Electrolux Professional’s latest innovation day, All Taste Less Waste, offered participants valuable insight into reducing energy consumption and food waste in the commercial kitchen, through a series of panel discussions and live demonstrations, illustrating new concepts.
Hosted at the historic Ladbroke Hall in Notting Hill, also home to two thermaline cooking suites, the event gathered some of the food service industry’s leading voices in the realm of sustainable hospitality, as they discussed how the sector can maintain exemplary culinary standards while also tackling kitchen waste.
After coffee and introductions, the innovation day opened with the More Taste panel discussion, centred on reducing kitchen waste and low-carbon food preparation, all while championing bold new flavours.
Ragnar Fridriksson, Managing Director of the World Association of Chefs, said: “The panel discussion was the ideal platform to share best practice and new innovations with others working towards the same goal. Establishing a new culture around food wastage isn’t going to happen overnight, so it was great to learn what’s working well from others, alongside sharing my own successes.”
The first panel discussion was followed by a sustainable cooking demonstration from Electrolux Professional chefs. Using the pioneering Cook and Chill solution, Electrolux Professional’s SkyDuo took centre stage. Comprised of two sister appliances with seamless connectivity, the SkyLine ChillS blast chiller and SkyLine PremiumS combi oven, the appliances “talk” to each other during programming and operation to both streamline cooking processes, and reduce energy use versus a ‘non-connected’ blast chiller and combi oven pairing.
The SkyLine ChillS was first programmed to begin thawing frozen sea bass fillets from -18°C, with the SkyLine PremiumS automatically preparing for cooking for when the fillets reach temperature. Taking only 18 minutes to come up to temperature and six minutes to cook, the demonstration yielded restaurant-quality baked sea bass in 24 minutes end-to-end.
Yoghurt was also served that had been prepared using the SkyChillS as a fermentation cabinet. Using a ratio of 10% yoghurt starter and 90% milk, fresh yoghurt was created at substantially lower costs than buying in bulk.
With ready-made yoghurt usually priced at circa £1.95 per kg versus milk at 65p per litre, this offered savings of £40 per full load (33kg – providing 220 x 150g servings), even when factoring in electricity costs. Over the course of a year, delivering two loads per week, this accumulates to savings of £4,000, whilst also offering consumers a fresh product and eliminating the use of single-use plastic pots.
After allowing time for lunch and networking, the Less Waste panel discussion and Q&A followed, with the focus shifting to how the sector can reduce, reuse, and recycle both produce and packaging.
The event also showcased a prototype of Electrolux Professional’s latest innovation, the Electrolux Professional Returnable Station (ERS). Building upon the platform of a standard returnable cup system, in an industry-first development, the ERS features a built-in dishwasher and dryer, presenting cups back to the operator cleaned and stacked, ready for re-use.
Fabio Paganin, Global Head of Dishwashing at Electrolux Professional, said: “The ERS is a truly revolutionary concept in returnable technology. Designed for direct consumer interaction and presenting clean cups back to the operator, it is the ideal solution for coffee shops, service stations, university campuses and more. Research and development is ongoing to create the final product, so we encourage everyone to watch this space.
“All in all, it was a pleasure to team up with leading figures in the industry for our All Taste Less Waste innovation day, which was only made possible through the time and effort of all parties. It is my hope that all will have walked away having learned something new as we work towards greener practice together.”
