An innovative Cook & Hold Smoker Oven from Alto-Shaam, the global manufacturer of commercial ovens for food service and retail operations, is increasing food range and food quality at the luxury five-star Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, London.
The multi award-winning Berkeley Hotel has three dining rooms including its renowned Collins Room, which offers full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus for hotel guests and visitors, and the hotel’s chic and contemporary Blue Bar serving small plates and food dishes to supplement its extensive cocktail and drinks menus.
Executive chef Shaun Whatling has worked at The Berkeley for almost a decade, and is in charge of the kitchen for both the Collins Room and Blue Bar. He is also responsible for preparing bespoke requests for the hotel’s room service.
In a move to offer a number of new home-smoked food items and dishes to the menus, Whatling invested in the 767-SK III deluxe Cook & Hold Smoker Oven, having first discovered Alto-Shaam’s innovative range of foodservice solutions in a previous role.
Huge hit
Whatling says the Cook & Hold Smoker offers excellent versatility and functionality: “Through both hot and cold smoking, it really has helped to enhance our menus. Our home-smoked salmon is one of our most popular dishes and we’ve recently added a new smoked pulled-pork dish to The Blue Bar menu, which is also proving to be a huge hit with guests.
“The smoker oven produces some special flavours, and not just for meat and fish, we’re also using it to smoke vegetables and even yoghurt.”
The innovative 767-SK III deluxe Cook & Hold Smoker Oven features Alto-Shaam’s world renowned Halo Heat® technology which enables even cooking without the need for extremely hot elements, added humidity or fans.
Unlike ‘traditional’ heated holding or low temperature cooking technologies, temperatures created by Halo Heat technology don’t fluctuate to extremes. Precision, low-temperature heat leaves food full of moisture and flavour.
The smoker oven utilises real wood chips – available in a variety of flavours such as hickory and maple – for a natural, authentic flavour. The smoke timer offers a choice of mild, medium or heavy smoke flavour. Its simple, deluxe controls include cooking temperature control, cooking timer, holding temperature control and smoking timer.
“With the option to slow smoke ingredients overnight, it’s also saving us time and enabling us to be more efficient,” adds Whatling. “The manual controls are simple and easy to use, and it’s compact, stackable design mean that we are able to maximise our kitchen space.”
About Alto-Shaam, Inc.
Alto-Shaam’s corporate headquarters, worldwide manufacturing facility, Culinary Institute and Technical Institute are based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. For more than 60 years, Alto-Shaam has been a recognized leader and innovator in the global commercial foodservice equipment industry.
With a core business in primary cooking equipment, Alto-Shaam offers an expanded product portfolio that includes award-winning Combitherm® ovens, Vector® Multi-Cook Ovens, Halo Heat® Cook & Hold Ovens, smoker ovens, heated holding, heated display and merchandising solutions, QuickChiller™ rapid chill units, rotisserie ovens, convection ovens, and drop-in hot and cold wells. Alto-Shaam is also the industry leader in providing integrated food production systems for cook/chill, banqueting and rethermalization applications.
