apetito Takes a Fresh Approach to Frozen
Sometimes, it takes a thoroughly fresh approach to the accepted norm in order to change not just perceptions, but in this case, tastes. That’s the innovative thinking behind apetito’s unique frozen meal program, a food service initiative that aims to strengthen the patient-focused food options in hospitals by proposing more flexible and cost effective measures.
“As any chef will tell you, a meal is at its freshest the moment it has been prepared. That’s when we freeze it,” says Director of Marketing, Nigel Richards. The benefits of working with a frozen product means far safer product. It’s easier for food professionals to handle, has a longer shelf life, reduces food waste and provides a consistency of food quality that food service managers are always trying to maintain.
Turning Food Service on Its Head
One of the unique features regarding apetito’s frozen food program is that they are prepared upside down. This includes a range of complete meals in a specially commissioned round multi-purpose tray. Says Richards, “The tray and its matching white china plate make it really easy to present the meals attractively and on-demand, just by making a ‘flip’ before serving.”
This take on preparing frozen food is particularly suited to hospital units because it allows greater flexibility during service time. As well, with food service operations looking to minimize waste, improve efficiencies and give patients an improved level of choice as close to meal time as possible, the Apetito approach clearly makes good sense. It’s a readily scalable approach to food service and, most importantly, a cost effective means of delivering excellent quality.
Burlodge Warms to the Relationship
apetito chef David Burnett has created a wide range of recipes that will appeal to varied diets. The company has made sure to develop a mix of traditional meals and ethnically-inspired favourites that can be rethermalized in a range of different equipment. It particularly helps that Burlodge has developed equipment that works hand-in-hand with apetito’s style of preparation.
“Without a doubt, the best result by far is achieved with the new Burlodge Simple Oven, as it offers the ability to cook 16 meals in just 16 minutes, from frozen. This is a real breakthrough as the cooking time in conventional equipment is closer to an hour,” enthuses Richards.
Just as apetito proposes original thinking around meal preparation, Burlodge is excited about the development of its Simple Oven. It’s a combi oven which features a unique heating system designed to provide greater heat concentration. The difference is that rather than using a forced steam approach with an on-board pressure system, the Simple Oven adds moisture to the convection rethermalization process by employing water droplets inside the cavity of the oven. This water is immediately turned
into vapour, which results in excellent food quality when cooking with frozen foods. It’s remarkably simple to understand, operate and clean.
Apetito’s range of products have all been developed to have the same cooking time, so everything in the oven is loaded together and is ready at the same time. The two companies have also extensively tested the meals heating to order (on-demand) from frozen in other Burlodge equipment such as Novaflex, B-Pod, and Multigen giving truly flexible options.
Together, apetito and Burlodge represent those companies that will thrive in today’s demanding food service sector by not just anticipating what hospitals and other large scale institutions require when it comes to food service, but by defining the trends that will appeal most to catering managers and those that they serve. Focusing on speed and savings while enhancing satisfaction will go a long way to ensuring that innovative companies like these will be leading the way for years to come.
