A charbroiler is a game changer for a commercial kitchen. Restaurants proudly advertise their charbroiled menu items as a major differentiator for the quality of their food. The unique flavor they offer and the added aesthetic of the food preparation itself can add significant value to a restaurant’s brand.
While a charbroiler can be one of the most highly-valued pieces of cooking equipment for a restaurant, it can also be the most confusing and difficult to maintain. If you want to get the best use out of your charbroiler, follow these tips to ensure optimal performance.
Season the Grills
Like cast-iron cookware, seasoning your charbroiler’s grills is an essential task to ensure the best flavor and longevity. Grates need to be thoroughly washed and hand dried first. Never run grills through a dishwasher.
After cleaning, coat the grills with a layer of a high smoke-point oil, such as avocado oil or canola oil. Use a cloth to ensure a smooth, consistent and thin layer. Once the grills are oiled, bake the oil in by running them over a hot charbroiler for several minutes (the grills will start smoking).
Repeat this process after every cleaning. Doing so will create a non-stick grill surface that adds flavor while also reducing the possibility of rusting.
Clean the Charbroiler Daily
The grates should be scrubbed at least once a day with a wire brush to remove built up grease gunk and food debris, which can adversely affect the flavor and quality of the food you cook. Do not use high heat in a “burn off” method. It is time consuming, less effective and uses more energy than scrubbing.
Cleaning the burner box is equally important. Through its use, the box will fill up with ashes, hindering the heat flow and the overall cooking process. With ashes blocking heat, expect longer cooking times and uneven heating across the grills.
Max Out the Capacity
Charbroilers usually do not use thermostats to regulate heating so you can fill the entire grill without worrying about undercooked food or long cook times. In a commercial kitchen, taking advantage of the full grill can greatly increase productivity, turnaround time and ultimately customer satisfaction.
Manage the Grates
Keeping your grates clean and functional is one of the most important focus points when maintaining your charbroiler. Reduce their capacity for sticking by keeping them well-oiled for each use. Before applying food, preheating the grates can also help reduce food adhering to them.
Pay attention to how you use your grates. Again, you can max out the capacity, without overloading, so the way you position meats inside can allow some to cook quicker than others. If you need well-done burgers and rare steak, cook them at the same time by positioning the steak closer to the heating element for faster searing and the burgers further away for slower, even cooking.
Use draining features built into the charbroiler, if available. By being able to angle certain sections, you can ensure proper grease draining out.
Charbroilers can cook everything from meat to vegetables. However, you should have specific sections set for specific foods — one for vegetables, one for meat and one for seafood.
Maintain Proper Ventilation
Compared to ovens and stovetops, charbroilers expel large amounts of heat and smoke. To keep employees safe and equipment running properly, ensure that there is proper ventilation in the area to deal with the output.
Turn It Off When Not in Use
It seems like a no-brainer but, in a commercial setting, turning it off is one of the best tips for using a charbroiler. After hours or during prep times, keeping your charbroiler off not only makes less work for you but also saves on energy costs.
Turn to Texas Restaurant Supply
You can significantly add value to your kitchen and your menu with a quality charbroiler. We serve commercial dining facilities in Texas and nationwide, offering the widest selection of equipment and accessories, all at exceptional deals. Contact us today to learn more about how we can outfit your kitchen with value-priced, high-quality equipment to raise your business’s profile and increase productivity.
Managing costs is critical for any business, and reducing unnecessary expenditures is a key component of that effort. In restaurants, a lot of small, behind the scenes components may be left to the wayside, deemed unnecessary for efficient operation.
Water filtration systems are one such consideration, a minor factor that contributes in ways many employees and even restaurant patrons may not even notice. However, these systems are vitally important to the health of a commercial kitchen.
Restaurant Water Filtration Systems Explained
Restaurants maintain a vast array of appliances that depend on water for their production, including:
- Soda fountains
- Ice makers
- Coffee makers
- Steamers
- Dishwashers
The water that flows to and through these machines is often unpurified, full of contaminants such as minerals, sediment, bacteria, water treatment chemicals and scale. Eliminating these materials can be beneficial in several ways.
