You Need To Vent (Or Do you)?

Like so many hoodlums wearing hoodies in the 'hood, many commercial cooking devices masquerade as ventless appliances.

In breathless whispers, their marketers try to hoodwink us into believing that all are altruistic Robin Hoods - removing effluent from the bad air and giving forth good air ("just follow the blue arrows on the diagrams").

An exhaustive search of the available technologies would yield relatively few that truly could be classified as a ventless cooking apparatus in the first place.  Many perform the heating function, rethermalizing pre-cooked foods with conducted energy, microwaves, steam and the like.  Others can finish par-cooked products - melting, toasting, and/or caramelizing.

Typically only electric-powered equipment with their lack of attendant products of combustion can respire comfortably in this space.  Grease-laden vapors, effluent, odors, particulate and condensate all must be mitigated through mechanical means.  Mandatory too, fire suppression must be addressed.  Catalytic converters, charcoal and specialty filters, precipitators, ionizers, et al provide the mojo "under the hood" of many of these modern marvels.

Now, take a deep breath: duct-season is over.

Certain mini combi ovens use a blend of the above technologies to provide bona-fide ventless primary cooking, allowing operators to prepare a varied menu including whole muscle proteins (from raw to finish)!

Deep fryers with mechanisms that automatically dispense product are self-contained, with fire suppression and extensive filtration on-board .

Slow cookers such as cook and hold ovens and water circulators for sous vide (due primarily to the low temperatures involved) require little attention to ventilation issues.

OK, now exhale a sigh of relief, from Hood Brook ME to Mt. Hood OR, you can find opportunities for ventless commercial kitchens.  Now I'm exhausted.

Many Unhappy Returns

Okay, we’ve all been here before – the knives that are “too sharp” and the char broiler that is “too hot”.  And we’ve probably heard the “I’m throwing ‘your equipment’ out onto the street if you don’t resolve this” line more times than we’d like to admit.  What happened to the individual responsibility of the purchaser for the choices that were made?  Is our disposable culture of the “no quibble warranty” so pervasive that there’s no other way to resolve issues than to send the E&S back in exchange for new?

The market has certainly matured for foodservice equipment and supplies. Years ago, I recall a dealer telling end-users who were concerned with scratches on the stainless steel on equipment that he was delivering “what were you expecting, jewelry?”  But that was then and this is now.  The consumer empowerment contagion of the big box retailers, and websites that are all too willing to accept returns – no questions asked – has spilled over into the commercial arena.  The expectations are unmanageable.

A certain celebrity ordered a half size convection oven to roast his Thanksgiving turkey in his Manhattan apartment.  Neither he, nor the dealer bothered to check if there was enough power, space to mount the unit, or of a way to deliver it (I’m sure that the celebrity’s building doorman was thrilled).  Given the fact that, oh by the way, the cavity of a commercial half size convection oven is actually smaller than a domestic oven, Mr. Hollywood now wanted to return the oven.  My partner saved that particular voice mail message for many months. 

What dealer showroom or rep facility isn’t filled with the OOPS inventory of salesman errors?   What service agency doesn’t have the dead inventory of yesterday’s (or this morning’s) outdated solid state components?  In a society rushing headlong towards the latest, greatest, state-of-the-artest, we’ve seen controls that are obsolete before they make it into production after being introduced at a trade show.

Get it right the first time?  With all of the variables in utilities, sizes and options, thousands of possible permutations for each model can be configured.  Mistakes happen despite the shop drawing procedures that most factories have in place, and the configurators that many more have on-line.  Take the school cafeteria line-up that was signed off on, produced and delivered, only to be rejected because it was the mirror image of what was called for.  

Can you say “restock” and “charge back”?  I personally know of no words that are more dreaded in the dealer community than these (except maybe “freight charge”).  There is no-one that wants to absorb these fees, no matter how justified they may be.

With razor thin margins, how can we afford to continue on this path?  Without the benefit of the good will that it engenders, how can we not?

www.pecinkaferri.com