One Winterhalter MTR2 equals just over seven kitchen porters
It’s generally recognised that a modern warewasher is going to be quicker at washing dishes than a kitchen porter – but by how much?
Recently Winterhalter went to the busy Cafe in the Crypt restaurant underneath St Martin’s in the Field Church, Trafalgar Square, London to pit the in-house Winterhalter MTR2 against a kitchen porter to properly measure kitchen porter power (KPP).
First off kitchen assistant Jutu Miah loaded four racks of dirty bowls, plates, tea pots and cutlery and sent them through the MTR2. In just 3 minutes 24 seconds it was all washed, rinsed and dried. Then he set about the kitchen porter’s task of washing a similar load by hand – it took him a staggering 23 minutes and 54 seconds to get it all done.
So what’s the KPP of the Winterhalter MTR2? It’s the time taken by the hand washer-up divided by the time taken by the dishwasher. In this case that’s 23.9 minutes divided by 3.4 minutes giving the MTR2 a KPP of 7.02.
Not only is the MTR2 equivalent to just over seven kitchen porters but that represents a freeing up of a massive amount of the kitchen porter’s time, changing the nature of the commercial kitchen.
“The experiment showed how much more productive you are when you release the power of the kitchen porter to perform other duties,” explains head chef at Cafe in the Crypt, Stuart House. “While the machine is washing the kitchen porter can do other things.”
“It’s good for staff welfare, too,” says catering manager Luis Martins. “It’d be interesting to find out how long the kitchen porters would last if they had to do the washing up by hand all the time!”
The temperature and cleanliness of the hand wash rinse water was another concern. “It started out hot enough but cooled down quickly. In the machine the temperature is always hot and this aids quick and hygienic drying,” says Luis Martins.
“The KPP rating is a useful figure for kitchen managers and chefs looking to buy new equipment,” says Paul Crowley of Winterhalter. “It gives them an idea of just how much manpower they will be saving with their new purchase.”
The action can be seen on You Tube under the title Winterhalter at Cafe in the Crypt. [URLs: http://bit.ly/L0OR7e
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X0CyneuerI&feature=youtu.be]