1. What are the biggest festive trends and flavours this year?
For new inspiration and flavours, ConnectedCooking, RATIONAL’s digital network solution, offers a recipe library featuring festive treats like mince-filled doughnuts, flavourful Christmas chutneys, and various types of stuffing. Reflecting the company's heritage and the location of RATIONAL's headquarters, it also includes beloved German favourites such as stollen.
Operators can register for free at 
www.connectedcooking.com.
Do people tend to go for more adventurous options this season, or stick to the more traditional? How can restaurateurs strike a balance between the two?
Traditional Christmas dinners, featuring turkey and all the trimmings, are among the best-selling products. This is largely due to the tradition and nostalgia associated with these dishes. While not the most complex cuisine, they offer comfort and evoke happy memories and a sense of nostalgia. The RATIONAL iCombi Pro and iVario Pro can replace a wide range of traditional appliances and replicate various cooking processes, including preparing everything needed to create a delicious Turkey Dinner.
Turkey can be challenging to cook properly, and many people have experienced dry slices of turkey. This is where cooking with the iCombi Pro combi-steamer can make a significant difference. The intelligent iCookingSuite feature determines the optimal cooking method. The best part is that the operator simply selects how they want the turkey to be cooked, and the RATIONAL handles the rest, ensuring a perfectly cooked turkey every time.
What should venues do to ensure their festive offering stands out above competitors?
Investing in intelligent, multifunctional appliances is invaluable for maintaining consistency when preparing multiple servings of the same dish, such as Christmas menus for festive parties and functions. This is where RATIONAL equipment can truly enhance the process. The iProductionManager feature not only boosts productivity but also provides tremendous flexibility in scheduling, while helping to reduce operational costs. It guides operators on which dishes can be cooked simultaneously and allows chefs to choose whether they want everything ready at the same time, cooked as quickly as possible, or prepared in the most energy-efficient way. This is particularly beneficial when serving a Christmas dinner with many individual components.
The iCombi Pro is even capable of operating without supervision, including overnight. With its low-temperature cooking function, the iCombi Pro excels at preparing a variety of meats to perfection—whether it's roast pork with crackling, roast beef, roast lamb, roast turkey, duck, or goose. Both large and small roasts can be cooked precisely to the desired specifications.
The iVario Pro multifunctional advanced bratt pan is ideal for creating a variety of dishes with ease, such as gravy and cranberry sauce. The largest model, the iVario XL, with a substantial volume capacity, is suitable for establishments catering to as many as 500 meals per day, making it perfect for large Christmas functions. With the optional pressure-cooking feature, this can all be done up to 46% faster, that’s a game changer for any cooking establishments.
