Technology changing the face of Stadia Catering

Technology in Stadia and Arenas is so different to other areas of catering, as its actually all about sales, dwell time, add-on sales and more. I thought I would write an article about equipment at the other end of the scale, a product that saves you as a caterer/chef money, plus it is green and low energy.

The Henny Penny Fryer www.hennypenny.com well, what’s different.

We can talk about the basics ,it only holds 15 litre of oil as opposed to 20 litre 25% saving there, to start.

It’s geared with programmable timers, so no more overcooked produce, another saving as you’re now relying on a computer to tell you when your frites, nuggets, scampi, chicken are cooked, each programme will have a set temperature for a set period of time. Now the really clever bit, after 30-50 uses the fryer will filter itself whilst hot, it takes around 4 minutes and then 1 min or so to get back to temperature, plus ... the oil through this process lasts between 8-10 times longer (depending on the oil you buy).

Absolutly genius.  When filtering, the oil passes through a gravity fed sieve with a square style of coffee filter paper which catches the large and the fine particles in the oil this process is all done whilst the oil is hot, and only takes 90 seconds,

Once all the oil is through the filter paper the fryer then pumps the oil back into the fryer well, but technology does not stop here? It then auto tops its self up to the required operating level of oil from a Vat of clean oil.

Also the fryer has an ‘idle’ mode when not in constant use that ticks the green power box.

All in all, a pretty useful fryer, I estimate it’s reduced my oil consumption down in the restaurants that have one by 60-70% which in its self is a huge saving.

I thought I would also touch on the Thermodyne.  I started with one small 700 ct in March 2015 by March 2017 we will have around 30 on site, which will range from the 1900dw through to the 700ct.  Why Thermodyne? Well it’s difficult to know exactly where to start.

I first brought mine to hold pre-made burgers at a set temperature to speed up service in my day of event.  Since then I have used them for events up to 1000 covers and plan to use them beyond in the coming months.

Slow cooking joints over night, chicken wings through the Thermodyne are amazing.Reheating and holding bowl food - awesome tool, it will hold rare, blue, medium rare beef for as long as you need to.

How does it do this? Well they call it fluid shelf technology, I would readily translate this, most of us that are not familiar with this, it’s like a posh central heating system.

Let me tell you more detail, each shelf of the Thermodyne has its’ own dedicated supply of temperature controlled fluid (it’s actually an oil) so the fluid flows around the shelves and each time is gently heated to maintain within 0.1 degree of temperature accuracy.  Due to the product not having any convection at all, the product does not suffer from drying or skinning which alone, in my book puts it ahead of the market, including the trusted alto sham, ( of which I have 40) so I am fair placed to see the strengths and weaknesses up close.

Originally designed to hold vast volumes of pizza in between quarters at American football, the piece of kit has grown and grown, it’s used everywhere from Stadia through Michelin restaurants.  I know Sat Bains uses one in Nucleus, his development kitchen, to Stadia kitchens, in which they operate on the front of house area holding products at stable temperature to increase service speed, and back of house holding a cooked product at the correct cuisant (cooking degree) for a dinner, buffet or bowl food party.