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When choosing catering equipment for any premises your main points to consider will nearly always be the size of your venue and the type of food that you would like to be served. Of course this decision has to be made with cost in mind. Budget constraints therefore play a major part in the decision making process.

The most important thing that you have to make sure you do when you are buying catering equipment for the first time is make sure it is right for you. This is often extremely difficult as people setting up a new catering area might not have a wealth of previous experience. Nevertheless, it is important that you get it right first time so you don’t have to sell it on at a loss a few months later.

The more information you are armed with in the beginning phases of your planning, the more likely you are to choose the right piece of equipment first time round. Any advice you can get from manufactures or suppliers should be taken in to account before purchasing any catering equipment.

When choosing any piece of catering equipment always do as much research as you can and make sure you consider the applications your equipment will be used for before you purchase as any mistakes made will be costly.

There are many pieces of catering equipment on the market so instead of giving a brief description on each of the thousands of products available I will stick to describing just a few units. Below you will find a short informative description on a few select items or ranges.

Bain Marie

A Bain Marie is a piece of equipment that helps you keep a substance warm. It is made up of a large container of working liquid like water. This water is heated. A smaller container with the thing you would like kept warm is partially immersed in the heated water and is kept warm. The most common use of the Bain Marie is to keep sauces warm so that they can be applied to the food just before it is presented to the diner. There are also dry versions of the Bain Marie. These do not require liquid to be filled to the Bain Marie. These can be easier to clean and can cost less than a wet Bain Marie.

Convection Ovens

Convection ovens or as they are otherwise known turbo, or fan ovens improve upon ordinary ovens in that they have a fan that circulates the warm air around the oven which helps moderate the temperature in an oven.

Traditional ovens can deliver greater a disparity of heat in different parts of the oven. Typically the top is hotter than the bottom part of the oven and this can make cooking difficult. The assistance of the fan increases the efficiency of the oven. The fan helps prevent ‘hot spots’ and helps food cook more evenly.

Rice cooker

Industrial rice cookers make cooking rice simple and straightforward. This is particularly useful when cooking on a large scale. Ordinarily cooking rice requires a great deal of attention but the rice cooker makes it much easier. The rice cooker does not make cooking rice any quicker but it does reduce the amount of labour required. The cook simply has to apply the correct amount of water to the rice and press a button.

The rice needs no further attention. The rice cooker cooks the rice and then the rice can be removed from the machine as the bowl in which it is cooked is typically separate from the machine that it cooks in.

Shaun Parker has extensive knowledge of commercial kitchen suppliers, restaurant equipment UK and the different types of catering equipment to make your choices easier.

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