 Clever Construction
Two ovens featured doors that slide into a space along the
side of the oven - a nice touch for batch cooking in tight areas. 
Convotherm's (Germany)
Easy Touch Combi, above, has a patented disappearing door, along with an antibacterial
handle. website link
Wiesheu (Germany)
Dibas' gracefully curved oven door, above, disappears into the housing (manual or automatic option) and their
Ebo bakery deck oven door opens up & inward, out of the way. website link
NEM S.R.L. (Italy)
hardware is lovely - too bad it's usually out of sight. We met the engineer who
had recently designed a device that neatly locks a sneeze guard in place,
releasing easily to allow the plate to flip around for cleaning; the locking
pin just drops into place when the plate is in position. For refrigerated cases
a hydraulic opener lifts the heavy glass front upwards - the mechanism takes
over after only a few inches and raises it up over your head.  Hardware for a
swing door, above, easily takes a glass front forward and away to the side from a
merchandiser. website link
Gnodi's (Italy)
kitchen in a container, above, can place a complete professional kitchen, including
electrical & plumbing, wherever needed, such as an oil rig, disaster area,
or temporary event facility. They can be shipped by land, sea or air. website link
Socamel (France)
Ergoserve 3.0, above, hot/cold cart for 24 or 30 trays, simultaneously keeps
cold trays cold and rethermalizes the hot side when connected to a base unit (right in photo).
Then the cart, unencumbered by the heating & cooling components, travels to
its destination. As each tray is removed from the cart a small "air dam" drops
into place, covering the tray glide slot at the center (which is open to the
other side). While the equipment is very nice, their website is awful to
navigate. website link |
Links to More Photos
We're
trying something different in this issue. Two collections of photos and text
are available by a link rather than take up space here in the emailed
newsletter. To read more about Italian pizza ovens click here and to see a collection of
items that are interesting or unique or just fun click here. |
Contact IWD
Questions? Comments?
Mike Colburn can be reached at 877-312-1706, ext.101. Or by email at mcolburn@ideaswelldone.com
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The Host International Exposition of the Hospitality
Industry in Milan is just too big
to cover in a single newsletter, so here's Part 2. If you missed the first
issue last week, click here.
In this issue: equipment that combines mixing with heat was new to us. The
hide-away oven doors reminded me of a TV cabinet. And non-Host related news ...
who knew panda poop has a kitchen application?
A core tenet for Ideas Well Done is to gather as much as we
can - see equipment designed in different parts of the world by people who have
different priorities & challenges; read magazines and journals that cover science,
engineering, manufacturing; research ideas to find out what others are doing;
wonder "why?" and "how?". The more we collect, the better able we are to put
together concepts that might seem disparate, but once connected make a powerful
solution. It's work and it's fun - and in this newsletter we get to share some of it with you.
Happy Thanksgiving - let's focus on what is good, what we have,
and what we love.
Best
wishes,
Mary
Esther Treat
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New Meaning for Combi
A new luxury tool for chefs, particularly European-trained
chefs - Kenwood's(UK)
Cooking Chef, right, mixes and cooks food simultaneously. An 1100W induction cooking
system is incorporated into a 1500W planetary mixer. With removal of a cover plate a
blender or food processor can be fitted to the top. A fresh pasta maker
attaches to the side and a steam basket fits into the mixing bowl. Temps range
from -4°
to 284°F
(-20°
to 140°C).
The base has three rotation speeds: continuous, and two intermittent speeds. Kenwood
was purchased in 2002 by DeLonghi. website link
 HotMix Pro, left, by Hot
Class (Italy)
can blend, chop and stir while heating. The temp range is 86°-239°F
(30-115°C)
using resistance heat. A sibling, called Turbochef, looks like a household
blender; both have 2 liter containers. website link
Roboqbo's (Italy)
professional Blue Chef tabletop cooking mixer, right, combines a variable speed mixer
with steam heat that surrounds the 3.5 liter mixer bowl in a closed system, like
a tiny steam jacketed kettle. Tools include smooth and serrated knife blades,
mixing tool and scraper; it can be used for soups, risotto, cooking fruits or
custards. The website includes recipes.
Electrolux's (Sweden)
high speed Panini combines microwave and infrared in its base with a standard
ridged top. It can reduce cook time from 7 minutes to 45 seconds. website link
 Friulinox
(Italy) Zeta
line has the only self-washing blast chiller with a glass door (which allows
chefs to visually check on the chilling process). Perhaps more important is a
pre-cooling system that reduces the total time needed for blast-freezing and
minimizes dehydrating and oxidizing fats. Fan speed can be adjusted according
to the needs of the food. The cleaning system uses its own water tank and
boiler. website link
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Odds & Ends
Our new food for today: Langos
- deep fried dough or flat bread, a Hungarian specialty. No samples were
offered, so I can't tell you whether it's significantly different from the
fried dough at our local country fair. Palatent
(Hungary)
has recently devised an automated fried dough machine with production and sale
expected in 2010. See a video
 Maybaum PMD Eco Line has an 8 liter halogen-heated
bain marie, left, using a Pyrex bowl for visibility and claiming 95% efficiency. website link
Several water
dispensers offer ambient, cold and sparkling water. We've seen Cosmetal (Italy) products in the US - they are one of
many who have water machines that produce still or sparkling water at room temp
or chilled. Devices range from small countertop to floor units that dispense up
to 180 liters/hour and can simultaneously dispense still and carbonated water. website link
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Combining
Science
& Development
We
study science and trends to deliver innovative new products to our customers
and partners. Occasionally, some of the science is just abundantly clear in its
application to appliance development, sometimes it isn't.
The
winners in the 2009 Ig Nobel science research awards included several food and
beverage related projects.
- Stephan Bolliger, with four researchers in Switzerland, proved beyond any
reasonable doubt that an empty beer bottle makes a better weapon than a full
beer bottle in a brawl.
- Javier
Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor Castano won for creating diamonds out of
tequila.
- Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson researched and presented scientific
documentation that cows with names produced more milk than cows without
names.
- A
team of Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei demonstrated that
bacteria in panda poop can help reduce kitchen waste by 90 percent.
With
enough tequila perhaps pandas...never mind. Check
out Annals of Improbable Research.
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Please forward this newsletter to anyone who would be interested in foodservice equipment design, development and invention.
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