Q&A with Benjamin Harris, director of culinary, and Aaron Cox, executive chef, Sea Pines Resort
Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC, includes 12 food and beverage outlets with a staff of 500 serving approximately 4,000 customers daily. Menus are diverse with Coast providing American and Caribbean flare; Quarter Deck as a low country themed seafood house; and Lynx, serving as a fine dining location. There also is a coffee shop, bakery and grill, among other foodservice outlets.
Here, Benjamin Harris, director of culinary, and Aaron Cox, executive chef, Sea Pines Resort, talk with Brad Pector, RATIONAL’s senior communication specialist, about their use of RATIONAL equipment and the benefits their operations are experiencing.
Tell me about the equipment used at Sea Pines.
Benjamin Harris: Over the last five years, we've brought in, I believe 11 RATIONAL iCombi classics, two iCombi Pros and then two different size iVario Pros. And the equipment has improved the accuracy and consistency in our cuisine. It is so predictable, it has opened up opportunities for us to serve better food, challenge ourselves more, and still have the confidence that our teams can execute at a high level. We love that we've eliminated all kinds of vacuum seal bags. The sky's the limit.
What percentage of your food is cooked with RATIONAL equipment?
AC: I'd say about 85%. There's only a short amount left, and we're actually planning on replacing those old convection style ovens with RATIONAL combis in the next year.
What is it about RATIONAL equipment that really makes it worth it to you?
AC: What I really enjoy about RATIONAL’s combi lines is the ability to mix your moisture in. It not only helps the food quality, but it saves you money. It definitely increases your yield as well as the quality. It has the ability to be cross utilized for multiple things, from a dry roast and then straight off to a steamer. In the past, we had to use a convection oven on one side and we had to walk across and use a steamer with a hard shut door that you could barely get in and out of. With the combi, we can let some of the steam out and then go straight to a roast in a one shot deal, which is really nice.
What is your favorite feature within RATIONAL products?
BH: When you're producing and batch cooking for large scale events or a la carte, the intelligence of the iCombi unit takes the guesswork out. It helps in training cooks and makes it so much easier. So you're not sitting there pulling things out, overcooking half of it while you're temping one piece. It all comes up at the same time. With the iVario, there's basically no waiting on it, ever. As soon as you get that chicken or pasta out, your water's boiling again; we're never waiting on the equipment.
Can you elaborate on some specific items and how RATIONAL combis helped in processing?
AC: At Coast we're doing probably about 500 lobsters three times a week. And we've got a combi upstairs that earns its keep every time that we get up there; we break those down, and it makes it so much easier comparatively to boiling water or even the small steamers from long ago. You can put multiple pans in and steam these off in a very short period of time. But then at the same time we have a catering event up there with five different items, from roasted to your steamed to dual, utilizing the combi’s steam. RATIONAL has the ability to do smoking as well as roasting. So we integrate that into more of the smaller restaurants that don't have the ability to have a large smoker outside. We can utilize that oven to do smoking, get that item smoked up just as well, if not better, because the cabinet is nice and small, and it really retains that smoke.
What about the iVario? It's a totally different piece of equipment, an intelligent tilt skillet. What was your initial perception there?
AC: We just received that last year, and it almost reminded me of the first time I saw a combi because I hadn't really worked with the iVario before. The tilts skillets of my time were hand cranked. It's a great learning process because it is nowhere near what you would consider a tilt skillet to be anymore. It's definitely next generation, next level. We're doing everything from brazing our short ribs in it, but we're also frying our chicken in it, as well. And both items are just extremely great products when finished.
BH: It's a tilt skillet with a brain and really a lot more than that. We use iVario in our a la carte outlet at Quarter Deck, a lot, for all kinds of soups and stocks and risotto. But in catering it's been a huge game changer. We do, I believe, 80 to 100 weddings a year. Fried chicken is a big thing. And the fryer capacity with the technology of actually having it probed, the machine will actually lift it for you. It's ideal, really. It's great.
If you had to list one reason why RATIONAL equipment is worth it, what would it be?
BH: Over the last five years, we've increased revenues by north of 50%. By inserting these RATIONAL units into our outlets, the consistency and reliability are second to none. This equipment has helped us scale in a real way.
AC: I think the one reason is consistency. One of the most important parts of our business is ensuring that when a customer comes in they get a certain protein or item done a certain way. Combis are not going to change from one moment to the other based on who turned the temperature in what direction. Having intelligent equipment can bridge the training gap. It has allowed the chefs to push, do better cuisine and focus on better ingredients.
How has RATIONAL set up your operation for success in the future?
BH: Kitchens are always too small and not shaped right. RATIONAL combis are modular, multifunctional pieces of equipment that can scale to different volumes and be utilized for different concepts. It gives you functionality for the future because in restaurants we never know what the next six months looks like, what's the next year looks like. If I'm building a kitchen tomorrow, RATIONAL equipment is the first thing I'm putting in.
