Skills shortages, space limitations, safe and efficient production, digitisation – these are the challenges faced by chefs in the marine industry. Then there are increased expectations of customers with regard to quality and special diets as well as a varied menu. So in addition to good ideas and clever concepts, cruise ship galleys also need a partner who knows the challenges, supports them from a technical perspective and allows them to produce large quantities in high quality. Rational has created such support with iKitchen.
"We have combined the SelfCookingCenter, VarioCookingCenter and ConnectedCooking into a system solution under the name iKitchen," Mikael Eliasson Director International Key Account Marine at Rational, explains the principle. The objective is to facilitate the work, particularly in kitchen with a high production volume, streamline processes and thus save space, money, energy and raw materials. The SelfCookingCenter and the VarioCookingCenter together will cover up to 90% of all conventional cooking applications. The two identical user interfaces, which guide the user through the menu according to the same principle, show that the two appliances are made to collaborate. Even untrained staff can therefore have easy access to various cooking applications.
The third component, ConnectedCooking, also helps productivity in that the networking solution can be used to manage and transfer cooking programs centrally, access and save HACCP data from both cooking systems. This saves many pathways, reduces the error rate and ensures a consistent standard in food production on all cruise ships. "To me, Rational stands for quality which is why our ships are equipped with their appliances," states Thorsten Sengutta, corporate chef of Crystal River Cruises.