Discount chains, online ordering services, organic grocery stores, farmers’ markets - traditional supermarket retail is under pressure from all sides. Unique selling points are crucial. New ideas, new concepts, new features. Focused on the future. To encourage customers to linger longer. Multi-faceted approaches. Creating expectations and then fulfilling them. With a bistro, with street food, with a hot deli counter. For lunch, for home, for meals on-the-go. Consistently, reliably delicious every time. Restaurant quality food. Even if you’re not a chef. Even though trained staff are hard to find. Because you’ve got an expert partner in your corner: RATIONAL.
Cookie-cutter concepts rarely work. Which is why we emphasize individual consultation. Tailored to the questions that matter to you. Focused on your needs. Whether it’s for one supermarket or many. Whether you want help in one area or several. Your success doesn’t hinge on pizza and potato salad. It hinges on having comprehensive concepts, high standards of quality, and maintaining that quality over time.
Grab-and-go, bakery, hot food counters, rotisserie? Centralized production? What’s located where? What’s right for which location? For your customers? Get inspired. Discover new ideas and let us show you some examples. RATIONAL has the knowledge and experience - whether it’s for kitchen concepts, food production, or the food retail industry.
That’s a lot to promise. And it sounds paradoxical at first, but it makes sense when you’re using two intelligent cooking systems. Two cooking systems capable of covering more than 90% of all conventional cooking applications. Systems that are intelligent. That are easy to use. That were designed with large quantities in mind. That deliver the same great results every time. That react flexibly to changes. In short: These are the two cooking systems that will allow you to make your ideas and concepts a reality. Flexible. Efficient. Reliable.
Fresh, convenience, frozen. American, European, Asian. Meat, fish, poultry, sides, desserts. For a hundred people or several thousand. In concrete numbers: the iCombi Pro 20 full size can prepare up to 160 servings of chicken cordon bleu in a single load. And every one will turn out browned exactly the same. With a lot less oil than you’d need with conventional cooking appliances. The iVario Pro XL can sear 45 pounds of meat in a single batch. Delicious seared flavour, minimal cooking losses. Done to perfection in the blink of an eye. Incomparably delicious results you can repeat over and over again.
What’s the secret? The iCookingSuite, the cooking intelligence in both cooking systems that detects the quantity, size, browning, and condition of the food, and adjusts cooking parameters accordingly. So your broccoli stays crisp, green, and full of vitamins; your pasta comes out al dente, and your steaks are juicy with beautiful grill marks.
Standardization
Both cooking systems let you store your own tried-and-true intelligent cooking paths, so you can access them at any time. Connect your iCombi Pro or iVario Pro to ConnectedCooking, transfer your cooking paths to other units with just a click, and get the same great-quality results anywhere on the network. Standardization has never been easier.
Crispy, juicy, golden-brown roast chicken – the king of to-go dishes. Now ready in half the time*. Thanks to iDensityControl’s intelligent climate management. Thanks to the iCookingSuite, which knows the way to perfect results. Thanks to the iProductionManager, which ensures that you’ll always have fresh food ready to serve. With no overproduction. And not just chicken - it’s perfect for roast pork, meatloaf, or brisket. iZoneControl lets you divide one iVario Pro pan into four individual zones, and cook different foods at different temperatures at the same time.
*Compared to a conventional rotary grill.
iProductionManager.
The iCombi Pro helps you turn out the same great results over and over. No stress, no additional staff. The cooking system uses preset “shopping carts”, which contain the dishes in your food concept that can be cooked at the same time. When you’re ready to produce, pick the shopping cart you need (“Spring Menu”, for example), tap the display, assign dishes to different levels, load the iCombi Pro and you’re all set.
iZoneControl
For when you need to work quickly, efficiently, and reliably. Just divide your iVario’s pan into four zones of the size, shape, and position of your choice. Use one pan to cook different dishes at once, using a different temperature for each. Or prepare multiple batches of the same dish, so they’ll be ready at different times. No extra kitchen equipment. No monitoring.
The initial morning rush has passed; time to start producing extra batches. The challenge is producing just enough food - not too much, not too little - so that you’re always serving fresh items. And it’s also time for tasty treats like wraps, sandwiches, cookies and muffins. Juggling all of that requires some real organizational skill. Which is where the iProductionManager comes in. It lets you know which foods you can prepare together, and proposes production plans optimized for time or energy consumption. Frozen foods, fresh dough, small pastries, large baked goods, one tray, several trays... No problem. Start the cooking path you want. That’s it. For standardized batch production, for great results on mixed loads. Even in an open kitchen. Because the iCombi Pro has its own recirculating hood that makes ventilation systems unnecessary.
Keep a cool head when work turns up the heat. When you need a variety of dishes in large quantities. Or when you’re producing centrally for multiple locations. With Cook & Chill, for example. It lets you prepare your hot meal components in the iCombi Pro or iVario Pro, chill them rapidly, and store them. That way, you can purchase in bulk and prepare food well in advance. That way, you can bring food up to serving temperature when you need it. That way, you can produce your own line of convenience foods for your cold deli counter. That way, you can produce extra batches as necessary. It’s quick and straightforward. And taste, nutrients, colour, and texture are all perfectly preserved.
