Variety act

Combi-ovens may have been around for a long time, but there are still many chefs that are unaware of the breadth of their versatility. When combi-ovens first mushroomed in popularity in the mid-1980s, their resourcefulness in the kitchen was a reason to replace traditional single-method cooking equipment. Out went the steamer and the convection oven, since the combi-oven could successfully perform both functions.

When the mid-1990s brought the accountant's slide rule into kitchen purchasing, the combi-oven was viewed from a different perspective. If there was lots of steaming to be done or lots of convection baking, why spend the extra money on a combi-oven when a dedicated steamer or convection oven could do the job for much less money? Why pay for versatility if versatility isn't really needed?

In the cyclical way the perception of cooking equipment seems to go, those taking a minimalist view of combi-ovens are now discovering that there is more versatility in a combi-oven than they had realised. The oven that was once thought of as little more than a smart way to retain weight and moisture when cooking animal protein is currently enjoying a renaissance because of the real versatility it offers.

Nando's, the restaurant chain with a menu based on flame-grilled peppery chicken, has converted to combi-ovens as part of its cooking process. While the chicken portions are still finished by flame-grilling, initial cooking of the chickens in Nando's restaurants is done in a Rational Clima-Plus combi-oven.

This latest version of combi-oven from Rational has a single central control featuring all the settings for temperature, cooking time, oven cavity moisture and, vitally, core temperature of the chickens. With the ability to assign a cooking program to a particular load, Nando's chefs punch in the right program number for the chicken load, and the Rational ovens deliver corporate consistency.

The advantage of using combi-ovens to cook rice has been taken up by Brandhouse Marketing, producers of frozen Indian foods and suppliers to a range of catering outlets from the NHS to pubs. The company has changed from the traditional method of boiling rice to using Hobart combi-ovens, because, as in the case of Nando's, the cooking process can be preprogrammed into the oven to produce food of chef standard which is also consistent.

Sales director of Brandhouse Marketing, Kewal Uppal, has no doubt that the switch to using combi-ovens for rice production has improved the quality of the rice they are putting in their products. "In a week we produce 4,500kg of pilau rice," he says. "When regenerated from frozen, the rice is still in perfect condition."

Brandhouse has recently suffered a bad fire at its West Midlands production unit, but when production restarts it will be with combi-ovens again.

Another person who has found combi-ovens ideal for cooking Oriental food is Tommy Chung, who, as well as owning two restaurants in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, also has a food-production company supplying prepared Chinese food to restaurants. Chung says that the traditional method of cooking crispy Chinese duck used to take two days for the marinating, drying and slow cooking with constant turning to keep the duck moist and for the skin to crisp up.

Apart from the time the preparation takes, Chung says environmental health officers are far from happy with the hanging of ducks to dry. By switching over to a Rational CPC combi-oven the cooking time has been halved and the product is more crispy and less fatty, says Chung. "The oven can dry the chicken quickly, and there is no need to turn to achieve the crispness customers expect from Chinese roast duck," he adds. Other Chinese speciality dishes Chung uses a combi-oven for include crispy belly pork, dim sum and spare ribs.

A firm convert to combi-ovens for Chinese cooking, Chung believes that although many Chinese chefs will be sceptical about the ability of a combi-oven to match food cooked using conventional ovens, when Chinese chefs see the speed and consistency of combi-ovens, larger Chinese restaurants will begin installing them. Chung is now working with Rational to develop a demonstration programme for the Chinese restaurant community showing how modern oven technology can improve centuries-old cooking.

Possibly the most localised speciality use of a combi-oven is in the 40-bedroom Garden House hotel in Gretna Green, where - no surprise - weddings are big business. The kitchen uses a Hobart Towerplus combi for the production of an average of 700 wedding cakes a year. To cope with the maturation needed to develop the depth of flavour in a wedding cake there is a rotating stock of at least 200 cakes. Using a combi-oven to cook the cakes means that not only is there not a dry eye in the house for each wedding, but neither is there a dry cake.

State of the art

While chefs may be thinking laterally about what to use combi-ovens for, manufacturers are also pushing back the boundaries. Scottish manufacturer Moffat has developed Chillogen, a combi-oven of a completely different kind, being a hybrid of fridge and oven.

Designed for use in cook-chill food systems for banqueting or institutional catering, the chilled food is held in chill until a predetermined moment when the chilling unit switches off and the oven facility kicks in, bringing the food safely up to eating temperature. The Chillogen comes in three gastronorm sizes of five-, 10- or 20-grid and will regenerate a full load of chilled food in under one hour.

Even more cutting-edge thinking comes from Elro, the Swiss equipment manufacturer, which has developed the Cooking Process Management System (CPMS), which links a combi-oven to a PC and not only monitors the cooking process to help with HACCP, but can also recommend a cooking timetable.

The computer software monitors not just the combi-oven, but other items of Elro prime cooking equipment in the kitchen, such as pressure bratt pans, steamers and boiling kettles. The chef inputs into the software what the day's food production is to be, and the computer will work out the order in which the food should be cooked, and in what pieces of equipment, to deliver the food just in time for freshness. Elro's UK managing director Allan McDonald says that in big production runs there is a tendency by chefs to cook things before they are needed to ensure they are available on time. "That often means food is stood in bains-marie with the flavour and nutrition losses that come from this kind of holding. CPMS will work out the order things need to be cooked in so everything is fresher."

The HACCP management part of Elro's CPMS can track food from goods-in to plate by using probes. For example, a box of chilled or frozen chicken can be probed to monitor and record temperature before the cooking process so that, if a problem occurs in the food cycle, the kitchen manager can check to see if there were any discrepancies in the goods-in or goods storage procedures.

During cooking, the probes will record any variations to the preset cooking programmme. This means the software system can alert the kitchen management team not just that a problem has occurred during the cooking procedure, but where it occurred. It won't go as far as to say that somebody opened the oven door during the cooking process and caused a drop in cooking temperature, but it will say that the temperature drop happened.