Some Like It Hot
How to choose the right oven for your store, menu
By Abbie Westra
B
reakthroughs in cooking technologies have opened the
doors for foodservice operators to offer a wider variety
of foods with less labor and space.
But what are the differences between them? Which piece
of equipment is best suited for your food program?
Advancements in accelerated-cooking ovens allow retailers
to make high-quality hot foods in a limited-service format.
Be it a TurboChef, Merrychef or some other chef, these
ovens quickly zap countless kinds of food from hundreds of
programmed recipes, often without the need for a ventilation system.
But an accelerated-cooking oven may be all wrong for you.
Perhaps your store is best suited for a combination (combi)
oven—a technology that may be intimidating at first go, but
which has been used widely in Europe for decades. Countertop mini combis work well for small-store applications.
Or what about the trusty conveyor oven, which has also
been upgraded in recent years with user-friendly functions
and a technology referred to as “air fingers”? Even microwaves have advanced beyond their perceptions as residential
popcorn-poppers.
Multifunctionality has been a big focus for equipment
manufacturers in recent years, and retailers should look at
equipment pieces that will perform multiple tasks throughout the day and work in tandem with other pieces of equipment. Perhaps you shouldn’t buy a mini combi oven just to
batch-cook french fries; but if you’re also using that combi to
cook par-baked breads, bake brownies bites, prepare chicken
tenders and cook and hold breakfast sausage patties, then
the ability to bake french fries may be another reason to
make the purchase.
Following is key information to help you build or expand
upon your cooking platform. Know the different types of
cooking technology, think about the future of your menu
and test-drive any equipment before choosing the best oven
for your operation.
Cooking Technology, Defined
• Air Impingement: The type of heat
transfer often used in conveyor
ovens, particularly for the cooking
of pizzas and subs. Air jets direct
columns of high-velocity, heated
air perpendicular to the food surface as the food travels through
the oven on a wire mesh conveyor.
These “air fingers” that create the
air flow are positioned below and
above the conveyor.
• Combi Ovens: Ovens that cook using
• Convection: Baking technology that
steam, convection heat or a combination of the two. In the convection mode, the oven circulates
blasts of dry heat around the cabinet. The steam mode injects water
into the oven for moist heat. The
combination mode uses both dry
heat and steam to maintain exact
humidity levels. Larger combis
hold food at desired temperatures.
uses fans to force air around the
cooking cavity to ensure even
cooking. Used in combi and
accelerated-cooking ovens.
• Microwaves: Used alone and in
accelerated-cooking ovens in
tandem with impinger heat and/
or convection heat to cook the inside of products for moist, evenly
cooked results.
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Equipment Comparison
Key Features:
•Best for immediate consumption of one-at-a-time items
(see Holding Evolution below for pairing your cooking
platform with the proper holding equipment).
•Cooks up to 15% faster than traditional convection ovens.
•Most can be programmed with hundreds of recipes (with
different cook stages) across all stores.
•Built-in catalytic converters mean operators don’t need a
ventilation system.
•Metal cookware can be used inside the oven, even with
microwaves.
TurboChef C3
Accelerated-Cooking Ovens
How It Works: A convection fan pulls in air and heats it through
impingement plates (which speeds up the heat transfer) for
an even heat pattern and a browned exterior. Meanwhile,
the microwave uses moisture in the food to heat from the
inside while keeping food moist. All three elements are used
together or individually depending on the food being cooked.
When Not to Use One: Accelerated-cooking ovens are not ideal
for cook-and-hold applications, nor any ingredients or menu
items cooked in batches.
Key Players: Amana AXP20; Merrychef 402S and EC503; TurboChef’s suite of accelerated-cooking ovens.
Price Range (list price): approximately $6,000-13,000
Conveyor Ovens
How It Works: Food travels horizontally through a heated cabinet on a conveyor belt. Technology such as impingement heat
delivers jets of hot air to the top and bottom of the food.
Key Features:
•Best used for continuous, automated production, such
as a high-volume sandwich shop. “Conveyor ovens have
a higher throughput, but less versatility,” says Al Harvey
of TurboChef, Carrollton, Texas.
•New technology delivers faster bake times, a thoroughly
baked surface, improved texture and crisping, and
higher yields with greater moisture retention.
•Conveyor ovens offer consistency, helping reduce waste.
•A familiar format easy for store-level employees to run.
When Not to Use One: Conveyors are great for continuous
Savory Synergy Oven
output, when you have an employee manning the oven at
all times. If you don’t need continuous output, consider a
smaller conveyor toaster. Conveyors also take up more space
than accelerated-cooking ovens and mini combis.
Key Players: Lincoln FastBake Impinger Oven; Savory’s Synergy
Conveyor Toaster; TurboChef’s HhC2020
Price Range (list price; countertop): approximately $4,000-9,000
Holding Evolution
Recent advances in holding equipment
have allowed for improved quality and
consistency as well as reduced labor
and waste costs.
