“Whenever we have a RATIONAL oven, that is the oven we are using to cook the hot food. Everything goes into the RATIONAL.” - Sheri Nielsen, Operations Manager, Santa Clara Unified School District.
Sheri Nielsen remembers when the first RATIONAL oven arrived in 2009. “The first thing we cooked was grilled cheese; I was amazed how you could get the color on both sides just like you get it off the grill, but it only took three to four minutes. It was quick – you could put six trays into the oven and cook about 150 grilled cheese sandwiches at the same time.”
Today, 14 kitchens in the Santa Clara Unified School District are equipped with 32 RATIONAL combi ovens. Nielsen, Chef Bob, and their culinary team attributes a notable increase in labor savings and food quality to RATIONAL. The cooking speed, overnight cooking, and self-cleaning function save time, and the finished products retain moisture, cook more evenly, shrink less, and experience no flavor transfer.
“The RATIONAL helps us serve a better product ... after working with it, I couldn’t think of using any oven other than a RATIONAL,” Chef Bob said.
Staff use the ChefLine for immediate answers to questions, and their RATIONAL rep provides on-site training and support. The RATIONAL app is there for recipes and guidance on cooking and cleaning.