Mary Esther Treat’s Milan Host Show Notebook

Index

Warewashing

Primary Cooking Equipment

Pizza Stuff

US Manufacturers who were at HOST

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Impressions

The Milan Host show is LARGE. It’s held at the new fairgrounds about a 35-minute subway ride outside of central Milan; multiple buildings on either side of a central covered walkway house exhibits by category. The food vendors were in the building farthest away – what a difference it makes to remove the grazers from the equipment exhibit halls! One building was devoted to bar equipment, another to gelato and confectionary. It seemed as though one building was exclusively slicers, but I think they were just the predominant component of the food processing equipment building.

Unlike our US shows, the manufacturers do not pounce on you at their booths – in fact they don’t speak unless summoned. Perhaps they recognized that we weren’t likely to purchase. And they don’t give away food, unless you are invited to talk with them. Literature is not readily available, but willingly offered when you request it. It took getting used to, but was ultimately refreshing to have a quiet look.

Emerging Equipment

Similar in theme to Evo’s communal cooking flattop grills seen at NAFEM is Onfalos’ “movable, free-standing fry-top”. It’s cone-shaped, shiny and adds colored Corian “petals” around the outside as shelves – see photo at right. The website www.onfalos.com is in Italian but we picked up a beautifully done brochure in English – I bet you can get one if you ask.

A category that has not yet been accepted commercially in the states, but had several manufacturers in Europe, is vacuum packaging for single servings or small batches. Complementary equipment includes rethermalizers in the form of bain-maries and an interesting “Gastrovac” from Granatiero (www.granatiero.com – unfortunately the website is in Italian and Spanish. For info on the machine in English, go to http://www.cookingconcepts.com/ENG/gastrovac.html)

Valko has a line of Vac packaging technology, from large and small thermo sealing machines, wrapping machines to knife sterlizers. http://www.valko.com/eng/prodotti.php

With c-stores getting into prepared food in such a big way, it makes sense that some of this equipment should show up here soon. We’re also seeing colleges and B&I operators creating food outlets that resemble c-stores.

Euromatic can introduce different gases to the product depending on the food’s requirements. http://www.euromaticdivision.com/frame.htm

http://www.orved.it/eng/new766_uk.htm

On the low tech end is PanSaver, a US Company that provides a pedestal to hold bags and a sealing tool to clip the bag shut. http://www.pansaver.com/cook-chill-products/cook-chill-product-list/

Warewashing

A dish pre-wash device that uses two parallel rollers to clean off individual dishes from Antar Italia. http://www.antaritalia.it/eng/jeeves.html The same company also has several cutlery drying systems, similar to the unit from Campus Innovations featured at NRA’s Kitchen Innovations area last May (www.cpishine.com). Another cutlery dryer can be seen at http://www.tamaiequipment.com/ita/cutlery.htm. Nicem introduces UV light to reduce bacteria on both cutlery and granules. http://www.nicem.it/IndexGB.htm. So does Frucosol of Spain - http://www.frucosol.com/cutlery%20polishers.htm

I love that something as lowtech as corncobs are the magic ingredient!

Comenda Ali S.P.A. showed a tray washing system with an elevator (not yet on the website http://www.comenda-ali.it/eng/home.htm) and magnetic flatware removal for the dish machine.

I want one of these (at left) at home – a “Grime Reaper System” (the name is a bit too cute) that cleans the grimiest pans using ecologically sound materials. http://www.grimereaper.com/

Primary Cooking Equipment

A handsome pressure steamer with a window and interior light comes from Solia (at right). http://www.alexandersolia.com/index.php?iL=2&iM=7&iSM=10&iSM2=66&iSM3=67&PHPSESSID=885eecb58f2131a54bf18a121eb867c4

Check out the elevated salamander from de Manincor (Italian only, unless you have Google translate for you): http://www.demanincor.it/prodotti/Sub/RoyalChefEco.asp

Is it me, or do the Scandinavians really have nice kettles? See Joni Foodline at http://www.joni-foodline.dk/UK/index.html and Hackman at http://www.hackman.com

Quite a variety of skewer options for some interesting looking rotisseries at Elangrill. Look at the Apollo model (Italian only on website) http://www.elangrill.it/pag/APOLLO126.HTM.

