Done To A Turn

Rotisseries and high-performance ovens are transforming supermarkets into first-choice destinations for fresh-cooked meals.

With the economic downturn, today’s consumers are spending less on restaurant meals and increasingly looking to supermarkets for quality, convenience and lower price points in fresh-cooked meals. Food retailers are meeting this demand in great part through improved technology in rotisseries and high-performance ovens.

“These newer technologies offer faster cooking by combining technologies without sacrificing quality,” says Sarah Tresser, applications specialist for Burlington, Vt.-based Blodgett Oven Co., which supplies retailers such as Wegmans, Hannaford, Albertsons and Whole Foods. “Actually, the quality has increased, as has the yield, allowing more profitability from the same product previously cooked by other methods.”

At Alto-Shaam — which supplies high-performance ovens for retailers including Safeway, Kroger, Publix, Ahold and Stew Leonard’s — VP of sales and marketing Todd Griffith says, “The right tool for the right need — or menu item — provides operators a means to provide extremely high-quality meal solutions without the cost burden of culinary staffing.”

Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Alto-Shaam also makes rotisseries for such customers as Food Lion, Publix, Ahold and Giant Eagle, notes Griffith, adding: “Rotisserie ovens have evolved into ‘visual’ production pieces that can support a full fresh foods program with a variety of menu items.”

Henny Penny’s high-performance rotisseries, meanwhile, are used by the likes of Walmart, Roundy’s and Albertsons, according the West Eaton, Ohio-based company’s field marketing manager, Jason Moles, who notes that the “theatrics” — think motion; attractive, well-lit displays; transparency; and aroma — “of rotisseries create excitement and draw attention from consumers to supermarket delis and foodservice operations, often on impulse after experiencing the theatrics.”

The new generation of rotisseries and ovens has “created more versatility to help supermarkets diversify their prepared food offerings and satisfy the growing consumer demand for at-home meal solutions,” says Mike Burke, product line manager steam cooking at Vulcan, part of Glenview, Ill.-based Illinois Tool Works, Inc. (ITW).

At fellow ITW Equipment Group company Hobart, whose rotisseries and ovens are used by a number of leading grocery chains, Raymond Bittikofer, GM, retail cooking, says the KA7E Self-Cleaning Rotisserie is quickly gaining in popularity among retail customers because of its press-and-go capability that combines one-button cooking and one-button cleaning for simplified operation. The unit stores up to 99 programs, each with a four-stage cooking and automatic hold cycle, to enable the operator to simply select a cooking program number and press “Start.”

Troy, Ohio-based Hobart’s combi-oven with optional Bluetooth-enabled bar code scanner and software kit makes recipe development and programming to one or more combis easy and convenient, according to product line manager David Sager, regardless of location or operator. “Training in the kitchen can be as simple as scanning a bar code, and the combi does the rest,” he says.

Sager notes that three cooking modes give Hobart’s combi-ovens their versatility in baking, grilling, roasting, steaming, proofing, rethermalization, low-temp cooking, blanching and finishing, “healthy fry” techniques, and high-yield, low-shrinkage Delta-T cooking. Further, controlling food moisture and results is simplified by Hobart’s easy-to-use controls and programmable settings for true recipe repeatability.

Vulcan recently launched its new combi-oven product at the 2010 NRA show, “and has already achieved success in several high-volume foodservice operations,” says Burke. He cites increased safety as a leading feature of the oven: “Even at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, the outside metal will not cause burns.”

Henny Penny’s most popular model among retailers is the SCR-16, affirms Moles, noting that “from an operator’s perspective, the units are well made and long-lasting, not requiring repair, with no significant downtime. Parts are easy to remove, clean and insert. The controls are easy to use and program. And, finally, our rotisseries cook the food well — fast, even and consistent.”

Alto-Shaam’s Combitherm ovens, meanwhile, comprise the largest segment of the company’s retail business, says Griffith. The high-production ovens “offer the retailer the ability to operate the equipment in a variety of cooking modes, depending upon the food production requirements,” he notes. The company’s recently introduced CombiTouch control system offers additional features, including Alto-Shaam’s patented smoker technology, auto-venting and automatic cleaning system, as well as the EcoSmart closed system, which significantly reduces operating costs.

Alto-Shaam’s electric rotisserie is another popular unit among supermarketers, according to Griffith, due to its dual heating technology and a sealed cooking chamber for perfectly done foods in half the cooking time of traditional rotisseries. The company also offers a “vertical” gas unit that offers “even greater merchandising and dramatic effect through a live flame that dances on rear cast-iron grates to enhance cooking production, as well as a visual display of products being cooked,” he continues. “A unique smoker feature also provides operators the ability to add real wood-smoked flavor profiles to all foods.”

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Electrolux Professional has introduced an air-o-steam Touchline oven that “is truly one of a kind,” according to Angelo Grillas, director of marketing for the company’s North American business unit. The user-friendly High Definition Touch Screen featuring 262,000 colors, 30 languages, and internationally recognized icons and food images enables a single touch to prepare meals.

The Touchline’s automatic mode offers eight cooking categories according to different food types; the operator selects the icon or image, and the oven automatically detects the type of food and load size. Cooking time, temperature and ideal cooking climate are then calculated and adjusted automatically and continuously.

The unit’s green features include highly efficient, low-pollutant gas burners that allow for carbon dioxide emissions that are 10 times lower than the limits set by the Dutch government — the strictest in Europe — and 100 times lower than the European Standard Limit. It also boasts new automatic-cleaning features that can reduce operating costs by up to 50 percent.

At presstime, Electrolux Professional had unveiled a new business model under president Alberto Zanata that includes an operations team, an R&D team, a commercial team of 10 regions, a foodservice business unit, a laundry business unit, and a business unit for commercial restaurant chains and major key accounts globally.

Looking ahead, many technologies are on the horizon that promise to further enhance the production and use of rotisseries and high-performance ovens, including “improvements in airflow design [and] energy efficiencies, as well as improvements in combi technology,” says Blodgett Oven Co.’s Tresser. Companies such as Carrollton, Texas-based Turbo Chef offer high-speed microwave/convection ovens that are setting a new standard for retherming and toasting.

Going forward, Vulcan’s Burke believes that “energy savings/sustainability will be key to improving the equipment — whether through improving the insulation or finding ways to more efficiently reach optimal temperatures without wasting energy.”

For his part, Alto-Shaam’s Griffith believes a future critical key for retailers will be “ongoing support resources, so that there is practical operational and culinary application for the equipment that Alto-Shaam manufactures. New means of providing training — be it culinary operations, or service and maintenance — are being introduced through control interfaces and training videos, online interactive training, and advanced certification processes. Even YouTube is a means of technology that is available today to support user interaction with rotisserie and oven technology.”