Get Up to Speed on Commercial Rapid Cook Ovens
On your marks, get set, cook! In any fast-paced commercial kitchen, speed is the name of the game. Nothing can derail your meal service more than orders coming out too slowly and tickets piling up faster than you can fulfill them.
Well, good news! Eleven36’s stock of new rapid cooking or high-speed ovens will give you the power to speed up the process for tons of different dishes and cooking methods without sacrificing quality, texture, or taste.
Rapid cooking ovens outperform traditional ovens in speed, ease of use, automation, and kitchen footprint. But before we get into all that, let’s take a look into how rapid cook ovens work:
Rush Hour: Types of Rapid Cook Ovens
Commercial rapid cook ovens achieve their super-fast cooking times by utilizing multiple types of heat at once. That’s right, there are different kinds of heat, each of which cooks a little bit differently:
- Conduction Heat: Conduction refers to heat that is transferred by direct contact. It is the most common type of cooking heat and includes stovetop cooking, boiling water, and grilling. Food directly touching the heat source cooks first, so conduction heat is best for cooking the surface of food faster than the inside (think medium rare steaks or crispy mozzarella sticks that are still gooey on the inside).
- Convection Heat: With convection cooking, there is no direct contact with the heat. Rather, hot air is evenly circulated within a space to get a more even cook around each food surface. Circulating hot air eliminates the “cold bubble” that is formed when heat in an oven rises away from the food. Like conduction, convection heat cooks the surface of food faster than the inside, but the even heat on all sides makes it an excellent application for crisping nachos, toasting bread, and getting that nice golden brown bubbling on the top of a pizza.
- Infrared Radiation: Radiation refers to the heat given off by an extremely hot object. For instance, hot coals, campfires, grills, and even the sun are all examples of radiant heating. Infrared radiation works by targeting infrared electromagnetic waves directly at your food, which heats much faster and with higher temperatures than any other heating style.
- Microwave Radiation: Microwave radiation is another form of radiant heat that utilizes short electromagnetic waves that penetrate the food and cook it from the inside out rather than from the outside in.
Notable mention:
- Impingement: This is not a type of heat, but it’s still an important term to define. Impingement uses small airways or jets that directly blow hot air to the surface of the food in order to avoid that “cold bubble” in standard oven cooking.
To sum up, rapid cook ovens combine one or more of these heating methods together to get those fast microwave oven results without sacrificing crispy texture and oven-quality flavor as you'd see from a traditional cooking process.
Swift Into High Gear: Benefits of a Commercial Rapid Cooking Oven
Fast-as-Lightening Cooking Speeds
So, commercial speed ovens can cook food rapidly, right? But just how fast are we talking here? Let's take a look:
- Breakfast sandwiches? As little as 35 seconds.
- Quesadillas? As little as 45 seconds.
- A large pizza? 2-3 minutes.
- Paninis? A minute or less.
- French fries? 2.5 minutes
- Toasted sandwiches? 20-30 seconds.
What does this mean for your commercial kitchen? It means your customers are happily in and out quickly without added stress for your staff or resources. Since rapid cook ovens are electric and require much less energy than traditional commercial ovens, you’ll save money on your monthly utility bill to boot! Did we mention that they can be installed without ventilation?
Rapid Menu Expansion Potential
On top of the speed of fast cooking ovens, these mini-sized appliances will impress you with the wide range of menu items they can cook to perfection. Everything from appetizers to desserts, par-cooked chicken wings and pastries, pizzas, paninis, roasted vegetables, pasta, side dishes, burger patties, frozen foods, and more!
In fact, popular drink restaurants like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts use rapid cook ovens to quickly warm menu items like pastries and breakfast sandwiches, keeping up with in-café and drive-thru line orders with speed and efficiency. Without the fast cooking speeds of a commercial rapid cooking oven, these popular chains couldn't offer the wide variety (and constantly rotating) selection of menu items they're known for.
Footprint and Space-Saving
A rapid cook oven is perfect if you need a powerful appliance to pack the most cooking power into the smallest space. Some countertop models come as small as 21” wide by 30” deep and 2 feet tall, while standalone models with multiple cooking cabinets can be as big as 48” wide by 32” deep and 5 feet tall.
Because of their incredible versatility and size ranges, there’s a perfect high-speed oven for compact kitchens with limited space, food trucks, convenience stores, cafes, fast food restaurants, and coffee shops. But that doesn’t mean that full-sized professional kitchens couldn’t benefit from rapid cooking ovens. Imagine how smooth your next dinner service could be with a countertop rapid cook oven at your busiest prep station or even for front-of-house use!
Versatility and Consistency
Most rapid cook models come with user-friendly touchscreen controls with wi-fi connectivity and can store anywhere from a few hundred to over a thousand recipes. This means you never have to worry about remembering temperatures, heat settings, or timers. Just load the food into the cabinet and wait for consistent results every time.
Now, consistency isn’t something to be taken for granted. When your customers come in, they expect the same quality, presentation, taste, texture, and aroma every time. So, whatever will help you achieve those results is well worth it!
User-Friendly for Fast Integration
Yet another benefit of commercial rapid cook ovens? They're easily programmable with adjustable settings, allowing you to adapt and expand your menu. Seasons change, trends come and go, and customer preferences change – with a rapid cook oven, you, too, can quickly adapt!
Speed ovens are also very user-friendly, meaning you can integrate this commercial kitchen appliance into your process with minimal training or technical skill. Save on labor and overhead costs by running your business with greater speed and efficiency than ever.
A Swift that Keeps on Giving: Brand Reputation and Reliability
Eleven36 is committed to helping your food service establishment thrive. That’s why we proudly stock rapid cook ovens by TurboChef, an industry leader in rapid cook technology! Here are some of our most recommended high-speed ovens:
- This high-efficiency, countertop, ventless rapid cook oven features a combination of microwave and impingement cooking technologies, a 7” touch screen, the ability to store over 250 recipes, corrosion resistance, and stacking ability for added cooking capacity.
- This larger countertop TurboChef oven similarly sports an easy-to-use touch screen, a stainless steel build, impingement oven and rapid cook options, ventless oven installation, and high-efficiency operation, and includes dual cooking cabinets to help you keep up with high demand.
- For the busy commercial kitchen with lots of room to spare, this standalone TurboChef oven model features three separate cooking cabinets that can toggle between rapid cook, convection, or impingement cooking styles independently. This unit can store over a thousand recipes, uses only a single outlet plug, is made of stainless steel, and can easily automate and track all three oven cabinets at once.
Famous Fast Words: Work with Eleven36 for Fast, Efficient Service
If you’re ready to save money, increase kitchen efficiency, guarantee fast, consistent, and delicious food, and make your kitchen staff happy, there’s no time like the present to add a rapid cook oven to your commercial kitchen setup!
The experts at Eleven36 are waiting to help you find the perfect long-term solution to all your kitchen needs. We’re committed to saving you money with high-quality commercial equipment that won’t let you down. Browse our online showroom now to choose from our wide selection of TurboChef rapid cook ovens today!