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As promised a few pictures from the recent Pacojet Demo in San Francisco. I do like how Kriss is approaching desserts. In his own words:” When building a dessert my approach is the same as in the savory kitchen; I think of the different components and how they complement each other. They need to tie into each other while overall the dessert is well balanced”

Kriss is right when he made the claim, that there are many desserts made, where each component is exceptional good when tasted individually, though once on the plate they seem our of balance. One thing I will have to keep in mind for the future, as I am as guilty as charged of the very same.

Cherry Ice Cream, Pistachio Custard, Warm Ricotta Espuma and Frozen Adeche Honey

Flam Evolution with Iced Coconut Dust, Coconut Cream Rocks, Jade Shortbread and Coffee

Whipped Milk Xocolate, Crunchy Praline with Kikos, Iced Coffee Crystals

Spicy Yogurt Ice Cream, Black Sesame, Lime, Passion fruit and Pineapple

The  IRINOX LCC 202-180 blast chiller/shock freezer is finally up and running. It must have been one of the most challenging projects so far, for so many reasons. First the funding got almost cut and with  a strategic smart move I could secure the funding. (We will see how my smart move will haunt me in future capital projects) Then the challenges excavating the floor since it is a sunk in model. Riggers, length of piping for the remote condenser, electrical, a probe that needed to be replaced, a false wiring, which was the electricians fault. But lastly everything is completed. The only thing left to do is the connection to the PC.

So why IRINOX? Years back, I think it was in 2005, RATIONAL was doing a demo in our Kitchen on the SCC’s. When the issue of chilling the food quickly after a cooking cycle for the BQTing system, in order stop the cooking and to retain as much juices as possible, the IRINOX brand was brought up. IRINOX back then modified some of their units to fit the SCC roll-in  racks. Over these years I got to know the IRINOX chillers, the former VP as well as the Corporate Chef. Who would have thought it would take us a few more years to actually get a unit into our kitchen? With 3 SCC 202, and a forth one in the pipeline, and two more smaller combi ovens, we outgrew our 6 sheet pan/ 12 GN pan blast chiller. It was not optional to get  a larger and higher performing unit. The decision to go the extra step, including the pains that came with it,  of a sunk in unit was to add flexibility and the ability to use regular speed racks as well. The optional UV lights, sous vide probe, printer and remote PC connection were in our case as you can already guess, more of a must have rather being optional.

Why a blast chiller to begin with? There are really three reasons why I think every professional kitchen now matter the size should have a blast chiller.

• First and foremost: Food safety. We all go regularly to the Food safety manager classes and learn how important it is to chill the food as quickly as possible through the temperature danger zone. In essence from 140F to 70F within 2 hours and from 70F to 40F within 4 hours. Then we learn ways to do do that. Shallow pans in the refrigerator, though without raising the temperature in the cooler; ice paddles/sticks and running cold water, and a few other possibilities. All I can say is: ” cute”. Anybody ever made 100 gallons of marinara or chili, put them in shallow pans and let them cool in a walk-in cooler? It does not work, at least we couldn’t figure it out how. First we would need more hotel pans than we have in the entire property. Second we needed a whole walk-in cooler designated for chili, marinara and stock cooling, since the cooler could not maintain the temperature below 40F for all other foods stored in that walk in. To chill in the freezer is even worse, all the condensation causing the coils to freeze up and taxing all equipment even more. Examining the ice paddle solution with a batch of 100gallons would look similar to 20 each 5 gallon Cambro buckets with 20 ice paddles in it. All the buckets in prep sinks. Our prep sinks can take either 2 or 4 buckets each. 24 buckets can find a spot in the prep sinks, throughout all kitchens. No more sinks would be available to do any other prep and any additional cooling needs we would have to use the ware washing three compartment sinks. Not the most sanitary solution either. Besides wasting a lot of water, which we are short of anyway, all sinks are being used, or are not even enough for all the cooling we need to do. Any batch would be spread over many sinks and  hard to prevent possible cross contamination. So in essence neither of these solutions we learn will work, except maybe one, which is using ice as part of the preparation, which could work with a few preparations though not with all. I cant see using ice as an ingredient at the end of a preparation, where we reduce the inital amount of water during the cooking and add it in the end order to cool down, when making stocks, demi, chili or marinara. Could you? If you do please enlighten me. So in other words “cute” solutions wont ensure the safe cooling of food, blast chillers do.

