Chicken is a standby menu item at the grocerant for a reason: Chicken is perfect in both classic entrees and trending dishes fit for every family and occasion. With consumers continuing to look to supermarket foodservice for quick, delicious meal solutions, grocerants have a prime opportunity to leverage new and upgraded offerings and further cash in on consumers’ favorite chicken dishes. Here’s how.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers made moves to streamline operations and cut costs. Still, foodservice quality remains a top priority for retailers looking to recruit and retain customers—especially with increasing demand. With convenience-store foodservice operations as much of a balancing act as ever, retailers need solutions to save time and money behind the scenes while continuing to offer a broad range of fresh, high-quality foodservice items that meet consumers’ high expectations. Fortunately, cutting-edge kitchen technologies present a solution. Download the white paper to learn more.
Product introductions are key business drivers of many popular brands, including Taco Bell, Burger King, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Tim Hortons and a host of other quick service restaurant overachievers. Others try to keep their brands fresh by putting customer favorites into the market for a limited period, purposely pulling them back before customers can get their fill. A new menu items strategy is necessary to drive customer demand, but adding a product can be a challenge, particularly given today’s labor situation and operational realities. Download the white paper to see how combi ovens can help make the process of offering new and limited time offers easy.
Off-premise dining continues to be a big trend right now. More recently, retailers—much like restaurants—are learning that many of their customers prefer to stay at home and order in rather than go out to a restaurant or cook a meal themselves. To better capitalize on that desire, retailers have been working hard to ensure they’re offering delivery, too—and not just delivered groceries but full meal delivery from the deli department. Download the white paper to see how Grocery stores claim their piece of the off-premise pie.
Working on your restaurant, hotel or club’s holiday menu? Fire up your combi oven and get ready! Here are our top recipes for the holiday season – including plenty of vegan and vegetarian options – to dazzle your customers. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite combi oven recipes to make it easy for your culinary team to cook your guests some amazing and delicious holiday meals.
The pandemic brought unprecedented changes upon the restaurant industry. From pivots to outdoor dining and delivery services to menu changes, another big change has been the growth in numbers of ghost kitchens—delivery-only restaurants eschewing the traditional business model of sit-down, dine-in service.
For many quick-serve restaurants, finding one way to do things — and sticking to it — has been the key to success. That makes them hesitant to consider changing those tried-and-true methods. But for an ever-expanding Mexican grill QSR chain, working with technology from RATIONAL and thinking “outside the box” has led to better product consistency, flavor, and increased yields.
As caterers return to business in the post-pandemic “new normal,” they will face challenges unlike any they faced in the past. While there may be supply chain challenges due to the unpredictability of restrictions and reopenings, the smartest caterers will be flexible and not only survive but thrive, says Lee Baker, Vice President, Sales - iVario® RATIONAL North America. Here, he explains how.
What if you had one piece of equipment that could cook steak and chicken to a perfect doneness without losing moisture, bake muffins and rolls with crusty outsides and soft insides, and steam vegetables without turning them to mush? You can do all of that and more in a combi oven.
Ask any operator what his or her biggest problem is right now, and the answer is probably going to be able labor shortages. Whether they are struggling to find employees, or the lack of available workers with the right skill set is an issue, labor is one of the biggest problems — if not the biggest problem — facing the foodservice industry today. At the same time, flexibility has become an equally important issue in today’s kitchens. With rapidly changing consumer trends and fluctuations in product availability, many foodservice operations are finding a need to change their offerings more frequently than ever. To make the whole situation even more challenging, the increased popularity of delivery and takeout has forced some operators to rethink their kitchen design or workflow.
Across the country there is a shortage of foodservice employees. Restaurant owners from New York to California are scrambling to find workers for a variety of food service roles. And as businesses increasingly reopen across the United States, addressing labor shortages is an industry-wide conversation. If you’re struggling to fill hospitality roles, you might not realize that your best employee might be hiding in plain sight.
Whether it's a ghost kitchen or a hotel restaurant, the food concept behind a brand can dictate more than just the menu. But what represents a good food concept? What does it have to be able to do in order to pay off at the end of the day? And how does that concept impact equipment needs?
The growth of delivery during the Covid-19 pandemic created an opportunity for the industry to embrace ghost kitchens or commissary kitchens. Their popularity has meant that foodservice jargon has spilled over into everyday life. If you’re wondering what the heck a ghost kitchen is, you’re on the right blog post!
With more consumers looking to embrace green practices, many restaurants are asking themselves how they can be sustainable. If you’re looking for ways to make your restaurant or kitchen more environmentally friendly, here are some easy and simple changes you can make.