November/December 2020

the cooklines. The chain just completed
a renovation in Halifax and is opening
a new Saskatoon location in November.
“Both of those kitchens rely heavily on
combi technology,” he says.
It all started a year-and-a-half ago
with a renovation in Richmond, B.C.
He saw an opportunity to use combiovens
to reduce their kitchen size and
increase dining-room capacity. “We
replaced a good chunk of equipment on
our cookline with RATIONAL ovens.
We still have a deep fryer and Montague
[Harvard, Calif.] broiler, but everything
else is done with the combi-oven. With
the consistency and speed of those
ovens, we knew it wouldn’t take long
for people to learn how to make food.”
The timing was ideal, given the onset
of the pandemic, because they could
let the combi ovens take the place of
an extra person. “In a busy kitchen we
usually have two people running the
station. The RATIONALs with timers
are the extra person now.”
They’ve also played a key role in
Chop’s takeout strategy “That’s where
combi-ovens really help because one
person can manage two stations. And
we don’t find ourselves burning anything
because it was forgotten. That’s
been the biggest win for us. Even if
there’s only one skilled person working
three lines, it almost feels like they have
a couple of friends with them.”
The Halifax location is the smallest
kitchen they’ve built to date. Part of
that is due to having the combi-ovens,
he says. It boasts one double unit for
prep during off-peak times and another
two that serve as sauté stations for
appetizers. The overall investment was
$75,000 all in.
“Between the space we saved and
the equipment we didn’t buy, we came
out pretty close to even. That’s the cool
part. We’re in the process of trying to
quantify the ROI so we can convert
other existing properties. This is not the
time to be spending money we don’t
need to. All of us really have to make
sure we know what we’re doing first.”
Economics aside, his favourite
feature is the programming. “What I
like most is the intelligent level controls.
That’s where the magic happens.” FH