Following the pandemic and its adverse effects that have led to permanent staff shortages, limited space, increasing customer demands, and constantly changing menus – restaurants are now confronted with numerous challenges, the solution to which requires a complete rethink. RATIONAL, the specialist in hot food preparation, has thought about how differently a restaurant kitchen might look. The result is iCombi Pro – a smart and efficient combi-steamer ideal for grilling, steaming, blanching, baking, and roasting different foods to perfection.

“RATIONAL iCombi Pro replaces the multiple kitchen appliances from a professional kitchen by providing their functionality even more efficiently, all in one cabin,” explains Saurabh Puri, Marketing Director – Asia, RATIONAL AG. But that alone would not be an advantage if the result, namely the quality of the food, were not right. The iCombi Pro is hence equipped with four robust intelligent functions namely, iProductionManager, iCookingSuite, iDensityControl and iCareSystem which viz., allow different foods desiring the same cooking method to be cooked at the same time; senses texture and cooking conditions of the food continuously to deliver desired texture and flavor irrespective of batch size; increases productivity by 50% and reduces cooking time by 10% by maintaining powerful air circulation and dehumidification, and last but not the least provides a detailed report on the degree of dirt accumulation and prompting for a customized hands-free hygienic cleaning program.

To ensure the desired quality at all times, iCookingSuite continuously checks the condition of the food, calculates the cooking progress, and intelligently adjusts the temperature. “Cooking multi-cuisine is now faster, smarter and more efficient with iCombi Pro,” adds Mr. Puri.

As much intelligent as the iCombi Pro is, it still allows the chefs to bring their unique touch to the food by allowing them to manually regulate the cooking process of the food in it. The iCombi Pro makes sure that the individual specifications are implemented precisely and reliably and that the food is handled in the best possible way – after all, every chef has a certain idea of the taste, appearance, and consistency of their dish. And these can now be produced reliably and repeatably at any time.

The well-travelled guests now have continuously changing needs. Training and retaining kitchen staff in the competitive jobs market today is all the more difficult. “To alleviate the manpower crunch and to serve the customers with flavourful authentic global cuisines every time, we at RATIONAL will be happy to rise to meet these challenges in the future with iCombi Pro,” added Mr. Puri.