Our NAFEM Favorites
It Doesn't have to be Ugly
The design of Evo's Mongolian-style Grill is
gorgeous. Beautiful stainless
work and on the stainless front a curvy flame cut-out for the vent
opening - nice touch. www.evoamerica.com
Woodstone
has a very pretty little countertop Stone Hearth oven - live flame and
all. It will be available next
year. www.woodstone-corp.com
And Now for
Something Completely Different
Mike
Purcell at Multiteria has designed Temp-Ensure - a temperature sensor hidden in a piece of "plastic decorative
garnish" (fruit or veg) that will sit in a steam table pan; temps
read from the center of the pan and displayed on the hot well controller. www.multiteriausa.com
Curves are IN
Contoura, the
sophisticated yet simple counter line from Brass Smith, was one of the
high points of the show. Its
foundation is a standard frame (with legs or casters) and within that
designs are limited by your creativity. It's 100% mechanically fastened - no expensive and time
consuming welding required. www.zguard.com/contoura/
Another
very curvy company is Structural Concepts. We liked the baffle system that
converted an ambient merchandiser to a cold one. www.structuralconcepts.com
Clean and
Green
Sterilox BioSafety system disinfects
& decontaminates surfaces using salt, water & electricity to
produce an environmentally friendly hard surface solution on site. It also deodorizes and can be used to
wash produce and rinse seafood. It was developed in the UK. www.sterilox.com
Bettcher
Industries introduced an in-the-shell egg pasteurizing system - Pollux provides 100 times more
pasteurization than FDA requires, yet gives you an unchanged raw
egg. It can also pasteurize and
cook eggs to various levels of doneness and then hold them safely for
up to 5 hours. It's not on their
website yet. www.bettcher.com
Round and
Round
Hickory's
"visual pizza" system is fun to watch - a large turntable
cooks the crust at around and passes the pizza briefly under a
stationary salamander that melts the cheese. www.hickorybbq.com
Arm in Arm
The Flix
Buffet System by Spring Switzerland has an exciting look for buffets -
three long arms with individual square or round plates attached. The arms can swing to different
positions - I hope their website will have a photo because it needs to
be seen. They also displayed an
induction cooker in stone (not yet released). www.springusa.com
Blue Flash
Marketing
Meiko's
dishmachines attract attention at trade shows with the blue lighted interior
- it really gets your attention. www.meiko.us
Steamin'
Market
Forge deserves their Blue Flame award for the 10-pan steamer. A clever addition - the built-in
water filter warns when it's time to change the cartridge. www.mfii.com
We are
particularly proud to see Stellar Steam's completely connectionless gas
catering steamer arrive on the market. With a gas tank incorporated into its mobile stand it can cook
in the middle of a parking lot, ski slope or hurricane. www.stellarsteam.com
Sometimes
it's the Little Things
Stero's
ER44 has a neat quick release design for the washer arm (patent
pending). Nice job, Adam
Clavelle (he's a Vermonter!) www.stero.com
Giles
installed UV in their ventless hoods to convert grease into water,
carbon dioxide & mineral acids. Neat trick. www.gilesent.com
