How Choosing the Right Oven Can Improve Profit in Small Venues

Balancing costs while maintaining consistent quality and fast service for small footprint commercial spaces such as cafes, convenience and quick service kitchens, both during peak times and requests outside of usual dining hours, can be challenging. Skilled labour costs, equipment and running costs can quickly add up, making these choices critical in saving you time and money in the long run.

If you’re looking to maximise profits, standard starting points are reviewing your processes and allocation of staff, looking over how time is spent and streamling all you can. Once this is done, your search for a faster cooking solution would ultimately lead you to equipment selection, what if a rapid cook oven could be the catalyst to set you ahead? For a small footprint environment, a compact high-speed oven in a café can be a game changer, one which can form part of your front of house cooking equipment. There are many advantages to be gained with a fast-cooking solution for your café or quick service kitchen when considering a change from traditional food service methods.

• Equipment selection: A speed oven can revolutionise the way you currently operate, specifically, the timing, processes and flow of your space, chefs time as well as your front of house team. It is in this time saved where cost savings can be converted into further service opportunities.
• Flexibility in staffing: The benefit with a speed oven is it is tidy enough to place front of house or in small spaces and could be icon driven and operated by the front-of-house/quick service team. This offers your more flexibility for balancing your chefs with your and front-of-house staffing across both busy and downtime periods.
• Extended service: With this staffing flexibility, this would enable many operators to pre-prepare a select menu by your kitchen for your front-of-house team to serve hot to customers, beyond times where the kitchen may be closed.
• Menu expansion: Interest in your expanded menu encourages customers to return. A speed oven such as the MerryChef makes it easier to develop programmable recipes, give your favourite recipes a twist or an upgrade which can be perfectly finished in a MerryChef oven.
• Decrease wait times: Ovens that use unique cooking systems (convection, microwave and hot air impingement), enable kitchen staff to be able to create high-quality dishes in ‘fast-food’ times. Cooking to order also helps reduce food waste, thus decreasing expenses.
• High Quality food, High Speed: A speed oven can deliver up to 80% faster than a conventional oven, one piece of equipment can replace quite a few in the kitchen, as it can brown, cook and bake, with no ventilation required. 
• Compact design: Ovens that have a compact design are extremely valuable when it comes to saving space in small commercial kitchens. A  plug and play compact design slots seamlessly into your existing setup, keeping your space clear reducing risk of accidents.
• Easy-to-use interface: Ovens that have an icon-driven menu help ensure consistent quality no matter the skill level of the user. The precise power levels help cook even the most delicate of food items, giving you reassurance that your results will be consistent.
• Tools and Accessories complementary: Ovens that offer additional tools & accessories can help improve efficiencies in small but important ways. Look for ovens that have scrapers, easy to clean oven inserts, tray and liners in colours for food sensitivities, avoiding cross contamination etc. These are small features, but can make a big impact.
• Save on Energy bills:  Energy efficient high speed oven considerations include whether there is low energy use in standby as well as how quickly it pre-heats and cools down are important factors which will save on costs.
• Quiet to operate and cool to touch: Its important to make sure the oven you choose has minimal impact on the customer experience. Ovens that operate at <48dbA, equivalent to a soft conversation are perfect for maintaining guest experience.

MerryChef ovens are currently installed in many food outlets in the busiest of locations: airports, shopping centres, quick service food outlets across Australia and around the world. Businesses have embraced the MerryChef oven as having been part of the development of this technology for over 70 years. Designed and built in the United Kingdom, models are available in standard power and high power models, with oven cavity sizes ranging from 12” to 16”, suiting both the smallest of footprints through to the larger catering needs.

The MerryChef range offer the perfect tools to help take your chefs to the next level. These high-speed ovens are compact and convenient without compromising their abilities to produce restaurant quality food. They’re a great solution to provide fast and easy recipes for quick service restaurants, pubs, café and kiosks.

MerryChef ovens and other product ranges are available at Reward Hospitality. Check them now!