Founded in 1926, Nugget Markets is one of Northern California’s premier natural and organic grocers. Owned and operated by the fourth and fifth generations of the Stille family, the stores offer a complete grocery shopping experience along with grab-and-go fare and catering platters. Teams of classically trained chefs work in-store and in the central kitchen every day, preparing food made from scratch using quality ingredients. About 85% of the food to go is made from scratch, vital to their quality standards. Roughly 3,500 grab-and-go offerings are served daily across all stores (this number spiked upwards of 5,000 a day during the 2019 California wildfires). Menu selections include lasagna, roasted salmon, herbed pork loin, roasted vegetables, chicken salad, meatballs, sandwiches, and salads topped with tri-tip, flank steak, or grilled chicken.
Stazi Dulman, Nugget Markets Corporate Executive Chef, first noticed RATIONAL at food shows and heard Chef Thomas Keller talking about them. Then in 2016, when Nugget Markets acquired Glen Ellen Market and Sonoma Market, he inherited three RATIONAL combi ovens. He immediately saw what combi technology could do for them; experimenting with the RATIONAL, he made the determination to purchase additional units. His initial concern that RATIONAL cooking systems were cost-prohibitive was quickly dispelled when he calculated labor savings and ROI. Today, Nugget Markets uses RATIONAL combi-steamers to prepare many menu items including all the proteins it serves, with the exception of rotisserie chickens, which are prepared in dedicated rotisserie ovens – that is, until the rotisseries die, when Chef Dulman plans to replace them with RATIONAL combi ovens.