Improved Odor and Taste
Keeping customers satisfied is the primary goal of a business trying to grow, and water quality plays an integral role towards ensuring a pleasant experience. Glasses of water, soft drinks and hot beverages can be noticeably affected by quality water filtration. Poorly filtered water often carries an unpleasant odor, hard water and traces of treatment chemicals like chlorine, which will undoubtedly leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth.
Better Equipment Performance
Water filters remove damaging elements like minerals and scale, which can build up in the mechanisms of kitchen appliances if given free passage. Over time, machines will become less efficient and potentially break down from the excess material clogging them up. This means you will have to repair or replace them more often, costing you more money and potentially affecting your business’s profitability if you can’t fulfill certain orders.
Keeping your appliances free of these contaminants and running smoothly also means repairs may be covered. It is important to remember that damage caused by unfiltered water can void warranties, leaving the owner responsible for the full cost of repairs.
Greater Efficiency and Lower Costs
Having clean, uncontaminated water flowing to kitchen appliances not only improves their longevity and output quality but also their efficiency. With filtered water, equipment benefits from less energy consumption, meaning your annual operating costs could be reduced considerably.
Maintaining a clean water supply also means more efficient work from kitchen staff. In-line filtration systems running to dishwashers, for example, make dishes and glasses cleaner the first time. Hard water stains and other grime that normally accumulates are eliminated, reducing the extra time needed to hand wash and polish items to a presentable state.
Common Water Filtration Options
Water filters greatly improve the taste and safety of beverages, reduce operating and maintenance costs and generally add to greater efficiency in the kitchen. A number of water filtration options are available to accomplish those goals.
Reverse Osmosis
For appliances that need extremely high quality water, such as ice machines and coffee makers, reverse osmosis filters provide exceptional filtration. Water is pushed through a semipermeable membrane to remove a number of ultra-fine contaminants, including heavy metals, sulfates, dissolved materials, chlorides and other water treatment additives. While not the most efficient in terms of water usage, these filters are an ideal solution for consumable water.
Carbon Block Filters
Often paired with reverse osmosis filters, carbon filters remove most flavor-inhibiting contaminants from drinking water. They can eliminate lead, bacteria, pesticides, chloramines and PCBs, giving water a much more natural taste. Carbon filters can easily be blocked by large sediment, however, and may need frequent upkeep to ensure their continued performance. Using a pre-filter system to remove large materials is an effective way to reduce clogged carbon filters.
Ultraviolet Light
A less common filtration method normally reserved for low-quality incoming water, UV light kills off many harmful microorganisms, such as bacteria and parasites. These need to be a pre-filter, used in conjunction with carbon or reverse osmosis filters, as they do not remove hard particles from water.
All of Your Water Filtration Needs
There is a wide assortment of water filtration systems and kitchen appliances that need them. We carry the largest selection of commercial kitchen water filtration options in Texas at value pricing. If you need help finding the right filter for your equipment, contact our team today to find the best option at the best price available.
Outfitting a restaurant kitchen carries a ton of expense. Keeping costs low is a primary concern, and it’s easy for restaurant managers to cut corners. Opting for inexpensive residential kitchen supplies can seem like a much more budget-friendly route. However, over time, those cheap initial investments can negatively impact your restaurant’s bottom line and end up costing far more.
The range of new and used commercial kitchen equipment options makes it more manageable to find an agreeable blend of price and quality. Taking advantage of restaurant-quality equipment will benefit you in both cost-savings and profit generation. Consider some of these major ways that quality commercial equipment can affect your restaurant’s profits when it comes time to update your kitchen.
Commercial Kitchen Equipment Lasts Longer
The initial high cost of commercial equipment is offset over time by the amount of maintenance you won’t need compared to lower quality residential equipment. Heavy-duty commercial equipment should last at least 10 years under normal use. This can be twice as long, if not longer, than cheaper models, which effectively reduces the long-term cost difference. It also means you spend far less time fixing or setting up repairs on the equipment.
