News

NRA announces 2018 Kitchen Innovation Awards

February 26, 2018

The National Restaurant Association has announced the 2018 Kitchen Innovation Awards, honoring equipment that increases efficiencies and productivity for back-of-the-house operations. Each recipient and their product will be showcased in the interactive Kitchen Innovations Showroom at the 2018 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, to be held May 19-22 in Chicago at McCormick Place.

"The KI Award recipients are innovators in back-of-house operations and work tirelessly to improve the challenges faced by restaurant operators," Dickie Brennan, Convention Chair for NRA Show 2018 and owner/managing partner of Dickie Brennan & Company, said in a press release. Brennan's restaurant group includes Tableau, Palace Café, Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, and Bourbon House. 

The 2018 KI Award recipients reflect the trends and topics most important to foodservice operators today. The 22 selected innovations address operator concerns from labor, energy and water efficiency to food safety, sanitation, cross-functionality and space-saving. New software and new materials continue to make new solutions possible.

Recipients include:

Air Oasis Bi-Polar Ice BPi200
Unlike ice sanitizing technologies that use UV light or other sources that create ozone, which can be hazardous to health, the patent-pending BPi200 uses a small electrical housing and carbon-fiber brushes to release airborne positive hydrogen and negative oxygen ions throughout the ice machine without creating ozone. The compact unit greatly reduces mold, yeast, bacteria, viruses and other pathogens, enhancing sanitation and extending service cycles.

Alto-Shaam, Inc., in conjunction with Appliance Innovation Vector F Series Multi-Cook Oven 
Last year the electric H Series introduced multiple cooking chambers independently controlled for temperature, fan speed and time, allowing simultaneous cooking of dissimilar menu items as well as patented structured air technology high-velocity, focused heat for faster cooking. The new F Series builds on that with larger chambers to accept full size sheet or hotel pans and a new, patent-pending innovation that adds the flexibility to combine two cooking chambers into one for larger items without disrupting the structured airflow design.

Antunes GST-1H Flatbread-Toaster
The new Flatbread-Toaster brings innovative capabilities to the flatbread-pita-tortilla category with wide-mouth loading and dual platens located inside dual conveyor belts to heat a variety of products consistently—up to 200°F—providing quicker throughput. For example, it heats uncooked flour tortillas to 160°F in seconds. The integrated landing zone is heated, too.

Astra Shunsuke Peeling Machine
This machine automates labor-intensive fruit and vegetable peeling. Programmable for apples, kiwis, oranges, potatoes and more—nine different fruits and vegetables in all (and suitable for similarly sized items)—the unit allows different thicknesses of peeling. The unit comes in two sizes for smaller and larger operations.

Bizerba North America GSP H & HD Illuminated Safety Slicers, Manual, Semi-Automatic and Fully-Automatic Operation 
This slicer line, introduced to foodservice a little over a year ago, includes illuminated slicers use color-coded lights to indicate the machine's status—solid green is safe mode, with blade removed, etc., for safe cleaning. Flashing red is for pre-run, and solid red indicates blade is spinning and ready to slice. 

Evo, Inc. MultiZone Plancha 
The MultiZoneTM features three independent cooking zones, each separated with IsoBar technology. IsoBarTM is a recirculating fluid thermal barrier that effectively mitigates temperature carryover between zones for precise and variable temperature control across a continuous cooking surface. 

FLAT Tech Inc. FLAT Equalizers 
Equalizers replace a table's existing screw-in feet with an adjusting, hydraulic compression and spring system; they also feature a locking mechanism (with patents pending) to create a rock-solid stance without any springiness. A rounded design allows for non-snag movement across floors and carpets. 

Garland, A Welbilt Brand Instinct Induction Countertop Line
Instinct is the first multi-sensor induction countertop line to incorporate cook and hold functions under one unit, measuring temperatures across the entire surface for increased accuracy. Duel-zone Instinct can adjust frequency on each cook zone to match pan requirements, adjusting for elements like ferrous content and pan quality; boosting performance and mitigating against temperature overshoots. 

Genius Pan, LLC Genius Pan
The Genius Pan uses a patented threaded system that allows the bottom of the pan to adjust up or down in the well, cutting waste and saving labor. 

