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Rethinking convention and convection with Cadco

By its nature, new technology challenges the way we work and gives us the opportunity to rethink older conventions. To address innovation in the face of convention, we invited Cadco to chat with us about how kitchens are updating conventional ways of cooking.

Photo: TundraFMP

May 17, 2023

“A sharp knife is a safe knife.”

“Don’t overcrowd the pan.”

“Mise en place.”

If you ever worked in a commercial kitchen, you’ve heard one or more of these phrases. Why? Because conventional knowledge is how we learn in new environments, and the world of commercial cooking is no exception.

In fact, most restauranteurs lean heavily on conventional knowledge to ensure precision and consistency in their kitchens. From keeping a clean work area to the importance of saying “behind,” there is a universality in practice and execution in kitchens worldwide.

However, conventional thinking stops in the face of innovation. The microwave was slow to enter traditional kitchens, but today there is no doubt about its usefulness.

Tell me a little about Cadco — how’d you get started, and what makes you an innovator in the foodservice industry?

Cadco: Cadco was formed in 1996. We’ve been in business for quite a while, but our business model has evolved in that amount of time. What started as cute little ovens and toasters has evolved into large convection ovens and full foodservice carts. Our newest ovens have taken us to the next level.

What’s contributed to that growth?

Our product line. Most manufacturing companies only have one thing they’re really good at. At Cadco, we’re diversified. Even though our Bakerlux oven is our number 1 product and we are the number 1 hotplate seller, we are also flexible.

This lets us see what the markets are doing and react to offer innovative solutions.

Your Bakerlux line is what caught our eye. Could you pinpoint one of its innovative features and explain why it should matter to restaurant owners?

Time is precious for restaurant owners and operators. They can’t spend time playing with controls. Not just with Bakerlux but across the board, our products are programmable on another level. When you fire it up, you don’t have to play with controls.

Instead, you can program up to 99 recipes out of the box. After that, any employee, new or old, can simply press a button and be good to go. And it is the same for the next order, and the next order, and the next.

Hood systems are notoriously expensive and necessary for most restaurants. The Bakerlux line offers a “ventless option,” which you claim eliminates the need for a hood system. How does that work?

These ovens don’t need a hood system to operate. However, if you have a local jurisdiction requiring a hood system, or if your inspector says you can’t put this oven in your kitchen unless you have a hood over it, our ventless hood will eliminate the need for a $45,000 hood system.

We install our ventless hood directly onto the oven, and it only adds a few inches to the height of the unit. To work, the end user simply needs to hook it up to a standard water outlet. The grease-laden vapor of the oven gets filtered out through a water bath in the hood, which cleans the air and expels it as steam.

When we went through our testing for the hood, the food product they tested it with was pepperoni pizza, which expels the most grease-laden vapor of any food product. Our ventless hood system passed with flying colors.

It is a plug-and-play option that costs tens of thousands of dollars less. All you need is a water line and a floor drain.

The approval for our ventless hood is UL710B, which means that if you went into an inspection with this hood on top of the oven, it would be the only system you needed.

Innovation is the name of the game when making products that change how we think about cooking. How else are you innovating?

Our ovens are 30% faster than conventional convection ovens. To do this, we incorporate an auto-reversing fan. In a normal convection oven, you have airflow from a normal fan. The problem with these fans is that it doesn’t create great cooking consistency in a metal box. For example, the corners can have cold spots.

Every 45 seconds, our fans auto-reverse and change the airflow so it’s not in one direction.

This creates a more consistent cooking environment where you don’t have to do something like flipping the pan around halfway through.

A fan makes it 30% faster?

Yes, but a polished stainless interior also helps. Most convection ovens on the market have a square cavity, whereas ours has rounded edges. This helps the air easily change direction from our auto-reversing fan. If you have a corner, air gets caught. A round cavity helps with the speed and directional changes of our airflow, which results in faster cooking times.

What has been the biggest benefit you’ve seen to making smarter products?

10 years ago, we never thought our products would be in national chains. When convection ovens upped their game, so did we. We made a serious piece of equipment to go after bigger fish in the pond. We won Arby’s over with our price, innovative performance, and fast spec changeovers.

We make small but mighty products. To be the best, you need to offer better ways to get things done.

Progress isn’t some great tsunami threatening the beaches of normalcy. It comes slowly, bit by bit, and wins out once it proves to be a smarter, faster, and all-around better alternative. That’s what innovation looks like in the commercial foodservice industry.

Cooking is an ancient and uniquely human practice. We’ve been at it since, well, forever. There are some things innovation won’t change, like how a pit master can infuse smoke with simple wood, fire, and iron. But there are things that will change, like how we think about convection ovens and how to work smarter in a commercial kitchen. And like our ancestors before us, sometimes the best way to survive is to adapt.

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TundraFMP

TundraFMP helps foodservice operators do what they do best – by providing fast, flexible and complete kitchen solutions. We offer the most complete selection of restaurant equipment, apparel, smallwares, parts, and accessories in the industry.

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