“There’s a huge shift in the industry to holding models,” says Richard
Arthur, director of marketing at Duke
Manufacturing, St. Louis. “Every QSR
had some sort of holding environment
before—cabinets, steam tables. But it
wasn’t very efficient.”
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With the advent of better holding
units, operators are able to expand
their menus and increase volume without adding more staff or ovens.
Solutions include Web-based tools
that allow multi-unit chains to streamline functions across the company.
Duke’s Product Holding Units (PHU)
allow managers at each store to go to
their company’s Web site and download
all holding times and temperatures
FA R E M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y/ M A R C H 2 0 1 0
onto a flash drive, then upload the
information via USB port directly into
the units.
Arthur recommends operators take
a look at the entire operation before
creating or expanding a cook-and-hold
platform. “It’s an operational shift and
a training shift. There’s a lot of testing that needs to be done. You need to
understand the ebbs and flows of your
restaurant—there is a science to it.”
Combi Ovens
How It Works: These ovens
Electrolux Libero mini combi
Key Features:
cook using steam, convection heat or a combination of the two. In the
convection mode, the
oven circulates blasts of
dry heat, ideal for pastries
and breads. The steam
mode injects water into
the cabinet for moist
cooking. The combination
mode uses both dry heat
and steam to maintain
exact humidity levels—
keeping food moist,
reducing shrinkage of
product and yielding consistent results every time.
•Combi ovens are ideal for batch production, and some
models can hold food items at the desired temperature
after cooking.
•Once relegated to high-volume hotels or schools, new
countertop models allow small retailers to try out the
various cooking applications of a combi oven.
•Programmable with hundreds of recipes and multiple
steps per recipe.
•Most countertop combi models feature a boilerless injection system for steam, and some models, such as the
Electrolux Libero mini combi, require no water or drain
connections.
When Not to Use One: Combis take time and brain power to master all the functionality, so a dedicated foodservice manager
should take on the project and properly train store-level
employees. Cook times are longer in a combi, so it is not ideal
for heat-to-order applications.
Key Players: Cleveland mini combi oven-steamer, Electrolux Libero Line mini combi, and Alto-Shaam Combi-therm combi
ovens:
•Cleveland mini features the following cooking modes:
steam, hot air, slow cooking, Crisp and Tasty (de-moisturizing), combi, retherm and cook and hold.
•Electrolux Libero mini combi features the following
cooking modes: max steam, low steam, combi cooking,
convection heat and cooling function (for transitioning
between cooking functions).
•Alto-Shaam Combi-therm oven/steamer features the
following modes: steam, convection, combination and
retherm, as well as a hot or cold smoker and Gold-NBrown finishing settings.
Price Range (list price): approximately $3,000-10,000
The Right Cooking Method
Desserts: Prepare batches in a combi
oven; heat individual orders in an
accelerated-cooking oven.
French Fries: Deep-fat fryers are never
going away, but combi ovens are a
good solution for operations without
the manpower for complete oil/fryer
maintenance, or the necessary fire and
safety precautions. This is especially
true if you are leaning toward a combi
to complete other cooking tasks. A
combi oven can cook a batch of fries in
8 minutes, and some manufacturers
offer special french-fry baskets.
Toasted Subs: Part of this decision is
based on output and volume: continuous heating vs. one-at-a-time. For
example, Potbelly Sandwich Works,
where all the subs are toasted, uses
conveyor ovens; Subway, which has just
a few toasted subs on the menu, uses
accelerated-cooking ovens.
Labor is also a factor. Conveyors
require more hands-on labor to grab
the sandwich off the belt, while accelerated ovens are less automated and
require more technical attention than
a conveyor. Accelerated-cooking ovens
often take less time because it’s heating
the sandwich within a self-contained
cavity, whereas conveyor ovens offer
consistency sub after sub.
The conveyer sub will yield a drier,
crisper sandwich due to the direct heat,
whereas accelerated-cooking ovens use
microwave technology, “so you’re actually aggravating the moisture molecules
to create heat, keeping it moist,” says
Alison Cullin-Woodcock, corporate chef
for Manitowoc Foodservice, Tampa,
Fla. “It really depends on what the gold
standard is for the products you are
going to serve.”
Breads: Par-baked and thaw-and-serve
bread products work well in mini
combis as well as accelerated-cooking
ovens; it all depends on output speed
(accelerated-cooking ovens) vs. volume
(combi ovens).
Also, look beyond the traditional
roll or bun. Pita bread, naan and other
flatbreads are actually more forgiving
than breads and rolls because they were
designed to stay moist and warm longer, and they’re very portable as well.
Some bread varieties such as focaccia
are made with oil, which helps keep the
product from drying out.
Onion Rings: One fry basket cooks in 5
minutes in a mini combi such as the
Convotherm; six pieces cook in one
minute in an accelerated-cooking oven
such as the Merrychef.
Hashbrown Sticks: A 12-piece batch cooks
in 12 minutes in the mini combi; a
6-ounce portion cooks in three minutes, 30 seconds in a Merrychef.
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