Scotsman range (www.scotsman-ice.co.uk) of XSafe icemakers into the UK. To back up this launch, Hubbard is also off ering all XSafe customers a certifi cate that they can display in their premises and a sticker for their window or door, confi rming that the ice is XSafe-protected. XSafe is a sanitation system that’s certifi ed to destroy all known bacteria and viruses (including coronaviruses) and signifi cantly reduces the growth of yeasts, moulds, mildew and slime within the ice maker. It’s highly eff ective at keeping the interior hygienically clean, claim Hubbard, thus it not only enhances food safety (ice is classifi ed as a food) but also reduces staff workload, since they don’t have to clean the machine as often. “We need to be creating an environment where consumers feel safe when they go to a foodservice site,” says Pete Gray, managing director of Hubbard Systems. “These certifi cates and stickers contribute to that, by showing that the operator is taking measures to make their site as hygienic and safe as possible.” Scotsman XSafe is a complete sanitation system which operates 24/7 and requires no day-to-day maintenance, say Hubbard, as it works silently in the background whenever the ice machine is in normal production mode, providing continuous protection of both the ice which is produced and the ice which is stored within the confi nes of the storage bin. XSafe also uses the natural disinfectant power of UV light to help keep the interior of the ice machines in peak hygienic condition, and unlike standard UV systems, XSafe fi rst uses the UV light to convert oxygen into ozone, then converts the ozone into activated oxygen, then blows it throughout the interior, point out Hubbard. This activated oxygen is what attacks a wide spectrum of contaminants, including coronaviruses, germs and bacteria. It does this by