The Finishing process
Container Finishing is particularly suited to large quantities, such as for hot food counters. Just load food you’ve previously prepared into the iCombi Pro, and you’ll have it at serving temperature at the touch of a button. You’ll always have the right quantities of food hot and fresh. Reduces food waste. Easy and safe. Even with convenience foods.
Hygienic interim cleaning in around 12 minutes, or sparkling deep cleaning any time (even overnight) - the iCombi Pro’s iCareSystem handles it all. Simple and safe thanks to phosphate-free cleaner tabs. With a cleaning system that remembers your preferences and starts your favorite program automatically next time around. The iVario Pro doesn’t even need cleaning programs, because wiping it down takes just 2 minutes. And with a wide range of installation options to facilitate cleaning, the area under and around the cooking systems stays hygienic as well.
Sustainability conserves resources and saves money. Here at RATIONAL, energy-efficient production and logistics, recycling, and raising the bar for energy conservation are all par for the course. With the iCombi Pro and the iVario Pro, sustainability will become just as self-evident in your kitchen: compared to conventional kitchen equipment, you’ll save energy, reduce raw product usage, and decrease overproduction, all while preparing healthier food.
Day-to-day kitchen life is not for the faint of heart. That’s why RATIONAL products are constructed from high-quality materials and designed for hard use. We use the “one person - one unit” philosophy. In other words, each person working in production is fully responsible for the quality of the systems he or she assembles. You can find their names on the identification plates. We hold our suppliers to the same high standards of quality. We strive to continuously improve, while ensuring that our products remain reliable for many years to come.
The iCombi Pro and the iVario Pro aren’t just intelligent when it comes to cooking. They’re also smart savers as well. They save on labour, energy consumption, space, raw product, and grease, just to name a few things. In short: the difference is obvious.
Short preheating times eliminate the need for stand-by mode. Rolling batches with iProductionManager in the iCombi Pro, zone-specific pan heating with iZoneControl in the iVario Pro - two great energy-saving solutions.
Say goodbye to routine activities like turning, checking, and re-adjusting oven temperatures. Save time with the iCombi Pro’s ultra-fast cleaning feature and the super easy-to-clean iVario Pro. Frees up 1–2 hours every day.
Together, the iCombi Pro and the iVario Pro can replace up to 90% of all conventional kitchen equipment. Goodbye grills, kettles, and deep fryers - hello freedom of movement. Or additional sales-floor area.
The iCombi Pro adjusts its own cooking processes precisely, which reduces cooking and trimming losses. And nothing burns or boils over in the iVario Pro, so no risk of ruined batches. Which cuts your raw product usage by as much as 25%.
The controls on the iCombi Pro and the iVario Pro are self-explanatory, so new personnel can master them in no time. RATIONAL chefs will train you and your employees based on your own food concept or one created for you by RATIONAL, so that you’ll get perfect results effortlessly from the very beginning.
For your success.
Individual training, motivated employees, satisfied customers.
If you don’t have a leg up on the competition today, you might not have customers tomorrow. Which makes it that much more important to regularly evaluate your concepts, generate input, and implement new ideas. That goes for your lunch and snack ideas as well as for your brand concept. And RATIONAL can help with all of the above. We offer expertise. We offer experience. We offer new ideas. We offer flexible cooking systems. And we’ll always build on what we’ve already achieved together.
What does the future hold?
A wealth of new ideas and concepts to help you keep impressing your customers again and again.
Networking is becoming the exception rather than the rule in supermarkets. Cash register systems, procurement, personnel planning - everything’s digital, everything’s coordinated. Just like ConnectedCooking by RATIONAL. Recipe transmission, unit inspections, HACCP data, software updates, service remote access - our secure networking solution lets you do everything from your desk. On all of your networked units. At all of your locations. You can access and save HACCP data from all units as well. Created a new menu? Send it to your stores with just a click. All you need is a PC, a smartphone, or a tablet. Standardization has never been easier.
ConnectedCooking
High-performance networking by RATIONAL. So you’ll always have everything under control.
Enough theory - time for practice! Nothing’s more convincing than seeing it for yourself. Experience RATIONAL cooking systems up close, see their intelligent features in action, and learn how they can work for you. Live and at no obligation - right in your area. Call us or send us an email if you have any questions, or if you’d like to discuss RATIONAL cooking systems and how they can meet your individual needs. You can also visit rational-online.com for more information, technical specifications, videos, and customer testimonials.
Customer care and support is important at RATIONAL. From initial consultations and trial cooking to test units, installation, and worldwide training - not to mention automatic software updates and the ChefLine hotline for individual questions - we’ve covered all the bases. You can also turn to Academy RATIONAL for additional training on specific topics, such as Finishing. And if an emergency ever arises, RATIONAL’s worldwide service network will be there in no time.
Designed to help you make the most of your investment
and gain enjoyment for years to come... and ensure that you’re never short of ideas.
