Operations: Equipped for Success

Restaurant chains identify equipment that is crucial to their concepts.

By Derek Gale, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 7/15/2007

Fast-Asian chain Panda Express couldn’t wok this way without high-output cooktops for fast stir-fries.

Convenience and customization are important determinants in consumers’ choices of where to eat. These same factors are top of mind for chain operators in seeking the right kitchen equipment.

Sandwich shops, for example, need equipment that makes operational consistency a snap—such as meat slicers, microwaves and various oven styles.

"Compared with a lot of other restaurant chains, [Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe has] a very simple equipment package," says Carolyn Archer, senior vice president of operations for Tulsa, Okla.-based Beautiful Brands International, the chain’s parent company. "Probably the most critical item we couldn’t live without would be the oven we use for our flatbread pizzas."

Speed-cook ovens replaced convection ovens on the front line when pizzas were introduced, although most units kept their convection ovens and moved them into back-kitchen areas for baking sweets, Archer says. Speed-cook ovens are integral to operations, she adds, as flatbread pizzas account for about 20% of orders at Camille’s.

Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Cousins Subs puts oven/proofers at the top of its list of indispensible items. "Without those, we wouldn’t be able to create the great bread that we stand on as far as quality and freshness," says Barb LeBlanc, Cousins’ director of training and menu integration.

LeBlanc says each Cousins location bakes at least twice a day, and in order to get consistent product, specific humidity and temperature levels in proofers must be maintained. To gauge those levels, stores use pocket-size hygrometers.

The meat slicer is the other key piece of equipment in each Cousins, LeBlanc notes. "We slice all meats fresh, so we are constantly using that [equipment] to serve guests."

Quest for the Perfect Fry

"When you’re developing a concept, you don’t really start with the food, you start with the equipment," says George McKerrow Jr., CEO and co-founder (with Ted Turner) of Atlanta-based Ted’s Montana Grill. "You can start with the food and go backward, but you have to limit yourself with what you are willing to put into a kitchen."

Most kitchens need fundamentals such as an oven and a grill; beyond that, the more you cook, the more equipment you need, he says. A concept such as Ted’s, which makes fresh soups daily, needs a kettle, for example. A flat-top grill, used for cooking the chain’s signature bison and beef offerings, also is a must.

Another equipment necessity for Ted’s, McKerrow says, is the fresh-cut-french-fry station. "It’s basically a french-fry cutter and spinner with a wash station," he explains. "A table with a motorized basket spins water off french fries after they are cut and washed. It’s a centrifuge—it’s built just like that." Because Ted’s cuts whole potatoes to order, the chain relies heavily on it. Ted’s designed this piece of equipment and had it custom built. McKerrow knew it could be done because he’d seen Irvine, Calif.-based In-N-Out Burger cut whole potatoes and spin them dry.

"We went to our equipment manufacturer and said, ‘This is what we want: a hand cutter above [with] a sink that the potatoes fall into [below it] where we can wash them quickly and then transfer them,’" he says.

It took refining to get the piece right, McKerrow says, but he is pleased with the result. "Fresh-cut french fries always have been a challenge," he says. "It took us almost 18 months to perfect our fry, from the kind of potatoes we buy to the size of the potato and size of the cut to the process to get them through the fryer."

He adds: "It’s a very important part of our concept and something I’m proud of. I think guests appreciate the fact that it tastes like a potato and is made to order right in front of them."

Quite a Range

"The unique thing for Panda Express is the cooking range—I don’t know of any other big chains that use the Chinese cooking range," says Larry Behm, senior vice president of operations, support and innovation for Rosemead, Calif.-based Panda Restaurant Group Inc.

"It’s [usually] 10 feet long—we always adjust it to fit the space—and generally we’ll have two or three very high-output cooking rings to heat the woks," he says. "A fourth cooking device built into the range is a hot-water pot used for blanching vegetables."

Because the [heat of the] cooking rings is so "intense," as Behm puts it, "we constantly wash the top with a small amount of water to keep the stainless steel from cracking."

Although the idea of the range has been around for a long time and Panda’s Chinese range design is not particularly radical, it is something rarely seen in other chains, Behm stresses, as it is very difficult to man. "It’s a high-skill position to use a wok," he says. For that reason, Panda does extensive in-store training before employees begin cooking.