An interview with a RATIONAL Corporate Chef, giving us insights on how the equipment takes cooking to the next level
Toni Ragucci, corporate chef at RATIONAL USA, began her career at a Philadelphia culinary school, before working at fine dining Italian restaurants.
“I followed a talented chef and absorbed everything,” she says.
While working in the hotel industry for about eight years, Ragucci showed her staff the many features and capabilities of RATIONAL’s iCombi Pro equipment.
“After freelancing for the company, they approached me to come on board full time,” Ragucci says. “Right now, my favorite part of the job is showing chefs the many iCombi Pro benefits. Chefs are used to grinding it out, and when we can give them equipment that makes their job easier, it’s very rewarding.”
Here, Ragucci provides more insight into the benefits of iCombi Pro’s intelligence processes, details and advantages of iCookingSuite, and how this technology can streamline foodservice operations.
Discuss the differences between manual and intelligence combi processes.
Toni Ragucci: The iCombi Pro’s intelligence is often compared to a luxury car. I like to take that one step further and compare it to a self-driving car. You set the car’s destination and it will automatically avoid traffic, find the back roads and take you to that point as fast as possible. With iCombi Pro, instead of needing to know specific settings, the controls are easily adjusted for the preferred end result. As an example, for breaded chicken, the iCombi Pro asks how dark it should be and automatically adjusts for that end result. Our goal is consistency, no matter who is cooking.
What is iCookingSuite and the benefits of this program?
TR: In today’s foodservice industry, the big struggles are labor and food waste. As a banquet chef, I saw an influx of inexperienced temporary staff, along with lots of food waste. Fortunately, we switched to RATIONAL’s iCombi Pro a year after I started the job. With iCookingSuite, we could use intelligence to tie into recipes. You just dial in the items being cooked and push a button. Everyone gets the same result, so there is no food waste with overcooking. RATIONAL’s iCookingSuite allows operators to tap into a library of intelligence processes with various cooking paths. I just go to the screen and funnel it into what I’m cooking; the screen has all the cooking processes, so I can dial into the exact product. It also includes search functions and multiple languages. I describe it as a library of processes. And for those who prefer total control, the iCombi Pro offers manual settings, as well.
How can operators streamline their operations with custom cooking paths?
TR: Operators can get as specific as they want. For franchisees, smaller restaurants and others that want to customize the cooking process, the screen can be reformatted to feature their specific menu items, including photos. It’s plug-and-play for them. It gives chefs another layer of pride to have their own menu items featured on the screen.
As an example of what happens during a specific cooking path, I use braising as an example. Old school chefs may say automating the cooking process is not really cooking, but our paths follow traditional methods. If I click braise, the iCombi Pro would have me load the meat into the combi, set it to sear, notify me when it’s time to add liquid then automatically switch into the low simmer braise process. For traditional chefs, we’re duplicating steps but walking them through it. There’s also a probe included to ensure consistency, so chefs can walk away during the process and trust the product will be prepared perfectly. RATIONAL also provides an app, ConnectedCooking, which allows chefs to easily monitor the equipment and cooking process on their smartphone, in addition to sending recipes.
What is iProductionManager and why is it beneficial?
TR: With iProductionManager and implementing cooking paths on the line, multiple items can be cooked simultaneously. Utilizing cooking intelligence is an easy way to organize the menu and use the iCombi Pro in an a la carte setting. With consistency and reduced food waste as the goals, this equipment will monitor the cooking process to ensure food is cooked perfectly every time.
With this equipment, RATIONAL is dialing in on operators looking to take their kitchens to the next level. While there are always new front of house technologies like POS systems, for a long time, the back of house remained unchanged. Our goal is to provide equipment that gets kitchens up to speed with the rest of the restaurant, so chefs have a better work-life balance.