Hoshizaki America KMEdge Ice Machine Series
The KMEdge utilizes a one-piece, dual-sided stainless-steel evaporator that envelops the oval-shaped copper heating/cooling tubing, optimizing surface contact area for optimizing energy efficiency, providing harder, clearer ice, higher ice production in fewer cycles, longer product life and greater reliability. 

Markov Level RF Oven
Building on autonomous-vehicles technologies, the ventless Level RF Oven "learns" to recognize food items and direct RF energy to cook them to prescribed standards for internal temperature, surface doneness, etc. The Level can identify multiple dissimilar foods and cook each, simultaneously, to its own standards, to finish at the same time.

Marra Forni Electric Brick Oven with Open Mouth 
This electric brick oven cooks temperatures up to 1000°F with an open mouth. Efficiency and heat retention come from Sorrento refractory brick walls and deck that retain the heat, a low dome and balanced heat from all directions. The oven cooks a pizza in 45 seconds—up to 200 per hour. 

Marra Forni Rotator Deck Brick Oven with Double Mouth Opening
This pass-through, rotating-deck oven uses two forced-air burners totaling just 84k btu per hour to produce pizzas from both directions in under 90 seconds. The controls regulate heat, rotation speed from 0 to 180 seconds, and separate temperatures for each side if so desired. An air screen keeps the heat in.

Multiplex, A Welbilt Brand FreshBlender
This self-serve system lets customers create their own drinks in less than two minutes. In a 20-inch by 39-inch footprint, the FreshBlender integrates refrigeration, ice making, blending, dispensing and digital controls for hundreds of self-served drinks per day. 

Omni-Rinse Integrated Rinsing System 
This warm-water rinse station for barware tins, jiggers and tools incorporates rinsing as a step within the drink-making process, saving time and eliminating the chronic problem of backlogged, unrinsed tools. The rinse process is hands-free and uses no electricity. The station mounts to a speed rack, wall or under bar. 

Prince Castle Modular Holding Bin 
This holding innovation features a master base, allowing the system to expand horizontally and vertically, distributing power and communications to set and maintain desired serving temperatures. 

Sealed Air Corporation Cryovac FlexPrep EZ Dispensing 
Sealed Air's new system uses prefilled Cryovac pouches with frangible seals specially fitted to load into the operation's dispensing equipment. 

Soda Gun Jetter LLC Soda Gun Jetter
Soda Gun Jetter is an automated system that includes a programmable control box, holsters and dedicated tubing to flush soda gun nozzles and drip cups during off hours with pressurized water.

Structural Concepts Corporation Foodscaping Wells
Foodscaping Wells offers a modular system based on a refrigerated cabinet featuring a food well housing with multiple height-adjustable display platforms. The adjustability lets staff set food serving vessels at various heights.

Structural Concepts Corporation Frameless Glass Food Displays
Reveal Frameless Glass Food Displays bring argon gas-insulated double glass panes to foodservice in merchandising cases with completely frameless vertical glass. 

Vitamix Aerating Container 
The aerating container's disc blade lets kitchen staff and bartenders fine tune the textures of mousse, infusions and emulsions without pureeing.

Vulcan SonicSafe Ultrasonic Scale Prevention for Steamers
Vulcan applies ultrasonic technology to commercial steamers to combat scale build-up in large industrial boilers. Ultrasonic technology breaks up limescale particulates suspended in water, preventing scale from adhering to heating elements and generator walls. 

The 2018 Kitchen Innovations judges are: 

• Dan Bendall, principal, FoodStrategy, Inc.
• David Chislett, FCSI, executive principal, Ricca Design Studios
• Jeff Cook, chief engineer, Restaurant Solutions Group, McDonald's Corporation
• Richard Eisenbarth, FCSI, president/COO, Cini-Little International
• Foster F. Frable, Jr., FCSI Associate AIA, president, Clevenger Frable LaVallee
• Randy Homer, program manager, food and beverage operations, asset management, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
• Jim Krueger, Jr., CMCE, NRAMF, chief, Air Force food and beverage policy, procedures, business development and strategic initiatives Air Force Services Activity Food & Beverage Branch
• Aaron Lamotte, senior director, performance interiors, Sodexo Performance Interiors
• Steve Otto, director, capital equipment purchasing, Darden