A new generation of restaurant equipment is helping city establishments cut costs and increase taste, reports Antoine Lewis.
Fifteen years ago, the only difference between domestic kitchen appliances and restaurant equipment was one of scale. At home, food was prepared for between four and six people; at a restaurant for a couple of hundred. Of course, some specialised pieces of equipment, like pasta rollers, deep-fat fryers or high-pressure burners remained exclusively in the domain of commercial establishments, but these were not owned by more than a handful.
Over the last few years, highly specialised equipment has invaded the kitchens of fine-dining restaurants, high-end caterers and confectioners. These machines help restaurants meet the demands of a new generation of knowledgeable customers. But establishments have been driven to use the new gear primarily to cut labour costs, reduce preparation and delivery time, and maximize precious real estate. “Kitchens are becoming more and more sophisticated, but trained labour is becoming more difficult and expensive to find,” said Paul Kinny, the business development head of Impressario Entertainment & Hospitality. “At the same time, real estate pressures mean that we can’t afford to allocate 30 per cent of the restaurant to a kitchen and so kitchens are becoming smaller.”
While much of the equipment is so complex and expensive that it is out of reach of mid-priced restaurants, some of the more commonly used tools are fairly cheap. For instance, chefs use squeezee bottles instead of spoons to paint artistic garnishes on plates, or syringes to create perfectly shaped dots and multihued designs. The culinary blow torch has now become an indispensable tool. Its turbo flame, which reaches temperatures of up to 1,300 degrees Celsius quickly, caramelises sugar on a crème caramel, crème brûlée, tarts or cheesecake, without the filling heating up.
Where home cooks still spend time buttering parchment paper and dusting it with flour before lining biscuit and cake tins, pastry chefs have moved on to more efficient silicone mats. “They are absolutely indispensable, especially for biscuits,” said Mehernosh Khajotia, who runs Celebrations Fine Confections. “I just have to place the batter on the sheet and pop it into the oven. When the biscuit is done, it just slides off and the mat can be washed and reused.”
However it’s the combi-oven, a combination of steamer and convection oven, that professionals are spending all their dough on in Mumbai. Almost ubiquitous in high-end restaurants, combi-ovens, unlike convection ovens that use only dry heat, combine dry and moist cooking. Farrokh Khambatta of Joss is a big fan of this new medium of cooking, which is perfect for roasting chicken or meat. “The steam does the cooking and the convection does the browning, so the meat cooks evenly and stays moist,” he said.
“Where the convection process extracted juices from the meat, the steaming induces juices in the meat.” Since the combi-oven is digital, the cooking process can be completely pre-programmed in different combinations taking into account the kind of meat, the size of the piece and how well it needs to be done.
Kinny is looking at the next generation of combi-ovens – the combi-wave smoker – for new projects. Where the combi-oven was dual function, the combi-wave smoker encompasses four functions. Based on microwave technology, it allows for the use of metal utensils and incorporates a device to smoke foods as well.
Induction burners are perhaps the coolest new invention as far as heating technology goes. Even when turned on, the digitally controlled burner is completely cool to touch and only when an induction pan is placed on its surface does the pan heat up. The moment the pan is taken off, the burner goes cold again. The absence of an open flame has made induction burners the perfect solution for cooking in restricted areas, making them indispensable tools for live stations at banquet functions. Since the induction burner can be programmed to a fixed temperature that it can maintain indefinitely, it has made life immeasurably easier at coffee shops that serve buffet meals.
Recessed burners give the buffet table a cleaner look, the specially designed glass covers allow guests to look into the dish and staff don’t have to waste time checking to see if the paraffin has been exhausted and needs to be replenished.
One of the most advanced timespacing devices that banquet operations will benefit from is the mobile regeneration trolley or the roll-in insulated heating cabinet. Chefs can pre-plate the main course for up to 2,000 people a few hours before the meal, place the plate in the trolley and wheel it into a chiller. At a preprogrammed time, the heat is turned on to warm up the food and some regeneration trolleys have the facility to inject bursts of steam to keep food moist. The food can be prepared and plated in the morning, the afternoon or a day before. While this is not available in Mumbai as yet, Kinny predicts that new technologies like these will arrive shortly.
While professionals find that the new devices have certainly increased efficiency and, to some degree, lowered costs, they are wary of relying too much on these processes. All the chefs we interviewed agreed that merely having the best technology will not translate into a better meal. It is only the judicious use of equipment with a discerning eye and an experienced hand that produces a great gastronomic experience. Jaydeep Mukherjee, Executive Chef at Indigo Deli, believes that the human touch is the most important element in a kitchen. Mukherjee points out that technology doesn’t always give the best results. “For instance, a ravioli-making machine may make the pasta sheet and fill the ravioli with the right quantity of stuffing, [but] when done by hand the detailing is far greater,” he said. “The chef will look at the finer nuances: whether the sheet has dried out and needs more moisture, whether each stuffing has got a piece of garlic or bit of herb that will make it more flavourful and tasty to bite into. A machine can’t do that for you.”
Published in Time Out Mumbai June 13 2008
