Cooked, blast chilled and regenerated dishes: as good as freshly prepared
Blast chilling and food regeneration are innovative techniques that have quickly become essential in professional kitchens. They have brought chefs, restaurateurs and hoteliers numerous advantages in terms of efficient serving times and the creation of increasingly versatile dishes. They allow meat, fish and vegetable dishes to taste so good that they look as if they have just been prepared. Whereas, instead, they have been cooked even several days before and then blast chilled. The process of going from hot to cold and then back to hot again is called regeneration.
Food regeneration
Food regeneration is a process of thawing with subsequent heating of the ingredients of a dish. Its purpose is to maintain the quality and organoleptic characteristics of dishes, lengthening storage times and reducing preparation times. This solution allows greater speed in the preparation of dishes and makes it possible to create an extensive menu, with no seasonality limits. Waste is also minimised because food is used more efficiently. Based on the orders that arrive in the kitchen, the appropriate amount is regenerated for the required portion. Thanks to the regeneration technique, food contamination is avoided, food is preserved intact and the proliferation of bacteria and microorganisms is eliminated.
Specific equipment and procedures must be used so that food does not lose its properties during cooling and regeneration.
How the blast chiller works
The blast chiller is the technological heart of the regeneration process. It enables the temperature of freshly cooked or raw food to be lowered rapidly so that it can be stored optimally and ready for use. This operation is very important in professional kitchens: it makes it possible to minimise the health risks associated with food preservation and to reduce the development of micro-organisms and harmful bacteria. The professional blast chiller, in fact, is an instrument equipped with a powerful motor and a ventilation system that allows air to circulate inside the blast chiller cell. It is able to reach very low temperatures in a very short time.
The speed at which the temperature is lowered inside the cell is fundamental because it decreases the formation of ice crystals inside the food. The rapid penetration of cold leads to the development of small crystals that do not damage the food and preserve all its organoleptic characteristics. Traditional freezing, on the other hand, transforms the liquids contained in food into macrocrystals, altering the initial qualities.
The Desco line of professional blast chillers
Using a professional blast chiller in your restaurant is of paramount importance. Desco’s blast chilling technology brings the core temperature of the food down from +90°C to +3°C in a maximum of 90 minutes. Rapid shock freezing drops the temperature from +90°C to -18°C in a maximum time of 240 minutes. The ‘COOK & CHILL’ system allows food to be blast chilled or shock freezed immediately after cooking and stored until serving. Just before serving the dish, simply regenerate the food in the oven for a few minutes. The food will be as fresh as if it had just been cooked.
Desco professional blast chillers are available in different sizes and can hold from 4 to 40 trays. They are very easy to use. They perform automatic blast chilling and deep-freezing cycles and storage cycles established according to HACCP parameters. In particular, the EV blast chiller models are able to assess the type of food and automatically calculate all the parameters to carry out a correct cycle. Simply insert the probe at the core of the food and start a blast chilling cycle.
