A range of views
A kitchen's cooking range and the oven beneath are the most basic, vital and well-used items of cooking equipment. A chef can manage without most things, but not without the range.
The range can be a combined hob unit and underneath oven, a boiling table or part of an island suite, but it must have the means of delivering direct and powerful heat.
Much research and development has taken place in this area. The output and efficiency of gas burner jets has risen rapidly in the past three years. From a time when 20,000Btu per hour was considered high performance from a gas burner, manufacturers are now looking to 30,000Btu per hour and beyond.
Efficiency of gas burn is also increasing. The pressure, oxygenation and flueing of ranges has a great impact on energy efficiency. It is often a proud claim by chefs that their range has been in place for years and years and still works well.
It probably does still work, but it won't work well in terms of cost efficiency and power. Designs 10 years ago didn't have efficiency as a high priority.
One change over the past 10 years has not been progressive. The remorseless price war among light- and medium-duty equipment manufacturers and importers has led inevitably to a lowering of specification in construction and materials by some of them.
There is a perception among chefs that while ranges and ovens can perform better today than they did 10 years ago, their reliability is not as good, certainly in the light- to medium-duty category, as it once was.
In a round-Britain questioning of chefs from all sectors of the industry, those using medium-duty equipment report a far higher incidence of breakdown and under-performance.
Common complaints are a lack of heat from burners on older models, problems with door catches on side-opening oven doors and thermocouples that need replacing too often.
Delays in repairs because engineers are unable to get spare parts from manufacturers or importers is another complaint that surfaced in many of the interviews.
The response from the supply industry to these concerns is that often what the manufacturer deemed to be medium-duty workload was far removed from what the caterer was expecting equipment to do. Medium- or even light-duty equipment was being bought on price, when the level of work in the kitchen clearly demanded heavy-duty equipment.
According to the head of servicing for one major oven manufacturer, the complaint about difficulties getting spare parts is not always the fault of the manufacturer, but of the caterer who uses in-house or local engineers instead of accredited service companies.
Often, general maintenance engineers neither carry spare parts nor have credit agreements with manufacturers that allow for instant dispatch of spare parts, yet put the blame on manufacturers and not themselves.
Chefs using recognised heavy-duty ovens and ranges are far happier with their equipment and report fewer problems. There is no feeling that there has been a lowering of specification with heavy-duty equipment, as there is with the rest. If anything, the feeling is that specification has got better.
Island suites remain a firm favourite with chefs working in restaurants. Chefs with the most money to spend dream of having one of the traditional French-style one-piece island suites.
Jeff Balharrie
Executive chef, the Randolph hotel, Oxford.
109-bedroom hotel, à la carte restaurant with 80 covers, bistro seating 40, banqueting room seating 300
The Randolph has a large Stangard gas suite built to specification eight years ago. It has two flat-top heated surfaces and a ring-burner unit on either side, plus two ovens.
Chef Jeff Balharrie is very happy with it, saying it can cope with the high volume and sudden influx of customers that happen at the Randolph.
"I like the flat-top because it's so easy to clean, and it's extremely hot. It's also very handy having open rings on either side so we can get things cooking quicker. Rings give more controllability, especially when boiling.
"But it's sometimes difficult to find cool spots, and we don't use the ovens underneath very much. Also, we don't actually have very much space around the range for putting things, or for holding things to keep warm.
"You can't control the heat on solid tops very much, so to have different heat you need to move pans around to different areas of the stove and it takes time to get accustomed to it."
Asked what changes he would make to the suite if given the chance, Balharrie looks first to the ovens. "The one thing I would add is a fan to the ovens to make them convection ovens. Without a fan there are too many hot spots and cool spots. There should also be greater measure of control to solid-tops."
Balharrie likes his solid-top, but believes them to be less energy efficient than open burner ranges. "The single most wasteful thing with solid-tops is they have to be on for some time to get heated up."
Eugene Charlier
Owner, the Ratcatchers Inn, Nr Cawston, Norfolk.
Busy food pub serving 1,300 meals a week with 65 seats
Eugene Charlier is a stickler for kitchen cleanliness and for him the ease of cleaning of a range or oven is a strong plus point.
"I used to clean kitchens for Rentokil so I know how important it is to keep everything clean. I have two people a day in cleaning the kitchen and the ranges are stripped down and deep-cleaned every day. Like anything, the more you abuse it the more it will let you down.
"I've got a Falcon Dominator propane gas six-burner range and oven and a propane solid-top because we have no mains gas. We also have electric convection ovens which have been here for four or five years.
"I like the fact that they're gas and they're reliable. The electric oven is much faster, but we cook things like roasts and potatoes in the gas oven.