When a piece of kitchen equipment breaks down, it can shutter your business in an instant and eat into your profits for anywhere from an hour to several days. If an oven goes out, for example, you won’t be able to keep up with customer orders and you will lose considerable money for the day.
Low-Quality Equipment Affects Performance and Efficiency
Tied to longevity is the daily performance of kitchen equipment. The high volume output at restaurants means that most machines will be running non-stop. You need the right equipment to put up with the abuse that a normal day provides at a busy restaurant.
Commercial kitchen equipment is designed to offer greater power and more durable features. Commercial mixers, blenders and food processors have higher horsepower, better motors and larger capacities to handle multiple orders without burning out. High-grade ovens, dishwashers and refrigerators can similarly support larger food quantities and handle more stress through better components.
Putting a residential kitchen machine, even a small appliance, in a commercial setting will subject it to more use than it was meant to handle. With the endless use these items see through a normal day, you can expect it to wear out and need replacement long before any limited warranty expires.
Maintaining quality commercial kitchen equipment will also make your kitchen staff more productive. Each person and piece of equipment plays an important role in food production systems. One minor hiccup can upset the entire kitchen, severely reducing your overall output. That can leak out from the kitchen and into the dining area, resulting in a poor customer experience if they are left waiting.
Commercial Equipment has Better Safety Features
Using a quality piece of equipment adds layers of safety for both kitchen employees and customers. For customers, having their food cooked and stored in reliable appliances makes for a lower risk of contamination and spoilage. The risk of food-borne illness is greatly reduced, which can mean good things for repeat business and reviews.
Equipment produced for commercial settings also carries more rigid safety standards than residential kitchen appliances. The National Sanitation Foundation monitors and reviews commercial grade equipment for adhering to safety requirements. Appliances carrying the NSF label are compliant with regulations, which means that your staff is less prone to work-related injuries. Plus, those labels are important in mitigating issues with Health Department inspections.
Buy Quality New and Used Commercial Kitchen Equipment
Getting the performance you need does not have to break the bank. Our huge selection of new and used commercial grade kitchen equipment offers you the durability, capacity and power you need at a price you can afford. If you are managing a commercial kitchen in Texas, contact our team to see how we can help you outfit your kitchen to guarantee optimal output and maximized profits.
2021
- Different Types of Deep Fryers
- Things to Consider While Buying Used Commercial Range
- How to Keep Your Refrigerator Well Maintained
2020
- Food Prep Equipment Buyers' Guide
- Guide on Choosing the Right Commercial Juicer
- Different Types of Commercial Bakery Mixers & Their Attachments
- Choosing the Right Food Warmer for Your Commercial Kitchen
- Tips to Maintain your Stand Mixer
- How to Select a Commercial Dough Mixer
- What to Consider When Selecting a Convection Oven
- How Commercial Restaurant Equipment Can Shape Your Business
- How the Type of Commercial Kitchen Equipment Affects Taste and Quality of Food
- Reasons Your Bar Should Have an Under Counter Dishwasher
- Kitchen Equipment Checklist for the Food Truck Business
- Are Small Appliances Really Necessary Pieces of Restaurant Equipment?
- How to Buy Portable Cooktops for Your Food Service Establishment
- Questions You Should Ask Before Buying Buffet Equipment
- How to Manage Restaurant Equipment during a Pandemic
- Commercial Refrigerator Repair and Maintenance Guide
- How to Pick Catering Equipment for Your Food Service Business
- The Ultimate Vulcan Range Buying Guide
- The Ultimate Purchasing Guide for Garland Range
- Perfect Guide for Choosing Pizza Oven for Your Restaurant
- Everything You Should Know About Commercial Dishwashers
- Buying Guide for Commercial Ice Machine
- Difference Between Commercial vs. Residential Microwave
- Importance of Water Filtration Systems with Commercial Kitchen Equipment
- How to Wash, Sanitize & Store Used Kitchen Equipment
- Electric vs. Gas Griddles: Which One Should You Pick?
