Professional chefs know it: there is no stopping the digitalisation of commercial kitchens now. And so it is time for the question of which system effectively supports kitchen processes and as such sets new standards in product quality, reliability, automation and service. RATIONAL uses the cloud-based and free ConnectedCooking, which give new momentum to the collaboration between the chef and the appliance without forgetting its core task: cooking with imagination.
"When developing ConnectedCooking, we always keep in mind: Which tasks require a lot of attention, but can be taken away from the chef?", Michael Hoffmann, Digital Product Manager at RATIONAL describes the considerations for kitchen networks. As an example, he mentions a caterer in industry catering who is responsible for 800 meals daily in three kitchens. Normally a balancing act: different kitchen equipment, different levels of experience of the kitchen staff, different cooking practices. And everyone can tell if the quality drops. ConnectedCooking can compensate for all of that and even increase the level in industry catering. Reason enough for us to consider the future to be clearly in kitchen networks that work with smartphones, tablets or PCs. Whether one, two or more kitchens - with ConnectedCooking all RATIONAL appliances use the same cooking programs, the chef canaccess their appliances with a single click, and control the cooking processes, even remotely. Push notifications, for example, help the platform log capacity usage and vacancies and to adapt production processes accordingly. The automatic service call is also aimed at increasing efficiency: the service partner receives an automatic message in case of an incident, can take an initial look through remote maintenance and respond quickly on site.
Mr Hoffmann also makes another important point: "A challenge for any kitchen is maintaining hygiene standards. So we built in automatic HACCP documentation in ConnectedCooking." All relevant data is recorded and saved for a certain period, as the chef's core task is creativity and not the documentation of temperatures.
With the increasing networking of professional kitchens, the work of chefs will also change, prophetise the exerts at RATIONAL, but a good kitchen will always rely on their expertise. New technologies certainly also offer a new approach to the recruitment of trainees. Because that generation has grown up with laptops and smartphones and will find a networked workplace very attractive. You could not be better prepared for the future and with less risk, confirms Thorsten Machold, Head of Product Management at aveato Catering AG, Berlin: "When ConnectedCooking was released in spring, I was one of the first in Germany to connect their kitchen. The benefits in day-to-day work and the absolute reliability of our data have convinced us."