A celebration of innovation: the National Restaurant Association's first ever "Kitchen Innovations" Award winners.

At the 86th Annual National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show held this past May, a select group of manufacturers were honored as part of the association's first ever Kitchen Innovations Award program. The winners for 2005 were selected from an independent panel of judges comprised of design experts and well as representatives of multiunit restaurant operations. The Kitchen Innovations program is one of a series of new leadership initiatives developed by the NRA that focuses on the equipment sector of the foodservice industry. The range of award winners runs the gamut--from espresso machines to ventilation systems to reduce noise--all designed to help improve the functionality and versatility of your foodservice operation.

MerryChef, a unit of Enodis, introduced its EC502 oven, a convection oven featuring enhanced cooking times thanks to its use of microwaves. According to business development manager Alison Cullin, the EC502 can cook a three-pound roast chicken in 12 minutes. It can also speed up the cook times of other meats, fish, and pastries, making the oven well-suited for a club's quickservice food areas. The unit also features menu key technology, allowing operators to program in up to 99 customized cook times for various items. In terms of saving space, the EC502 requires no ventilation hood, as the oven includes a built-in catalytic converter with full protein capability.

Also from Enodis, and also ideal for a club's casual foodservice operations, is Lincoln Foodservice's Dual Technology Finisher, a platform that combines infrared technology with air impingement to rapidly toast sandwiches. "The machine can produce a toasted sandwich every eight seconds," said Chuck Freer, vice president of national accounts. "Although the oven gets as hot as 560 degrees, the exterior remains cool to avoid burns." Another toasted sandwich oven comes from Turbochef in the form of the Tornado oven. This unit "combines microwaves, irradiant heat, and air impingement to toast a six-inch sub in 20 seconds," said Leslie Hoffman, marketing manager for TurboChef.

The final award recipient in the oven category was the SelfCooking Center from Rational. With all the functions of a traditional steam-and-convection combination oven, the SelfCooking Center features a front panel with pictures of different food items. By selecting various pictures--poultry, for example--as well as the cooking preference ("grilled," "dark"), the oven automatically calculates the item's size and figures out the correct cooking time to achieve the selected results.

Plug-In Appliances

Chefs and other food preparers can look forward to a variety of new equipment on the market that helps save time and effort when whipping up some of the more routine foodservice items. The Hobart Legacy Mixer features a swing-out bowl and single-point bowl installation to make it easier to add ingredients to the mixer as well as remove the bowl from the unit. Improving on previous designs, the new model includes a power bowl lift, Quick Release agitators and bowl scraper, Smart Timer, and Shift-On-The-Fly technology.

"When we began the process of considering a clean-sheet design for a new mixer, we went to many of our high-volume customers along with industry experts and asked them for their ideas of the ideal mixer," said Brian Kadel, Hobat's product line manager for food machines. According to Kadel, consumers valued the durability and long life of the existing Hobart mixers, but were looking for technological enhancements that could speed their use of the machine as well as save preparation time over the course of a day.

For the bar area, the Blendtec BDI-Narrow blender-dispensing system makes blended beverages to exact proportions and reduces the amount of time spent on employee training. The BDI-Narrow is a commercial blender equipped with a dispensing system for ice, water, puree, juice, or liquor, enabling it to create a wide variety of mixed beverages--everything from smoothies to frozen cocktails. Operators only need to press the desired size of the beverage and "go," and the machine sets to work. "No other product can dispense to exact proportions and blend at the same time," said Nate Ingles, marketing coordinator for Blendtec. Since the unit does multiple jobs at once, it frees up the hands of your bartenders to attend to other tasks.

Also in the beverage category, the Ledoro-Swiss Coffee Systems EGRO Super Automatic Expresso Machine offers the production capacity of a much larger machine in the smallest possible size. Measuring a mere 12 inches wide, the EGRO dispenses coffeehouse-caliber lattes, cappuccinos, and espressos at the push of a button.

"The machine delivers authentic espresso-based beverages using real milk," explained Dave Murray, national sales associate for Ledoro. "The self-adjusting, built-in tamping control monitors and delivers exact shot times and removes variables such as temperature, humidity, and varying bean batches." To eliminate clogging problems, the EGRO utilizes pulsating pumping technology in place of siphoning.

Members who have grown weary of the carb-counting fad can rejoice at the arrival of the Romar Pasta Cooker from Prince Castle, an innovative machine that cooks dry pasta to al dente in three minutes flat. "As the Atkins craze continues to fade," said John Ulrich, assistant account director for Prince Castle, "The Romar Pasta Cooker is an all-in-one-pasta cooker that simplifies the steps in making pasta." The device uses water, steam, and pressure to cook up to four individual servings of pasta simultaneously. It requires no ventilation hood and is self-cleaning and self-sanitizing.

Rounding out the honorees in the appliance line, the Electrolux Libero Plug & Cook Line is an integrated system of plug-in appliances that can be adjusted as menu items require. "The Libero Line was developed in response to the growing trend of preparing fresh food products in front of customers in very small spaces," said Scott Applebee, marketing director for the company.

The line features the Libero Point, a mobile, self-ventilated counter that holds two Libero appliances, six appliance modules (hot and cold plate, induction wok, infrared cooker, induction cooker, griddle, and panini cooker), and the Libero Pasta plug-in pasta cooker. The Libero Point includes castors so it can be rolled away and stored when not in use--making it ideal for temporary catered events such as weddings, parties, or corporate get-togethers. The unit is compact and self-contained, supplying the power to run the plug-in appliances. Additionally, it has an integrated ventilation system to prevent odors when preparing food in front of members and guests.

