Greetings! 

Milan's HOST trade show provides a good sense of the design pulse in the European foodservice equipment market. While visiting 13 halls of displays I had the following thoughts and observations:

Coffee is big business, as is ice cream; why hasn't anyone made it big in gelato in North America? Is it the labor? It's healthier, it's better and it's addicting. Anyone got an answer? 

Everyone in cooking has a Combi oven. All are touting their unique advantages but to me most look like more of the same. A few have self-cleaning but that isn't new; controls seem to be the big identifier. You can have self-cooking, a knob with push activation like a mouse, and even a joystick control.  There were at least 20 different Combis but I suspect fewer than 5 unique designs (or manufacturers). I think it might be time for some manufacturer to step up and create the "next" thing in Combi ovens. What about microwave assist, or superheated steam or a chill cycle or radio wave heating, infrared finishing or even zoned cooking for different end results from the same oven at the same time. Takers?

Another candidate for North American market penetration is the highly engineered kettle combis, with heating, mixing, chilling and packaging components. These pieces have yet to get the recognized appreciation they deserve. Granted they are complex and expensive but for food commissaries, cook-chill and other large food production applications, they have exciting possibilities. Check out

www.hackman.com.

More random thoughts: Lots of dishwashing equipment. Air frying still lives. One fryer product had a built-in fire suppression system, enclosed frying and dispensing is growing and automatic tomato sauce dispensing can make sense.

All in all Milan's Host show provided a thorough overview of European engineering and design talent and a lot of inspiration for what we can do better here. 

For the rest of our Milan commentary and links to interesting manufacturers' websites, visit Ideas Well Done website http://ideaswelldone.com/milans.htm

Energy Notes 

Heard in various forms at FCSI and MAECO meetings prior to NAFEM:

Don't Ignore the C-Store Market

Prepared foods is a big item now - o

ver the past two years, the foodservice operations at convenience stores, supermarkets, discount stores, price clubs and other retail outlets have posted stronger foodservice traffic growth than any other segment of the restaurant industry, according to an NPD Group report released recently. This means approximately 8 billion meals and snacks were purchased at retail for the year ending May 2007.

Foodservice purchases at retail stores outperformed the total industry with 5 percent growth in the number of meals bought for immediate consumption.

NPD reveals that convenience stores are the most frequented channel for purchasing prepared foods and beverages at retail, capturing 54 percent of all foodservice traffic at retail outlets, followed by supermarkets with a 32 percent share.

"For years, supermarkets and convenience stores were outlets for 'packaged foods,'" said Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, in a press release. "But the growth of the restaurant industry during the past 25 years-and especially the growth of take-out meals-has shown everybody in the food market that consumers now want 'packaged meals.'"