A chef is the one who has to approve the results coming out of the equipment believes Chef Toshit Sharma

Every cuisine or dish has its cooking techniques, how important is it to know the science behind each cuisine before developing any kitchen equipment?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Cooking is an art & science, and as a chef, you need to understand how the food reacts with various combinations of heat & steam. At RATIONAL, we do several tests on different cooking parameters to understand & identify how the cooking texture reacts on different food at different time, temperature & humidity settings. Not only this, the load size of the food items, the internal temperature of the food product, the cooking cabinet conditions also plays an important role in achieving your desired results. Since all the cooking programs for various recipes are already added to the database of RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter®, thus, the chef just needs to load the ingredients, select the item to be cooked and the unit will take care of the rest.

What role chefs play in the development process of the latest kitchen equipment as a major part of the development process includes engineering?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Engineering is required to do the technical development and production of any kitchen equipment. However, a chef is the one who has to approve the results coming out of that equipment. A chef has the sense, understanding & knowledge in terms of getting the precise appearance & texture of any dish, and it requires a lot of experience to develop that sense & proficiency.

How does a good oven from companies like Rational India make the life of the chef easy, less time consuming and optimize their work?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Our product, RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® is specifically designed to make the life of chefs much easier by simplifying their work as much as possible. It has been equipped with several intelligent functions to do the same. With the help of our iCookingControl function, you only have to select your desired results, rest is taken care of by the equipment itself. Our iLevelControl function gives you the flexibility to cook multiple food products at the same time in the same cabinet, thus increasing productivity and saving time, money, space and energy. Efficient CareControl function takes care of the cleaning and ensures that the unit remains sparkling clean.

What type of R&D strategy do you implement before developing any new equipment at Rational India?

Chef Toshit Sharma: At RATIONAL, innovation is the key. We make our products better with each new line that we introduce to keep pace with the evolving requirements of the customers. We are proud to have the largest R&D team in the world comprising of over 300 master chefs, physicists, scientists & engineers. Over 25 tonnes of food is prepared in our R&D kitchen every year.

Recently, we opened our first R&D kitchen in China to support the Asian markets. Not just the headquarters in Germany, all our 32 subsidiaries are also involved in local R&D to make the RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® more & more adaptable to the local food and preferences.

How do digital solutions help chefs with their everyday work?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Our ConnectedCooking solution allows you to control & monitor your RATIONAL units from any part of the world. You only need to have an internet connection to the unit & to your device (laptop, tablet or mobile). After registering, you have access to thousands of local & international recipes which are tried & tested by our master chefs. You also have the possibility to transfer your cooking settings, profiles, pictures to other outlets just with a press of a button. These features give extra support to chefs to have a stress free kitchen environment.

Are the recipe and its process remain the same for normal cooking and machine cooking?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Cooking in technology-based equipment like RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® only changes the cooking equipment, rest everything remains the same. You still require a professional chef to incorporate the taste & flavour in the dish. With the modern cooking equipment, your cooking is much more controlled and hygienic. You can even record the data for HACCP.

All the chefs have their unique cooking style, so how are these equipment of Rational being designed to work according to each of them?

Chef Toshit Sharma: In RATIONAL units, apart from the standard cooking settings, you also can set your own desired cooking parameters to achieve consistent cooking results every time. You can even lock your secret settings & programs.
RATIONAL units even adapt to your cooking style & preferences and it will therefore always suggest you, your preferred settings whenever you are creating a new program.

How the role and responsibilities of chef changes from working with hotels and working with leading equipment brands?

Chef Toshit Sharma: The life of a chef is always full of energy, learnings & experiments. The role & responsibility in hotels are of a different level than in an equipment company. Here at RATIONAL, I have the opportunity to travel around the globe, understand the local food, techniques & traditional equipment used for it, thereafter, transfer that knowledge to SelfCookingCenter® so that customer can have a 1 touch solution.

Meeting different customers every day who have different expectations & challenges is always new learning and I enjoy my role of a National Corporate Chef at RATIONAL.

How important it is to have technical knowledge in the current modern era of culinary?

Chef Toshit Sharma: Nowadays, we have different kitchen equipment available in the market which supports chefs in order to have more imagination & possibilities which helps to enhance the menus with creativity. With the help of modern cooking techniques, you can serve a unique style of cooking to your diners. Not only this, but you can also invest your time for essentials as the technical cooking equipment are faster & more productive.

Comments

0