The Staff Canteen Essential Guide to Equipment 2024: Heat

In the second part of The Staff Canteen’s Essential Guide to Equipment, we turn up the heat and explore the latest updates in cooking appliances.  

-- Read part one on kitchen equipment --

Unless you run an exclusively raw food restaurant, heat will be an essential element in creating dishes in your kitchen. And whether you’re steaming, roasting, baking, grilling or frying ingredients to create your dishes, using the right cooking appliance provides a better chance of producing your desired result.

For the majority of professional kitchens, the multifunctional combination, or combi oven, which combines steam and convection cooking technology to heat food, is the workhorse in the kitchen.

Combi ovens have revolutionised life in the kitchen, supporting with culinary creations while also saving space and cutting cooking time and energy consumption.

While the combi is an incredible piece of kit, manufacturers are continuing to upgrade and improve appliances so they meet the needs of today’s chefs.

“It is common knowledge that kitchens are shrinking, predominately to increase front-of-house space for customers. Simultaneously, a drive for cost-cutting is increasingly seeing fewer chefs operate within a professional kitchen,” explains Scott Duncan, managing director at Unox UK.

“Combined, these factors are leading to a requirement for catering equipment to be both multifunctional, space efficient and highly intelligent – ultimately optimising today’s kitchen setup.”

“They're almost getting too clever nowadays. Too clever for chefs,” jokes Tom Booton, head chef at The Grill by Tom Booton at The Dorchester when asked about the kit that’s made a difference to him.

Tom’s combi oven of choice is a Rational and while his statement is made in jest, it’s true that the company, which has 45 years of combi technology under its belt, also refuses to stand still, consulting with 500 chefs across the globe to check the products meet and exceed their needs.

“Rational takes pride in being a company of chefs, for chefs,” says UK marketing director Adam Knights, who believes the ‘deep connection’ with professional chefs shapes the company’s innovative approach.  

So, if you’re looking for a combi oven, or want to upgrade, what should you look out for?  

The latest version of the Rational iCombi Pro claims to enhance productivity by up to 50% and reduce cooking times and energy consumption by up to 10% compared to its predecessor. The new model, which runs four systems - iDensityControl to regulate the cooking climate; iProductionManager for simultaneous cooking of ingredients; iCookingSuite which lets operators state the desired cooking result and iCareSystem for cleaning - to give ‘unprecedented control over the cooking process’, also reduces chemical use by 50% through its upgraded iCareSystem self-cleaning feature and can save up to 25% on energy if using the cleaning cycle in eco mode, compared to its predecessor.

Unox has been tapping into AI and has added Digital.ID and Data Driven Cooking 2.0 (DDC) to its professional combi oven range CHEFTOP-X. The technology, the result of three years’ work and first seen on its SPEED-X range before being rolled out to the CHEFTOP-X and BAKERTOP-X ranges, means that chefs can operate their ovens from the oven itself, or remotely via an app. The new feature includes technology that will also suggest personalised changes to reduce and optimise consumption and CO2 emissions while the Digital.ID function also allows users to contact Unox’s corporate chef team for support and guidance and monitors cleaning and hygiene, with full HACCP reporting.  

Chefs overseeing large kitchens, or working for a multi-site operator may also be interested in the DDC feature which permits standardised cooking instructions to be distributed to all units, providing consistency.  

Elsewhere in combis, MKN’s FlexiCombi combi steamer has been upgraded. With an updated design, the new model is now faster to operate than its predecessor and features enhanced visibility with a new lighting system that illuminates the interior, even when the door is open. It continues to include its FlexiRack capacity concept, claiming to offer 50% greater capacity than appliances using conventional GN1/1 size. The new features complement FlexiCombi’s existing innovations such as its WaveClean automatic cleaning system and DynaSteam, which automatically adjusts the steam volume to optimise cooking results and water efficiency. MKN also offers guided cooking through its MagicPilot operating system which ‘guarantees perfect, reproducible results every time, even if there is no trained chef nearby’. 

Combi ovens are clever and competent, but let’s not ignore the other heat champions in the kitchen.

Chefs wanting a more hands-on approach and looking to save space could consider Rational’s iVario Pro. This multifunctional cooking system is designed to replace traditional tilting pans, boilers, fryers, and pressure cookers and boasts speed and energy efficiency, cutting energy use by 40%. Ceramic heating elements provide even heat distribution and patented heating technology ‘iVarioBoost’ can heat an entire pan base to 200 °C in less than 2.5 minutes.  

Another space and time-saver for boiling or frying is MKN’s new FlexiChef. The updated version is 10% quicker than its predecessor and works with MKN’s aforementioned MagicPilot operating system with Guided Cooking meaning inexperienced users can still achieve desired results. Other highlights are the SmartBoiling function, which it claims reduces energy consumption by up to 99% compared to conventional water boiling and SpaceClean, an automatic cleaning system which can clean pans in two minutes without the use of chemicals.

Technology can help in the kitchen, saving time, resource and providing consistency but sometimes you just want to give your ingredients a good grilling. The trend for grilled, smoked and charred meat and veg means the grill still plays an integral role in the kitchen. 

Andrew Hirst, executive chef at Milsom Hotels & Restaurants is a fan of Synergy Grill. The grill is renowned for supplying high heat with low consumption so saves energy. Other benefits are it is easy to clean (just five minutes it claims) and its patented atomisation process.

“When you add a piece of meat to the Synergy Grill, the fat atomises, providing continual self-basting during the cooking process for truly succulent results,” adds Andrew. “We also cook fish and veggies on the grill, without concerns surrounding cross-contamination.”

Tom Booton uses a Big Green Egg to add a smoky flavour to ingredients at his restaurant. He’s such a fan of the outdoor oven, his kitchen features no less than three of the MiniMax models. While Big Green Egg is a consumer, rather than commercial product, it is popular with chefs and is becoming an addition to more professional kitchens.

“The Big Green Egg just elevates a piece of meat and gives everything a nice smoky flavour,” enthuses Tom who used the Big Green Egg to barbeque peaches which were wrapped in coppa for a different take on melon and ham this summer.

There has been little change to the Big Green Egg since it came to market 50 years’ ago, but it has developed accessories to enhance its use. The latest is a Big Green Egg Rotisserie which is available for Large and XL models and now means spit roasting can be included in the oven’s eight cooking modes. 

Written by Emma Eversham