• Second: Food quality. We all have preparations that require the chilling or even freezing thereafter. And yes, I do not want to hear that some of us make everything fresh and wont chill the food. If you do not chill foods in cases where you do not immediately serve the food after cooking, please let me know now. I wont eat at your place. See reason one. On a recent visit to a restaurant the chef claimed heir new rotisserie would outperform my RATIONAL in cooking the hogs, which did not believe to be quite honest. The chicken is cooked during lunch service, and as we learned later, left on the counter to rest for dinner service. The reason is to ensure the meat to remain moist and the skin crisp. The result was doubtful. If you would have served me a rotisserie chicken out of a combi oven I would not have noticed a difference. The only thing we did notice was that both my wife and I sick like dogs, and trust me since the days of my military service, my stomach can take quite some abuse. A blast chiller could have cooled the food quickly and safely, chicken retained the same amount of moisture. In the end chicken still has to be heated up again anyway, either way. To back up my claim with hard facts and data. One of the first items we blast chilled was halibut, about 80 portions. The chill cycle down to 37F was 32 minutes. And comparing the weight loss to the few pieces we cooled in a refrigerator was 14% less weight loss In in other words: 14% juicier fish when cooled in the blast chiller.With our BQT system, where we cook food to the desired doneness, we chill the food as quick as possible, the reason for the blast chiller, to retain as many of the juices and then plate up. We retherm right before we serve the plates, approximately 8 minutes per rack. A plate rack can carry 84 or 100 plates. Saucing and garnish, and in some cases proteins that don retherm well are put last on the plates.  And if the grand entrance of the newly weds is an hour and a half late, no food has been sitting in a hot box for that long,  since we start start to retherm later after serving the first course, and we just know to happen when we serve the first course – after the grand entrance.  Other thoughts on quality are the a quick freeze is resulting in small ice crystals rather large ones, which are sharp and puncture the cells, causing cell fluids to run out. In other words it will be dry after cooking. And yes we know quality kitchens do not freeze food. I always wonder why everybody has a freezer than. I admit we freeze foods, we freeze our ice cream, not sure how others do, but we do. Or ever had order of product coming in for a large group and it got canceled, no chance of returning the items? We also freeze those items to serve later in the cafeteria. Back to ice cream. Since the freezing process is so fast freezing the ice cream in the shock freezing mode after churning creates a much smoother ice cream  or gelato. Simply amazing. Another reason to freeze is ,when food is the lowest price it tends to be also the highest quality, because they are mot likely in season. Freezing allows us to prepare those foods at their peak for later use. Berry coulis is the first to come to my mind.

• Third: Energy and cost efficiency. I touched energy in reason one. A blast chiller is built to blast chill. It uses more energy during a chilling cycle, but in the long run we use less energy in our coolers if we fill them with cold food rather with warm food. It also prolongs the life cycles of the storage coolers, their condensers, coils and operators,  as they “work less hard”, and go into less defrost cycles like they do when filled with warm or hot foods. Defrost cycles performed too often, one or two times a day, also cause food to spoil quicker as a cooler is busy heating the coils to remove any ice build up.And while to coils defrost, and not cool, the temperatures in foods increase. Even in the best insulated coolers.

Concluding, all kitchens should at least have a blast chillers. A shock freezer is even better and more versatile. I understand the hesitation about the “new things”; over hundred years ago, cars were a new concept too, not to mention airplanes. Lets get over it. The inital high purchase price is well worth it compared to the envery savings, quality of food and the safety of the food.

I was recently approached by SeniorServ if I would volunteer to participate at their fundraiser event. SeniorServ used to get government grants and since California is broke the funding dried up.  SeniorServ is providing assisted living to senior in our community and i providing nutritious meals. They are operating their own kitchen and local restaurants can buy from them their own spec’d sauces cooked by SeniorServ.

The fundraiser was at the Anaheim White House and five celebrities were the “chefs” paired with five local professional chefs. We were given one hour to cook an appetizer and an entree. The secret ingredient was revealed at the start of the “competition”, which was Philips crab.

I did not know until arriving at the event with which celebrity I would be paired with, and it turned up to be Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. The ingredients were just what you would find in any pantry at home. A few canned foods, spices, peanut butter, pasta, chili sauce, nuts, Hershey chocolate; as for the fresh items we some produce, beef tenderloin, chicken breast, sole and tuna. Equipment was limited to a few bowls, pans, a microwave, bender and two butane burners.

I must admit that at first I had no idea of what to make, and when finding out who I would be paired with I had to incorporate Mrs. Sanchez Hispanic heritage. When Mrs. Sanchez scanned the pantry asking me if I had any ideas of what we could cook, inspiration had not hit me yet. When I was asked if we had to make a dessert too, which we were not required, and what possibly could be done with the Hershey bar, it just came to me.Three tenderloin bites with three salsas; creamy guacamole, chocolate mole and a crab ceviche. For the entree we decided on sole with a coconut lime sauce. We bouced ideas of each other finalized our dishes, split duties and started cooking.

I must say Mrs. Sanchez is an impressive cook, we had fun together cooking and in the end we took home the trophy of best appetizer. Not only took we home a trophy, the event was a success for SeniorServ as well which was to most important.