- Important Guide on Cleaning Aluminum Cookware
- Food Processors vs. Food Blenders: Which to Buy
- Tips to Choose a Commercial Bottle Cooler
- Functions of an Electric Deep Fryer
- Important Shopping Tips for Commercial Refrigerators
- Five Tips for Managing Commercial Ovens
- How to Pick Cold Beverage Equipment for Your Restaurant
- Buying Guide For Commercial Griddle
- Tips For Maintaining Cooking Equipment In Your Restaurant
- Guide On How To Sell Used Commercial Restaurant Equipment.
2019
- The Food Processor - A Must in Any Commercial Kitchen
- 4 Trends to Watch in Food Service Equipment in 2020
- 6 Things to Consider While Buying Commercial Induction Range
- How to Pick the Right Ovens for your Commercial Kitchens
- Why You Should Have Commercial Equipment Serviced in Winter
- 5 Reasons to Manage Your Commercial Refrigeration Equipment
- Why Your Commercial Kitchen Needs Gas Fryers?
- 10 Benefits of Selling Your Old Restaurant Equipment
- 4 Reasons to Upgrade Your Restaurant Equipment
- Various Types of Commercial Refrigeration
- Beneficial Suggestions for Maintaining a Commercial Freezer
- How to Pick a Commercial Fryer for Your Restaurant
- 5 Types of Used Cooking Equipment which You Should Consider Buying
- 10 Simple Tips to Find the Right Equipment for Your Restaurant.
- How Commercial Restaurant Equipment Can Affect Your Business
- Maintenance Tips for Increasing Commercial Kitchen Equipment Performance.
- Important Parameters When You Go Shopping for Commercial Kitchen Equipment.
- What is the Perfect Time to Replace Your Kitchen Equipment?
- Gas vs Electric Restaurant Equipment.
- Factors You Should Think About While Picking Professional Kitchen Equipment.
- Advantages to Buying Restaurant Equipment at Auction.
- Is it better to buy new or used restaurant equipment?
- Why you should purchase used commercial kitchen equipment
- Ways to save on restaurant equipment purchases
- What is the Equipment Required to Start a Cafe?
- What Equipment Would I Need to Start a Burger Restaurant?
- The Essential Restaurant Kitchen Equipment List
2018
2017
- The Big Brew Ha Ha Ha?
- Rethink Your Beverage Options
- Increasing Your Supply Chain Profits
- The Exceptional Margarita Is #1
- Taste The Water In Your Restaurant
- Kitchen Makeovers For 2017
- Betting On Cocktails For Brunch
- Support Your Neighborhood
- Delicious Mother's Day Pies
- Texas Restaurant Equipment Ideas For May
- Happy Hours Pay Off
- Trendy Food With Art In Mind
- Disruptive Tech Packaging
- Restaurant Industry In Texas
2016
- Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year!
- 2017 Food & Beverage Expectations
- Customize Drinks: Build You Own Ice Cube
- NAFEM Show 2017
- Is Your POS System Protected?
- Let's Go Combi
- Spectacular Floor Cleaning
- Effective Restaurant Cleaning
- The Versitile Convection Oven
- Convection Ovens
- New Irving Texas Location
- Save The Date: June 26 - 27, 2016
- Attend Mufso 2016 In Dallas
- New Wine Promos For Your Patrons
- Dining Tips For Your Seniors Crowds
- Innovate To Reduce Waste & Same More
- Buying The Right Dish Machine
- Purchase The Right Ice Maker For Your Restaurant
- Your Future Kitchen
- Increase Sales & Customers In 2016
- Popular Glassware
- Top Menu Trends In 2016
- Chocolate Will Remain
- Special Wine Days For Your Patrons
- 2016 Restaurant Menu Trends