EuroChef makes a hoodless single serving fryer and can set it on a mobile cart with a small drawer freezer. http://www.eurochef.it/index_eng.htm

Luis Capdevila s.a. of Spain makes an intriguing ventilation system designed for tepanyaki grills. http://www.luiscapdevila.es/en/card.asp?sheet={33174033-490C-40B4-AE17-BEE7C29D93FF}

Convotherm has a “disappearing” door that slides down the side like a TV cabinet door. http://www.convotherm.de/en_EN/produkte/highlights/verschwindetuer.html

Pizza Stuff

Host has an entire hall devoted to Pizza…

Linea Easy Pizza makes small simple pizza ovens with a hood accessory for snack bars and cafes. www.effeuno.biz

Italforni has a conveyor with a stone deck (Tunnel model TSB) - http://www.italforni.it/eng/index.html

Pizza Group’ Master Line uses a 19 mm thick refractory bricks heated by their patented Activestone system (heating elements inside the refractory bricks):

http://www.pizzagroup.com/usa/prodotti.html

Look at the graceful hood over this pizza oven from Margot at left: http://www.margot.it/en/products/genius.html. They also produce an air fryer - http://www.margot.it/en/products/fritty.html

Valoriani has an accessory we hadn’t seen before – a water-based fire suppression system that mounts on top of the oven. Unfortunately their website does not have information on it yet. www.valoriani.it

We saw a couple of rotating wood-fired pizza ovens. http://www.pavesiluciano-rimini.it/ and http://www.mamforni.it/eng-forno-girevole.htm

PrismaFood has a pizza peel with an automatic oven door opener (not featured on their website yet) http://www.prismafood.com/page1-ENG.html

Hyppocampus has a few products of interest: a tomato sauce dispenser and a larger unit that cooks, holds and dispenses sauce. http://www.hyppocampus.it/polentera%20Eng.htm

Rinaldi Superforni makes an electric conveyor oven where loading and unloading take place on the same end. http://www.rinaldisuperforni.com/eng/pizzeria_superpizza.aspx

A stainless steel hot plate with a ridged bottom (right) will keep a pizza hot for an hour in a round display case. See the Piatto Girasole at http://www.ziopepe.com/inglese/sito/full.htm

Eastern Europe

Manufacturers like TorgoTerm from Bulgaria showed solid, competent lines. Unfortunately their website is incomplete.

Interior design from Stefan Shterev (www.sshterev.com) combines chrome, wood and steel plus lighting to create interesting bars.

Farther Afield

Nayati of Indonesia showed a nice line of cooking equipment: the cooktop can be hosed down, they have a system to lock adjacent units together. http://www.nayati-indonesia.com/Products/index.html

Combi ovens

Unox’s roll-in combi has five fans which also vaporize water for steam, allowing “maximum uniformity and efficiency of steam distribution”. www.unox.com

Prep Tools

We saw several potato peelers. Here’s one from Solia that added a salad spinner: http://www.alexandersolia.com/index.php?iL=2&iM=7&iSM=10&iSM2=41&iSM3=46&PHPSESSID=03fa8e4370ddb75d9512f66406df59c3.

US Manufacturers who were at HOST

We missed them at NAFEM but not at Host – Edlund has an ingenious submersible scale, named Poseidon of course, that calibrates by weighing itself upside down (patented). It’s in field testing and will be on their website early in ’08. http://www.edlundco.com/

And AJ Antunes’ water filtration system could save a major US fast food chain up to $20 million/year on filter cartridge replacements http://www.ajantunes.com/stores/antunes_filtration/dondex.html

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