BACK-OF-HOUSE


opportunity for temperature exchange. “Small magnetic fridges are already in use in some hotels,” says Thomas, who is actively engaged in projects in Sydney that will feature zero-carbon kitchens. “Some say the drivers of innovation


are cost reduction and creating faster workfl ow, but these are just excuses. Sure, you want to save money but that is not sustainable in the long term,” he adds. “How much faster can you cook a meat pie? It might take 25 minutes in your grandmother’s wood-fi red stove and 12 minutes in a combi oven, but how much diff erence does it really make to cook it any faster?” Whether in cooking, food preparation


and storage, or warewashing, Thomas believes consistency and sustainability are the key factors. “Operators are short of staff with critical skills, so any technology that can replace staff is good,” he says. “The real answer, however, is the focus on responsible environmental management – doing more with less as the world’s population grows.”


A connected and sustainable future The direction of innovation in foodservice is linked with sustainability. Cooking technology is increasingly all-electric, equipment is becoming less energy-intensive, and connectivity is enabling effi cient operation. “Connectivity is still taking its time and manufacturers are ahead of all of us,” says Schroeder. “There are so many benefi ts to enterprise-level control for the operators. Monitoring of equipment in the kitchen, or across multiple kitchens, helps to control energy effi ciency. But even us designers are still trying to understand it, so there needs to be a lot of education.” “It’s about predictive analytics, AI and machine learning,” says Schumaker. “If I could access the operator’s data and it tied off to inventory management, waste logs, guest feedback, dollar value of each client and external data feeds – all of which exist in diff erent systems that don’t talk to each other – I could create an app and the computer could start doing the ordering for us, recommending specials we need to run, predicting how many pies we will sell tomorrow with high accuracy and much more.” Thomas not only sees magnetic


“OPERATORS ARE SHORT OF STAFF WITH CRITICAL SKILLS, SO ANY TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN REPLACE STAFF IS GOOD”


refrigerators as a potential game- changer, but also foresees a day when dishwashers use no water. “I look forward to the introduction of the waterless dishwasher,” he says. “It is an idea I am pushing, but it needs boffi ns to work on how agitation, velocity and steam could be used instead of water. If water is scarce, we will fi nd a way to adapt.” The cycle of back-of-house


innovation is getting shorter. The advent of game-changing technologies such as the combi-oven or the blast chiller could come much more frequently in the future, as digitalization, sustainability and automation become the guiding themes of investment by operators. The kitchens of the future will look diff erent, and that future is close at hand.


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WORLDWIDE


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