Compliments to the Chef: How to Give Your Cooking Staff Full Control in the Kitchen

As any restaurateur can tell you that producing food at a commercial level is completely different to cooking in the home.  This is true whether you're producing at high volume or low volume, and whether you're producing Michelin-star food or something much more casual and approachable.  Either way, your staff need equipment that can not only handle the amount of food they need to process—enough for a restaurant full of people—but also handle several different dishes at the same time.  However, size isn't the only thing that matters in a commercial cooker.  Here are the other factors your staff must be able to control.

Basics

Your staff will need to control temperature and fan speed, just as you can with a home cooker.  However, the differentiating factor is that they need absolute precision.  In order to ensure that they can recreate the same menu time and time again, they must be able to fine-tune to a degree.  Using equipment that allows you to dictate temperatures this specifically and trust that they are accurate is the absolute baseline your chefs need.

Humidity

Different dishes and ingredients will require different kinds of cooking.  Whether you need a dry heat or a humid heat to achieve a specific dish, your cooker must be able to handle this.  Ideally, your staff will be able to adjust settings to ensure that they have the in-oven environment they're looking for every time.

Simultaneous Versatility

If your staff are to be able to utilise the equipment to cook several different dishes at once, as mentioned, then they must be able to handle different conditions at the same time.  Choosing high-grade kitchen equipment means that your staff can slow-cook one dish while they're quickly roasting another; they just need to master the settings and set the dishes an appropriate distance apart in the oven.  Thankfully, the sheer size of commercial-size cooking equipment should facilitate this—but ensuring that you choose a model from a place like Ian Boer Refrigeration with lots of options for adjusting tray height will make this as easy as possible.

Multi-Purpose

If you really want to streamline your kitchen and expand the options you give your staff, then choose a piece of equipment that offers other features, too.  For example, some commercial ovens will come with built-in hobs, steamers and grilling facilities.  Ask your staff what they'd find useful, and you're likely to be able to find an option to suit them.

Of course, you'll pay a premium for top-grade equipment, and not every restaurant can afford this.  You should make sure you're not raiding your budget for equipment that has all the bells and whistles if your staff will only use half those features.  However, if you make smart choices, you can transform the operations of your kitchen into something smooth and successful with just one piece of equipment.  That's the kind of advantage every kitchen could do with.