Feeling Testy?
Everybody test-drives a new car before they plunk down their cash. So why not apply the same principle to the latest kitchen equipment? Try before you buy is becoming the new chefs' mantra.
Jeffrey Schwarz reports.
I have been cooking professionally for 10 years now, here in New York, there in Paris, often in the Hamptons. I have cooked in hipster joints and shrines to haute cuisine, at family events and sometimes for celebrities on their planes off to Shangri-La. Still, when I walk into today's modern commercial kitchen, I get the feeling that the equipment has either passed me by, or worse. The equipment has become so advanced that the cooking techniques I have come to learn are being outdated by industrial innovation. Water baths, combi-ovens, and Cryovac machines were not in the curriculum when I went to cooking school in 1996.
More pressing though is how my professional career might be affected by this turn of events. In the next year, I plan to open my own restaurant and, well, my lack of familiarity with the newest culinary gear is in no way a good thing. What if my competition's pork loin tastes better than mine because he cooks it in a water bath for four hours and then finishes it on a plancha to create the perfect harmony of tenderness and crispiness?
Clearly, learning the techniques is one thing, but that isn't much of a deterrent because in the end, it's still cooking. What makes the process of building out a new restaurant or refurbishing a current place harder nowadays is the limited ability for chefs to actually cook on the most modern equipment if they so desire.
For Michael Lomonaco, keeping up with the latest culinary developments is a given, but even with someone of his experience there creeps in the problem of working with equipment on which he has logged no hours. And for his new project, Porter House, opening in the Time Warner Center in October, the stakes are high.
When Lomonaco took over the space that formerly housed Jean-Georges Vongerichten's V Steakhouse, he knew he would be stepping into a seriously equipped kitchen. But like any chef, Lomonaco has his own style, particularly with what will be the restaurant's signature dish, the 42-ounce porterhouse steak, and V Steakhouse's equipment, while impressive, didn't square with his idea.
Lomonaco, a follower of restaurant shows and a bit of a gearhead, had for some time been checking out a double section infra red broiler (model number IR2) manufactured by Vulcan-Hart. He had never cooked on one, but he thought it would be the right piece of equipment for Porter House.
So what's a chef like Lomonaco to do when faced with a significant investment ($24,710 for an IR2 by Vulcan) in a critical tool for his multimillion dollar restaurant? "I decided to take it out for a test drive," he says. "With food, I always go to where it's sourced, so I thought I should do the same thing with my kitchen equipment."
Five years ago, if a chef wanted to try out an expensive cooking range or the latest culinary device, the choices were limited. Maybe a fellow chef in town would let a colleague take a peek at his Molteni or perhaps some entrepreneurial kitchen distributor had a showroom with one or two ranges hooked up to a gas line, but that was about it. Times have changed. Manufacturers now build out fully functional showrooms where chefs are encouraged to visit and cook for the day, and distributors such as Maverick Cuisine in New Jersey have outfitted their kitchens with enough firepower to service a 100 seat restaurant.
Lomonaco traveled to Vulcan's test kitchen in Baltimore with a cooler full of steaks and the intention of familiarizing himself with the coveted broiler. "We needed to time everything," he says. "There's nothing worse than realizing after the fact that the piece of equipment can't get the job done in the allotted time frame." But what started out as a trial run morphed into lunch for 30 of Vulcan's manufacturing team and a feedback session that benefited both Lomonaco and Vulcan. "It was a great experience," he says. "Cooking on the broiler and meeting the whole team really solidified in my mind that I made the right choice in equipment."
For Barbara Lynch of No. 9 Park, The Butcher Shop, and B&G Oysters in Boston, the dream of owning a Bonnet stove began years ago when she visited the restaurant Auberge de Lille in the Loire Valley. It was love at first sight. Yet in all her years of professional cooking she had never cooked on a Bonnet. With her next project, which at press time was not yet ready to be announced, Lynch intends to remedy that problem by outfitting her new kitchen as well as refurbishing B&G Oysters with Bonnet stoves.
This past summer she drove down from Boston to New Jersey to visit Maverick Cuisine. Maverick Cuisine, like Vulcan, sensed the need of the professional ranks to have the ability to cook on the best equipment available as they would in a professional setting. Within minutes, Lynch and her executive sous chef had two Bonnets fired up and began tag teaming a tasting involving braised rabbit, scallops on the plancha, and seared halibut.
"At this stage in my career, when I know what I'm going to be cooking for the next 20 years and I know what equipment I want, the most important thing is to try it out," she says.
In my research to acquaint myself with the latest and greatest of kitchen apparatus, I came across these five places that promote the "try before you buy" concept.
Electrolux Culinary Event Center
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida;(866) 449-4200; www.electroluxusa.com/professional
With its recently built 8,000-square-foot showroom featuring Molteni and Electrolux products, the Electrolux Culinary Event Center is a premiere cooking destination for chefs looking to kick the tires a bit. The center features $85,000 Molteni cooking suites (they range from $20,000 to $350,000) as well as the air-o-steam combi-oven. All visits are customized using questionnaires to help analyze which of the products can best serve a restaurant's needs. On-site training is also available.
Enodis
New Port Richey, Florida; Springfield, Missouri; (727) 375-7010; www.enodisusa.com
Enodis, manufacturer of Cleveland, Garland, Frymaster, Lincoln, Merrychef, and Delfield products, offers two ways to try its equipment. There is the Enodis Technology Center in New Port Richey, Florida, featuring the latest innovations from Enodis such as the Cleveland Convotherm combi-oven, which can cook food 15 times faster than a conventional oven. Enodis also has a showcase kitchen at the Noble Culinary Development Center in Springfield, Missouri, a recently built, first-rate facility focused on menu development.
Vulcan-Hart
Baltimore, Maryland; (800) 814-2028; www.vulcanhart.com
Vulcan's new test kitchen features the company's top-of-the-line products. Not only can chefs test the equipment, they can also meet with the design and manufacture team to help tailor the equipment for specific needs. Vulcan also features training sessions for each of its product lines, i.e., fryer, oven, range, and so on.
Maverick Cuisine
Waldwick, New Jersey; (201) 444-6360; www.maverickcuisine.com
As sales representatives for Bonnet and Modular, Maverick Cuisine has set up a super functional shop in northern New Jersey equipped with all the latest gadgets, including water baths, planchas, and combi-ovens. With a client list that includes Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Wylie Dufresne, Maverick Cuisine is a leader in installing and servicing high-end cooking suites.
The French Culinary Institute
New York City; (888) FCI-CHEF; www.frenchculinary.com
The French Culinary Institute (FCI) is not in the business of manufacturing or selling kitchen equipment, of course, but it is interested in researching what equipment and innovations are making their way into the professional arena. In October, FCI is launching new technology programs at the International Culinary Center (its new parent name), wherein it will test the latest techniques and equipment and hold seminars open to the public.
