Trolleys move on

Food-transport trolleys have revolutionised the way bulk food is held hot before delivery to the customer. Once upon a time there was just the dry-heat hot cupboard in either the kitchen or a still room adjacent to the restaurant, which, while holding food hot, dried it out, congealed sauces and took out texture and nutritional value.

Normally held in bulk containers, the food also needed a ready pool of casual silver-service waiting staff to deliver it - hopefully remembering the pleas of the chef to serve it on the plate the way he demonstrated in the kitchen. In reality, the food would often be tepid and presentation was invariably a nightmare as casual silver-service staff grew increasingly short in supply.

Now, the new technology of food-holding and regeneration trolleys has changed the system of banqueting and bulk food delivery. Few kitchens can now deliver big numbers of cook-and-serve hot food directly to the restaurant table at the same standard as that from a regeneration or hot-hold trolley system.

Banqueting has been a huge beneficiary of food-holding trolleys. The need to serve several hundred customers within a short time frame with food that deserves the title of "banquet" is a constant challenge. Meeting that challenge are cook-and-hold trolley systems that prevent plated or bulk food from drying out by injecting gentle puffs of steam during the holding process. But growing in popularity for banqueting are trolleys that incorporate the technology of cook-chill.

The instinct of a chef is that freshly cooked and served food will always win hands-down over food that has been precooked, chilled and then regenerated to serving temperature. That's the view of Neil Moore-McCarthy, head chef at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, which, in addition to its museum function, also runs a thriving conference and banqueting operation catering for up to 800.

The reaction to working with cook-chill and regeneration trolleys from Moore-McCarthy is a typical one: "When I was told that the finished dishes would come out of the regeneration trolleys ready to serve and looking exactly the same as they went in, I was sceptical. But it's right - they do."

The mobility of food trolleys is a big working advantage for the Royal Armouries kitchen, which deals with requests for hot food not just in the main banqueting suite but elsewhere within the exhibition centre. This flexibility and mobility was a persuasive factor in Moore-McCarthy choosing Chillogen regeneration trolleys from Scottish manufacturer Moffat, since they operate off a standard 13amp power point and can be delivered anywhere across the museum.

Another feature he likes is the trolleys' ability to keep chilled foods which need to be served cold, such as sandwiches and salads, alongside chilled main-course dishes intended for reheating.

Using cook-chill and regeneration trolleys is the preferred solution for many chefs running busy banqueting operations, but it isn't necessarily the best option for meal delivery on large, spread-out sites. Head chef Dave Pullen uses the hot-hold trolley system for delivery of meals at Linden House in York, a residential care centre for adults with learning disabilities. The centre is spread over 20 acres of grounds with 10 houses, which gives Pullen a huge headache on food and temperature qualities.

Food is produced in a central kitchen on site, and the old system was to store meals in insulated boxes before distributing them to their destination. However, sometimes the houses at the centre weren't ready for the meals at the time of delivery - which meant that in food started to cool, even in insulated boxes.

In an effort to resolve the problem, Pullen checked out the new Ambassador food-holding trolleys built by Victor Manufacturing, which have wheels large enough to be operated over exterior surfaces. As well as being holding cabinets for both hot and chilled food, the trolleys have a serving counter and a bain-marie - all of which makes them ideal in size and versatility for the accommodation and training houses at Linden House, each of which holds an average of nine residents.

Power supply
The new meal-distribution system works like this: completed meal trolleys are loaded in the kitchen and towed to each of the houses by a battery-operated truck. When delivered, the trolleys are connected to a power supply and the food is held hot or cold until needed for service.

Pullen's verdict? Using transportable hot-holding trolleys is providing a far higher standard of food quality and serving temperature than the old insulated-box system.

Of course, food safety is paramount with any cook-chill operation involving regeneration trolleys, and all manufacturers are addressing the issue - not just to maintain food safety, but to be able to prove it should the need arise.

The use of an on-board computer to record performance is a feature of the French-built Iseco trolleys. In addition to temperature recording, the data captured includes times when the unit is plugged in and unplugged, the start and end of the reheat cycle and any operational temperature fluctuations.

Another useful feature with Iseco is the availability of compact, 12-tray regeneration trolleys, which are suitable for small, specialist purposes such as corporate hospitality for small numbers in a building where the entertaining is at distance from the kitchen.

When Barnsley District General Hospital Trust in South Yorkshire looked at its catering operation in 1999 it recognised that it needed huge capital investment if the operation was to meet the current standards expected in the NHS. The trust decided to go down the Private Finance Initiative route and, after choosing ISS Mediclean as its partner in the project, insisted that traditional cook-serve - with the food cooked fresh and held hot - would be the means of delivery to patients.

After evaluation of several systems it was decided to go with the recently developed Temp-Active Tray Meal Distribution System, from Alladin Temp-Rite. This is a plated meal system based upon one ward needing one trolley. Meal assembly after cooking takes just 2-3 minutes for one trolley and the time between plating and delivery to patient is 30-40 minutes. While conventional blown hot air is the usual heating method for this type of food-transport trolley, the Aladdin Temp-Rite trolley incorporates induction heating using special activators below the plates in each trolley to raise and maintain the temperature of the food.

Buying tips
When buying a regeneration trolley keep these key questions and points in mind:

* What is the regeneration time? With a fleet of trolleys, possibly in use twice a day, a few minutes extra on regeneration time can add up to a substantial additional energy cost over a year.

* Get someone with a detailed knowledge of energy costing to calculate the cost of bringing food up to temperature. A trolley may have an impressive heat-up time but may be very heavy on energy use.

* Examine the ease of cleaning on both hot-holding and regeneration trolleys. This can be expressed as a labour cost in a viability plan.

* Is there a good serving area on top of the trolley and are there optional extras of a gantry and table extension for service?

Contacts
AladdinTemp-Rite 07714 676006
Iseco 0114 290 3616
Moffat 01324 812272