Raising the toast

WHEN Phil Hunt, executive chef of the Hotel Burstin in Folkestone, describes toast as "one of the most difficult items on the menu", he is not exaggerating. The hotel accommodates more than 1,000 guests so when the Burstin is bursting at the seams, Hunt can use up 120 loaves of bread during one breakfast session.

Getting the outsides of all those slices to a uniform golden brown only needs one to two minutes' top and bottom exposure to radiant heat, but timing and consistent performance are critical. Hunt puts toast - along with chips, gravy and custard - on a shortlist of basic menu items which guests expect to be right, no matter what.

Crispness

The biggest problem is that, unless served quickly after making, toast soon loses its crispness. Also, both chefs and waitresses are too rushed off their feet to handle the job. The Burstin's answer is to use two rotary conveyor toasters, supervised by a kitchen assistant specifically assigned to the job. Two salamander grills, which are used for regular grilling work during main meals, back up the toasters and are supervised by another assistant.

In Hunt's experience, rotary toasting is the only feasible option. Yet while the machines do not, as with slot toasters, have to endure constant switching on and off, there is still plenty to go wrong. The biggest problem has been the switches which control timing and belt speed, both of which determine browning consistency and output.

Hunt describes some switches as "not man enough for the job". There is also a fair amount of vibration within the machine, while mechanical wear and tear is made worse by the fact that the machines often need to be moved to make more space at other times of the day.

Over the past five years, Hunt reckons to have got through about half-a-dozen timer controllers on his two Hatco TK100E Toast Kings. Changing them only takes the hotel's engineer a few minutes but current replacement cost is £53 per controller.

As part of a refurbishment, Hunt is replacing the existing machines with two different rotary machines: a Savory C40 and a Rowlett RT4-100. He has yet to find out if these stand up to the job any better, but he is not, on past experience, too hopeful.

Other large toast users report similar shortcomings. At Butlin's South Coast World holiday centre in Bognor Regis, as many as 2,500 half-board visitors flood the six waitress-served dining rooms every morning. And almost all of them want toast.

Even if guests don't gobble up their three- to four-slice quota, plenty of toast leaves the dining rooms every morning hidden in handbags and children's pockets. The South Coast World duck-pond supports "the best-fed ducks on the South Coast", according to catering executive Patrick Dubus.

The big challenge at Bognor is the short "time window" - under two hours - in which breakfast is served. Six rotary toasters handle much of the output with back-up from the kitchen's 12 salamander grills.

FASTTOAST

The latter generally do a better job, Dubus says. They are less complicated to maintain and the gas burners can produce toast slightly faster than the electric elements of the rotary models. But the three staff assigned to the job must be vigilant and energetic as they dash from one grill to the next, whereas the conveyors simply need feeding at one end and unloading at the other.

STAFF SKILLS

Breakdowns are a common occurrence on the rotaries. "We have not yet found one which can cope with our business," Dubus says. Thermostats tend to be the main problem but speed control, conveyor chain linkages and drives also demand regular attention. A lot of problems arise, Dubus admits, from abuse by relatively unskilled staff.

Repairs are dealt with quickly by Butlin's on-site engineers using a stock of spares, but some parts have proved difficult to get for older machines.

FORTNIGHTLY BURN-OUT

Many caterers switch to conveyor toasters because they are easier to look after. Tony Dibbens, manager of Truck Stop on the outskirts of Swindon, Wiltshire, estimates that on average one element burned out every fortnight when he used two commercial six-slot toasters.

He admits that demands are tough. Toasters at the 70-seat Truck Stop, which provides lorry drivers with full cafeteria facilities (plus free showers and a TV/video room), may be switched on continuously from 5:30am until 9:30 pm.

A failed element in the six-slot toasters usually meant losing the use of one slot. A member of staff could change the elements within 30 minutes using a stock of end and centre elements carried on site, but the job would normally have to be left until the weekend. "That got to be a pain," Dibbens says.

Two years ago, Truck Stop got hold of a second-hand Toastmaster rotary toaster and Dibbens found it a big improvement. Elements emit heat in the infra-red spectrum so they heat up faster than black metal elements but, being glass-sheathed, are slightly more vulnerable to operator abuse. However, only two have needed replacement so far. Truck Stop has a service contract with an engineer and the repair, which takes 15-20 minutes, is usually carried out within 24 hours of a phone call.

Four elements are fitted top and bottom so loss of one is not a problem; belt speed is slowed down to compensate. "The big advantage with a conveyor toaster is that you don't have to stand over it to prevent it burning, so staff can get on with other jobs," Dibbens says.

TIMER ABUSE

Burning the toast should not be a problem with commercial slot toasters, of course, but staff under pressure do not necessarily use machines in the way manufacturers of commercial slot toasters intend. One of the commonest problems is timer abuse.

According to Jonathon Harris, a part-time waiter with plenty of experience of breakfast service at large hotels, it is virtually standard practice when staff are hard-pressed to keep twisting the timer knob to full time (whichis typically six minutes); otherwise elementsswitch off between batches and getting them backto heat loses valuable seconds.

The snag is that unless staff get to the machine at the right moment to press the lift-out mechanism, a lot of toast ends up in the waste bin.

Even if staff faithfully keep to the correct timings for consistent toast, they still face a problem. Machines with four or more slots typically have only one timer so if staff drop in only two slices and then put in two more a minute later, the second pair of slices will not be timed properly.

WORKING PARTY

The timer problem was one of the concerns expressed by members of a toaster working party set up by Forte Roadside Restaurants and Accommodation, operator of Little Chef, Happy Eater and Travelodge roadside chains. Estimated annual output of toast is eight million slices, so the stakes are high.

"From the customer's side, toast looks so easy to produce but it's actually fraught with difficulty," comments catering executive Andrew Botting. Aside from resolution of the timing problem, the working party identified several areas for improvement, specifically easier changing of elements, a better safety guard to prevent accidental damage to elements and clear display of operator instructions on each machine.

The company approached toaster suppliers and a new machine has now been developed by Rowlett Catering Appliances and is in its final trial stage. Features include a second timer and narrower guard over the elements. The latter ensures that, while bread cannot be prevented from buckling and jamming a slot occasionally, attempts to retrieve the slice with the customary long sharp object are less likely to result in damaged elements.

With toast made to order through much of the day, slot toasters offer more versatility, but larger Forte roadside restaurants may additionally or alternatively have a conveyor toaster.

LUXURY TOAST

Everyone seems to have a problem with toast. London's Ritz hotel which, with up to 250 guests, can toast up to 1,000 slices of bread each breakfast, uses both a Rowlett Roller Toaster conveyor machine and a Dualit slot toaster as a back-up.

Charles Morgan, food and beverage manager, believes the results are the best available with current technology. However, large-scale production inevitably entails compromises. "A lot of people want toast similar to what comes out of their own domestic toaster," he points out. But because of their higher operating speed, rotary machines cannot achieve that since fresh UK bread is relatively moist. So the hot elements can only cook the outside and leave the inside moist, which means that slices go soggy quickly.o