Friday, August 06, 2010

New Orleans Event & Kitchen Sights

Massive Refrigerated Walk in

Dinner for 14,000

Rational Combi Ovens

My trip to New Orleans is finished and I really regret not being able to visit every restaurant I had wanted to; it was a working trip after all and the hours and days were just to long.  In the end, our kitchen team produced over 40,000 plated meals spread out over five days. Using modern kitchen equipment made it seem almost easy, the star appliance was our bank of six German Rational Combi ovens. These $60,000. each high tech ovens can be loaded by wheeling in a full rack of food and with a push of a few buttons the oven's computer will roast, bake or steam the food perfectly. We were able to cook 14,000 orders of potato gratin all at the same time!  The next step after all the food was cooked is having lines of conveyor belts to move the plates across onto the dish up tables where cooks placed the food in the appropriate spots, then the finished plates were covered and loaded up in huge heated boxes to be wheeled to the tables to be served.  It was a good experience, but next time when I visit it will be just for the food and sights of New Orleans.

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