"Energy costs are always a factor but it wouldn't determine what ranges I buy. The efficiency of the equipment is what's important - it must be reliable. I've cut down on cooking with electricity because it's expensive."
Alec Summers
Head chef, Inverness Thistle Hotel.
118 bedrooms, restaurant seating 170, bar seating 100, function rooms seating 160
"Ranges should be more mobile to make cleaning easier, instead of rigid piping they should be on modern flexible piping." That is the advice of Alec Summers to the manufacturers of ovens and ranges.
He has two Falcon grills, two Falcon solid-tops with ovens underneath and one Falcon griddle in his busy kitchen, which have given good service for more than five years.
"I like solid-top ranges. If they're maintained well they give good, reliable heat. The fact that there's an oven underneath is good as well - you don't have to go walkabout, you can get the job done quite quickly."
Summers feels he could do with another range in his kitchen because of the growth in business, but says he just hasn't got the room for another big solid-top.
Robert Jones
Restaurant manager and company director, the Jersey Pottery.
250-seat seafood restaurant and 350-seat self-service brasserie
This is a very busy operation with a big throughput of tourists and a healthy local trade. The kitchen was completely rebuilt in 1990 at a cost of £1m.
Zanussi was chosen to provide the prime cooking equipment, with an RTF/G1030 gas solid-top with an electric oven, an RCF/G730 gas range with electric oven, an R701 electric top four-ring and a chargrill.
While the equipment performs adequately, Jones is irritated that the delivery time for spare parts and their cost is a bigger problem than he feels it should be, even though the restaurant is on an island. Some parts take weeks to arrive rather than days, complains Jones.
Although electricity is cheaper in Jersey than on mainland Britain, if Jones was refitting the kitchen again with the benefit of hindsight, he would fit gas burners rather than electric elements in a bid to cut electricity bills. "The electricity bill for the restaurant last year was about £70,000. I'm continuously telling chefs to turn off ranges when not needed."
Douglas Jordan
Chef-proprietor, Blackgates, Newcastle upon Tyne.
52-seat town centre restaurant
Blackgates is a busy restaurant in the heart of Newcastle's waterfront restaurant area and there are high demands put on the equipment.
Jordan has owned the restaurant for five years and he believes the Angelo Po eight-burner range he uses was four years old when he took it over. He speaks highly of the cooker and says it has given few problems and is designed in a practical manner, good for working on and for cleaning.
"The entire outer casing is stainless steel, the burners and their tops all lift out and you can get them really clean. The size of burners go from small to large; it's a very well-designed piece of equipment."
Asked what other make he would choose if he had to replace his Angelo Po and Jordan is stuck for an answer. His only problem is that the oven door isn't closing properly and he has not yet found an engineer to repair it.
Charles Price
Executive head chef,Carlton Highland Hotel, Edinburgh.
197-room, 4-star hotel
The Carlton Highland is a very busy hotel with a 140-seat main restaurant, a smaller one of 50 seats and does banqueting for up to 500.
Price is a confirmed Garland enthusiast when it comes to ovens. He has just taken delivery of an island suite with a solid-top, an open range, two four-burner units, a chargrill and three eye-level grills.
"We went for Garland because Garland equipment has been in this kitchen for the past 10 years and was still in good repair. I need equipment that can cope with everything from à la carte to big banqueting."
Apart from the performance, Price also likes the safety features such as cut-out switches in the event of a gas leak, in built safety valves and the fact that the oven doors fold downwards rather than swing open.
Yet Price was one of many chefs who wished that manufacturers could come up with thermocouples that lasted longer.
John Spencer
Catering adviser, Scottish Prison Service.
19 prisons and 20 kitchens
The fact that ovens and ranges in prisons need to be heavy-duty almost goes without saying. Spencer does not buy exclusively from one manufacturer, preferring instead to work with a small nucleus. The equipment in most use in Scottish prison kitchens is the Bartlett Baron range of flat-tops and open burners. The other manufacturers Spencer has chosen are Falcon and Zanussi.
However, while he is a keen fan of these three brands, Spencer says he has begun to look a lot harder and a lot wider at ovens and ranges and is considering introducing some new names into Scottish prison kitchens.
"Safety is very important to us and I like the way Continental manufacturers such as Elro, Morice and Bonnet have a deep well around the gas jets. That way, even with a spill you can keep on working in safety.
"Energy efficiency is also important to us. I want well-insulated oven doors and properly balanced exhaust flues in the back."
Spencer has been responsible for a multi-million pound refurbishment programme in Scottish prison kitchens, but when asked if he prefers solid tops or open burners, says the answer is to have a mix.
"Flat-tops allow you to have a lot of pans being heated at once, but there are hot spots and cool spots which the cooks can get to know about and use. Open rings are useful where there is a need for rapid, fierce heating."