Refrigeration and Frozen Food

Beverage-Air, a division of Carrier, introduced the Prestige Plus line of commercial refrigeration units that increase product shelf life while decreasing energy consumption. The new refrigerators utilize XSTREAM valve technology, in which a specially designed valve was used during manufacturing in order to spray a thin, uniform coating of refrigerant on all interior surfaces of the evaporator tubing. This fine-tuned application provides more efficient cooling, improved humidity control, and reduced defrost cycles.

"The Prestige Plus units will offer operators significant savings," said Ryan Blackman, advertising manager for BeverageAir. The refrigerators also include six-inch legs for better ergonomics, reversible doors, antimicrobial handles, and an exterior LCD thermometer.

Enodis was also recognized in the refrigeration category for its Delfield line of LiquiTech refrigeration systems. These units utilize patented eutectic fluid technology to provide increased energy efficiency, enhanced food safety, and more flexible refrigeration design. "The design allows us to provide a small footprint that reduces the amount of space used by refrigeration equipment," said Bill Keske, vice president of marketing. The eutectic fluid, which is permanently sealed in surrounding jackets, completely encases the pan openings for a five-sided cooling effect. The end result is that it offers 10 times more surface coverage than conventional cold pans.

On the flip side, when preparing food that has been frozen, the Penguin Rapid Thawer allows foodservice operations to prepare wrapped food to order. Melbourne Sann, president and CEO of Rapid Thawers LLC, also operates a seafood restaurant called Captain Steamers Inc. in Whilesboro, NY. "If we run out of thawed shrimp," Sann explained, "That's it for over half of our menu. During busy periods, we can go through 10 to 90 pounds of peel-and-eat shrimp a night."

To help alleviate such problems, the Penguin Rapid Thawer can thaw multiple types of food simultaneously in seven to 10 minutes. It uses regulated water temperatures, pressurized sprayers, and water-wheel-driven fans to thaw out everything from lobster tails to chicken to prime rib to vegetables.

Technology Applications

The Intelli-PDA from Cooper-Atkins is a pocket PC that offers paperless management of inspection, training, receiving, and temperature monitoring. The device gathers data and wirelessly transmits that data to the office for use in trend analysis, paperless reporting, corrective action, and historical data files. "The Intelli-PDA is mobile, efficient, accurate, and versatile," said Kimberly Markey, marketing manager for Cooper-Atkins.

The Intelli-PDA also provides the capability for the creation of new custom forms and reports for both the pocket PC and back office. "With Intelli-PDA, you can do random temperature sampling, check in temperature-sensitive products, verify inventory, audit work stations, and certify that employees are trained at different tasks within your organization," Markey added.

Similarly, the Micros Kitchen Display System (KDS) offers the chance to sequence kitchen production on an item-by-item basis for synchronized table service. "We studied kitchens and observed the challenges facing kitchen staff in producing high-quality food coordinated across multiple preparation stations," said Louise Casamento, director of marketing for Micros. "The ability to coordinate across multiple prep stations and analyze kitchen operations can lead to cost savings in both labor and inventory."

In the war against foodborne illness, food preparers have a new weapon in the FoodPro line of thermometers from Fluke. The non-contact food thermometers provide quick, precise measurements of food without exposing diners to the risk of cross-contamination from different food sources. The FoodPro and FoodPro Plus use infrared technology in a targeting system that illuminates the area being measured. A set of "go/no go" lights indicate whether food temperatures fall within HACCP guidelines for safe hot or cold food holding.

Advanced Cleaning

Meiko has simplified the warewashing process with its Mike 2 computerized controller. The handheld device uses integrated infrared technology to monitor all aspects of the wash cycle, from both a service and a performance diagnostic perspective.

"The Mike 2 controller was originally engineered for use as a diagnostic tool with data-collection capabilities to enable Meiko to monitor the life cycle of units in the field," said Martin Schenk, president of Meiko. "The data collected provided valuable information that was used to enhance the design and reliability of our warewashers and invidual components." The Mike 2 offers machine start up, selection of three programmable timed cycles and shutdown, with automatic wash down with a touch of a button. The device also controls each step of the wash cycle, including wash-cycle length to guarantee sanitization and detergent/rinse additive concentrations.

Hobart enters the warewashing arena with their Opti-Rinse System. While warewashers are one of the most expensive pieces of kitchen equipment to operate, the Opti-Rinse uses new rinse nozzle technology to significantly reduce the amount of water and energy being used, while also employing larger water drops to provide greater heat transfer and uniform coverage. Because the system uses less water, the amount of energy needed to heat the water is also reduced.

Cleaning up in the kitchen also involves dealing with one of cooking's more unpleasant side effects--grease. That is why Zurn Plumbing Products set out to make the cleaning of the grease trap as easy as possible. Meet the Z1192 Grease Recovery Appliance. The Z1192 comes furnished with a solids interceptor, and the grease-removal chamber is separate from the trap. This means that the grease bag can be changed without risk of getting your clothes soiled. And it also helps make sure that this usually unappealing job does not get "overlooked" in the course of a day.

Finally, the quest to create an exhaust hood free from operating noise has resulted in the Ventilated Ceiling System from Vent Master. This innovative ceiling system frees up kitchen space from unwanted obstructions, providing a more aesthetically pleasing and stimulating work environment while also accomplishing the critical job of ventilation.

For those looking to create a more innovative club kitchen facility--the future has arrived.