The Rising Need for Efficient Ovens

One of the biggest challenges facing restaurant and foodservice operators, and a challenge to kitchen equipment manufacturers, is how to minimize and manage excessive energy, gas, and water consumption.

Restaurants and operators are looking at their kitchen equipment as primary sources to support significant reductions. By choosing equipment designed to minimize energy costs and eliminating gas and water usage, these operators can create sustainable foodservice businesses, both good for the environment and society, and their own operating cost expenditures.

The latest eco-friendly equipment, such as Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold ovens, utilize exclusive cooking and holding technology that significantly reduces energy usage. Unlike other ovens in this price range, the low temperature Cook & Hold operates at full capacity on almost no electricity, at only 2.6 kW.

Chefs can cook several dishes with the oven due to Halo Heat® technology, which slow-cooks food using gentle thermal cables that pulse on and off in a highly efficient manner. Halo Heat technology gently cooks and holds food evenly, without needing fans, harsh heating elements or added moisture to increase the heating capability.

Additionally, Cook & Hold ovens are waterless and require no extractor hood to be operated. This means restaurants and foodservice establishments can install the Cook & Hold almost anywhere and save thousands on the installation and operating of a traditional canopy.

Thanks to their intuitive design and Wi-Fi enabled controls, operators can quickly send cooking recipes to and from the oven for their staff to easily execute at the highest consistency. This technology, called ChefLinc™, is a remote oven management system that features an easy-to-use dashboard to seamlessly push and pull recipes, view oven status, collect and store data, receive detailed service diagnostics, and more. This can all be accessed on your mobile device and laptop to give operators insights anytime and anywhere.

The oven handles the rest, automatically switching from cooking mode to holding mode. Additionally, the oven can be set to cook overnight, and save money on labor costs when the restaurant or establishment is closed.

For Head Chef Harold Van Wagen at Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, the Cook & Hold has been key to reducing their operating costs without sacrificing food quality: “From day one using our Alto-Shaam Cook & Hold oven, our staff and customers immediately noticed the difference in the quality of the roast beef, we received lots of compliments on how beautiful it was. The fact it uses only a fraction of the energy of our combi oven and doesn’t need to go under a canopy (ventilation hood), means we can place it anywhere in the kitchen, helping to further reduce our energy costs.”

In this age of environmental awareness and stewardship, manufacturers everywhere are updating product designs and factories in order to become more eco-friendly and increase their ‘green’ credentials. At Alto-Shaam, this approach has been at the center of our business and manufacturing philosophy since Jerry Maahs innovated Halo Heat® technology in the early 1960s. Alto-Shaam continues to develop products and manufacturing processes with the mindset that excessive energy and water consumption are unnecessary to produce high quality food and equipment.

To learn more about ways restaurants and foodservice operators can save, locate your nearest Alto-Shaam distributor by visiting www.alto-shaam.com/en/how-to-buy.