Cook&Chill system, what are the applications?

If you manage a high-productivity kitchen you know that maintaining top performance and efficiency are key.

Electrolux Professional, with the objective of raising awareness about the growing culture of negative stress in professional kitchens, offers all that you need to truly revolutionise the way you work. Now, you can transform your working life and expand your cooking horizons with perfectly integrated all-in-one Electrolux solutions. In particular, the new Cook&Chill system will make your kitchen processes easier, effortless and more profitable. No matter the type of business, you now have the right equipment for cooking and refrigerating in the most efficient way possible.

Cook‐Chill is a process of food involving the rapid chilling of cooked food by means of a blast chiller; this way, food can be reheated at a later stage before consumption. The process allows chefs and kitchen staff to prepare the food during off-peak times and reheat it when required, so to separate food preparation and service.

This process has several advantages:

• Quality and safety: the chilling process happens very quickly, therefore reducing the amount of time that food spend in the so-called “danger zone” (between +8 °C and +68 °C) where bacterial growth is rife.
• High productivity: the process enables portioning, grouping together the food preparation workflows, allowing more efficient use of labour.
• No food wastage: if used correctly, cook and chill means food can be safely preserved for longer, extending the product’s shelf life.

How can you benefit from this process if you are a quick or full-service restaurant?

Originally, cook and chill food production was confined to the Catering Industry as they needed to standardise food production and delay consumption after preparation and cooking. Nowadays, thanks to technological innovations, other industries also began to adopt Cook and Chill food production, such as care homes, schools, hospitals, institutional caterers.

In restaurants, especially fast-paced ones, it is important to integrate an efficient cook and chill process to comply with existing food quality and safety regulations.

Moreover, if the preparation of your dishes takes a long time, it is better to prepare them in batches to be served later.

The cook and chill process was initially designed with the catering business in mind. If your kitchen is only temporary and you have elaborated dishes to serve, it is advisable that you are equipped with a cook and chill duo which would allow you to cook the food in advance, cool it for storage and reheat it only when you are ready to serve it.

The big challenge with banqueting is delivering many courses in a very short amount of time while maintaining food quality, plate presentation and food temperature. Today, many chefs prefer to avail of the cook-chill processes, as recent innovation, like that provided by Electrolux Professional’s SkyLine cook and chill, guarantees that food is safe, well preserved and maintains all the characteristics of a freshly cooked dish.

No matter the type of business you run, or which professional kitchen you manage, the cook and chill solution is always the best way for you to work efficiently, optimising productivity while saving time and money.