Combi Steamers provide the Rational school meals solution
The increasing focus on healthier school meals combined with tough budgets has led many school meals providers to ask their equipment suppliers for help finding a solution. Rational says the latest combi steamer technology offers school caterers the ideal cooking solution: healthier foods combined with lower running costs.
“While lower running costs and healthier foods are vital, it’s not all that schools need from their catering equipment,” says Lee Norton, managing director of Rational UK. “It also needs to be able to respond to the changing menu cycle in schools– multi-function equipment is ideal – and easy to use and maintain. Combi steamers tick all the boxes and the latest technology, such as is incorporated in our SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency®, means they can cook more food in the same size unit – which is especially important for schools where kitchen space is limited.”
Rational is the catering market’s leading manufacturer of combi steamers, including the multi-award winning SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency. Combi steamers, like Rational’s, have been developed to cook food with the ideal balance of steam heat and dry heat, so that vegetables can be cooked with no loss of taste, texture or leaching out of vital vitamins and other nutrients through over-cooking. Similarly, the carefully controlled cooking processes allow meat to retain its food value and stay extremely succulent. Everything from fish to bread to pizza can be cooked to perfection in a combi steamer.
Even ‘deep-fried’ products can be prepared more healthily using Rational technology. For example, French fries cooked in the SelfCooking Center contain up to 36% fewer calories and up to 80% less fat than conventional potatoes from a deep-fat fryer.
In terms of running costs, a combi steamer uses up to 70% less energy than traditional cooking equipment. A Rational SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency further reduces running costs through a variety of technologies. For example, because it continually monitors the cooking process, it only uses just as much energy as is required to cook the product.
“Our latest SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency has taken another giant step forward in energy saving,” says Lee Norton. “It uses up to 20% less energy, on average, compared to previous models.”
The new HiDensityControl and Efficient LevelControl technologies combine to achieve these energy savings. HighDensityControl uses dynamic air mixing to channel exactly the right mix of heat and humidity to each rack. EfficientLevel Control speeds up production by telling the chef which foods can be cooked together, adjusting the cooking process depending on how often the door is opened, ensuring that everything is cooked to perfection.
By matching the cooking process to the food, and precisely regulating temperature and humidity, the Rational reduces food shrinkage – typically cutting ingredients use by up to 10%.
For information and brochures, or to arrange to come to a free SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency® ‘Rational CookingLive’ seminar, contact your dealer, freephone Rational UK on 0800 389 2944 or see www.rational-UK.com. Visit the iPhone store for the Rational SCC Expert App.