What is Cook Chill?
Cook-Chill is a simple, controlled temperature system of advanced food preparation designed to provide more flexibility in foodservice.
The technique involves the full cooking of food, followed by rapid chilling and storage at controlled temperatures (for up to five days). When required, the food is regenerated before service. The system itself is simple to operate and absolutely safe provided food safety guidelines and HACCP regulations are followed.
Installing a Cook-Chill System offers a caterer many benefits including improved kitchen efficiency, reduced food waste, menu expansion opportunities and increased profitability.
Cook-Chill Systems have the added benefit of maintaining food quality, nutritional value, flavour and appearance.
Why do I need a cook-chill system?
If you cook then chill food, its temperature needs to be reduced safely to 3°C within 90 minutes. If you are freezing cooked food, the temperature needs to go to -18°C in no more than 240 minutes. Otherwise you are breaking the law. Worse, you are putting your customers at risk of food poisoning.
This is because bacteria grows most aggressively between 5°C and 63°C – so the food needs to get past this ‘danger zone’ as quickly as possible.
It’s no good putting hot food into a refrigerator or freezer – it won’t cool fast enough, the resulting rise in the cabinet temperature will endanger other food being stored there, and it will overwork the refrigeration system.
The only safe way to comply with the food safety regulations governing the chilling or freezing of cooked food is to use a blast chiller or blast freezer.
The benefits of Cook Chill
- Guarantee food safety and HACCP compliance
- Preserve quality of food
- Reduce food waste
- Expand your menu
- Reduce labour costs
- Improve kitchen efficiency and productivity
- Increase profitability
What is the difference between hard chill and soft chill?
Every dish has its ideal cooking method, to suit its density or structure. This applies to blast chilling and blast freezing, too - blast chillers offer the option of soft or hard chill to ensure food isn’t damaged and quality is maintained.
Soft chilling is a gentler process that ensures delicate products, such as fish, fruit and vegetables, do not develop ice crystals.
Hard chilling is suitable for denser foods such as meat, casseroles and lasagne. Here the airflow drops below freezing to maintain safety while ensuring the product stays in prime condition.
What equipment do I need for a cook-chill system?
If you are already serving hot food, the only additional equipment you will require for a small to medium sized Cook-Chill operation is a suitable Blast Chiller or Chiller Freezer. You will also need a suitable refrigerator or coldroom (0ºC/+3ºC) for the storage of the finished product.
The first question is, do you want to blast chill, blast freeze or do you want the capacity to do both? One thing to bear in mind with blast chiller/ freezers is their capacity to freeze.
Williams blast chiller/freezers can chill or freeze the same volume of food so, for example, a WBCF30 can blast chill or blast freeze up to 30kg of food.
We provide Blast Chillers and Blast Freezers with capacities from compact 10kg models up to roll-in models capable of Blast Chilling 320kg. Simply work out the volume of food you will be preparing in advance and choose a model that suits.
What size do I need?
To find out which model is the most suitable for your operation, consider the type of food you will be blast chilling or freezing, as well as the volume of food you need to produce, calculated in quantity of kilograms.
When calculating volumes remember that you may be producing meals for consumption over seven days but with production in only five days. It is also wise to allow a little extra capacity than you require at the present time, in order to allow for the expansion of your business and changing menus.
How do I choose the most suitable Blast Chiller/Freezer?
Whatever the type of Blast Chiller or Chiller Freezer you choose, it must be capable of reducing the temperature of hot food from +90°C to between 0°C and +3°C within 90 minutes, when fully loaded.
It must also feature an accurate (+/- 0.5°C) temperature display, with a built in food probe featuring digital display. Digital and audible timers are also useful features.
A model with an easy-to-use controller makes programming hard and soft chill cycles easy, ideal for businesses wanting to reduce staff hours or with a high staff turnover.
On completion of its rapid chill cycle, the machine should automatically revert to storage mode (0°C/+3°C). This enables the operator to put one load in last thing at night, for example, and remove the chilled product first thing in the morning.
If energy efficiency is important, choose a model with natural, energy efficient refrigerant such as R290. This will help you save on running costs while looking after the planet.
The best equipment is made from stainless steel. You should also look for a good seal around the door. Poor seals mean an inefficient machine and will cost you money in increased power consumption and will be less effective at chilling.
Automatic defrost and evaporation are essential features to look for when selecting a machine.
Storage equipment
The storage equipment used for holding pre-cooked chilled foods must be designed and used specifically for that purpose. Steps must be taken to ensure that possible cross contamination between raw foods or other cooked products and stored chilled food does not occur.
The store must be capable of holding products at a constant temperature of between 0°C and +3°C, and this should be indicated clearly by a visible temperature indicator.
The equipment should ideally feature an audible alarm which will alert you if the storage temperature reaches unacceptable levels. A temperature recording device is also required.
View our range of Blast Chillers and Blast Freezers here.
IMPORTANT! Make sure your cooking, chilling and storage equipment are all compatible with the containers you use (Gastronorm or designed for Combi ovens).
As with any cooking operation, a Cook-Chill system requires care to ensure that food does not become vulnerable to harmful bacteria. Staff should, therefore, be given specific training on the Cook-Chill operation, in addition to basic Food Hygiene training. Williams Refrigeration and its dealers are able to help you with this.