FRIMA's VarioCooking Center Cuts Down on Cooking Equipment in New Kitchen at Alsop High School

Nov. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- When Alsop High School, Liverpool got the go-ahead for a new kitchen Angela Morrison, Catering Manager, set about planning what equipment she needed. New builds like this are an ideal opportunity to get the kitchen up and running exactly as required, but they also need to be able to respond to any changing demands in the future without further capital investment.
The new kitchen equipment was all specified but Angela, always keen to keep the kitchen right up to date, saw a demo of the FRIMA VarioCooking Center at Combined Catering Services, Liverpool.
“I could immediately see that the VarioCooking Center would be perfect for our new kitchen,” she said. “I was so impressed with what it could do and what equipment it could replace that I approached the architects of the new kitchen and asked for a FRIMA VarioCooking Center instead of the planned two brat pans and a pasta boiler.”
The VarioCooking Center is an extremely energy efficient cooking appliance for the professional kitchen that can boil, fry and deep fry in one unit.  It is up to three times faster than traditional equipment. It is also excellent for long, slow overnight cooking as well as accurate trouble-free pressure cooking.
In April 2010 the VarioCooking Center was installed into the new kitchen. By replacing three pieces of equipment with one the VarioCooking Center actually saves space in the kitchen.
FRIMA sent over a chef to work with staff and show them how to operate the unit and get the best out of it. Before the end of the summer term the new kitchen and the VarioCooking Center went into operation.
“It’s great,” says Angela. “We all love the VarioCooking Center. You can’t burn anything on it or boil anything over. It has a built in intelligence that supervises the whole cooking process for you. Once the settings have been punched in you can walk away, answer the phone and get on with something else. The soups need a little stir occasionally but we don’t have to watch them all the time now.”
Time and planning are extremely important in the school kitchen at Alsop High. Everything has to be geared up for the intensive serving period between 11.30am and 1.30pm, when 1800 pupils pass through.
First thing in the morning the staff cook up about 20kg pasta in the VarioCooking Center, then refresh it nearer serving time. Rice and vegetables are prepared in the same way so everything is hot and has that ‘just cooked’ taste.
“It’s so much easier than before when we had to cook pasta in big pans on the stove,” says Angela. “We were forever emptying them out and boiling up water again. With the VarioCooking Center we don’t need to do this, we can batch cook the pasta without draining. This saves a lot of time and has really cut our water and energy consumption.”
Other staple dishes that are being cooking in the VarioCooking Center are curries and stews and they are just about to start making stir-fries in it as well.
“All our staff find it really easy to use,” says Angela. “Now we’ve mastered the basics we plan to start making puddings, custard and sauces. I’m going to get some more advice from the FRIMA chefs and see what else we can add to the menu.”
Another aspect of the VarioCooking Center that appeals to the staff is that it is so easy to clean.
“All we have to do is swish round the pans with the water jet, tilt the pan and the dirt drains away, saving us time, effort, water and cleaning products,” says Angela. “It means we can finish on time at the end of a very busy day and that is certainly another plus with the staff.”
FRIMA is currently expanding its distributor network in the UK.  For information and brochures, or to come to a free Cooking Live demonstration, call FRIMA UK on 0208 996 5102,
email info@frima-uk.co.uk or visit http://www.frima-uk.co.uk

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