Gunter Blaschke

Tell me about the business. What fires you up about it? Commercial kitchens are our focus - more specifically, the best way to transfer heat to food - either for cooking or regeneration. I came to Rational having been impressed with the remarkable tools and technology it has developed for cooking.

Of all the caterers who could benefit only about 20% have one, so there's still huge potential. My background is in international sales and marketing, so it's my mission to spread the word around the world about Rational to any chefs who haven't heard about us.

Where have you worked before Rational? I worked with Procter & Gamble, 3M and Johannes Vaillant. My background is quite unusual at Rational - many of my colleagues are ex-chefs, especially on the sales side of the organisation.

Combi-steamers are your business. So how does one model differ from another? Every combi-steamer works on combining dry and moist heat. The critical difference is in how the balance between the two is controlled. Our top model, the ClimaPlus Combi (CPC), uses our patented technology to control this to very tight tolerances, to suit the food being cooked.

What is so great about combi-steamers? Everything! They cook food better, they're quicker, they save space, the latest models don't need skilled staff to operate, and they save money.

So they're good for all caterers. The great chefs use them because of the quality results; hospitals and schools use them because they save money. Anyone serving over 30 meals a day can benefit from a combi-steamer.

How much food can you cook at any one time? Our largest combi-steamer is a 40-grid unit that will hold up to 40 1/1 gastronorm containers, or 120 plated meals on a jackstack, at once. The smallest is a six-grid model, which will hold six 1/1 gastronorm containers.

Do you sell any other types of equipment? No. Specialisation has made us successful. We think we're the best at the one thing we do, whereas our competitors sell many different products. I don't believe you can be the best at refrigeration, combi-steamers, toasters and ranges at the same time.

So what else makes the company different? Every oven has a plaque on the back with the name of the individual who built it and the date on which it was built. We don't have an assembly line. Workers guarantee quality with their own name.

But if, in effect, everything is custom-built, doesn't this make the end product expensive? Surprisingly, no. The manufacturing system we use is well proven. What's more, our workers are more interested, more committed and highly motivated.

You'll pay a little premium for a top-of-the-range Rational oven, because of the quality and the technology, not because of the manufacturing methods we use. The current list price for a Rational six-grid oven is from £4,959 (for the CD61), depending on the model.

Deskilling and the shortage of trained chefs are key issues in the UK. Are you sure a combi can really help?
The original combis were quite complicated to use. But now they have computer controls and are very user-friendly. For example, unskilled staff can use our CPC, as all they have to do is put in the food and call up the appropriate program to replicate the perfect results. The ovens can control the cooking. If, for example, you're cooking beef, you can key in how brown you want the skin and how red the meat, insert a food probe into the joint and then forget it. The oven sorts it all out.

What is it about CPC? Why do you believe it makes such a difference?
CPC was developed to cook food in its ideal "climate" - that is, the right combination of heat and moisture. So it preserves the food's quality and it doesn't have to be watched. Poach, roast, toast, steam, grill, bake… it can even fry food, and better than a deep fryer. Because just one machine can do this, you can get rid of half the equipment in your kitchen, saving space and budget. Our new AeroCat technology means the CPC combi-steamer can go anywhere, as it takes any cooking smells and smoke from the oven without having to have an extraction system.

So, how long is the waiting list for a CPC oven? You have to wait about a week - despite the fact we manufacture to order and don't hold stock. We make about 120-150 units a day, or just over 20,000 a year.

What's next for Rational? What is the cooker of the future? Nothing will ever be perfect, but we are still refining CPC technology and getting closer to the Holy Grail of "perfect cooking".

Also, we see a big market for connecting ovens directly to office management and even to the internet. Imagine having your oven dial up the service engineer itself when it needs a service, or give you a print-out of your most popular menu items.

There will also be advances that no one has yet foreseen. That's because they originate from the bright ideas of our users. Some of our greatest developments have been from chefs asking us "Why can't I… ?" CleanJet, the Rational automatic cleaning system, was like that. So was CalcDiagnosis, which automatically tells the chef when it needs a descale from hard water.

Finally, how does the chief executive officer of Rational spend his spare time? I collect and renovate old cars. My favourite is an old London taxicab. Working on them is a bit of a contrast to the hi-tech world of Rational.