The programs of our Sóskút demonstration kitchen were started by none other than the presentation of our partner AngeloPo, which has celebrated its 100th anniversary and is a manufacturer of high-quality baking, cooking and industrial cooling equipment. It was a special pleasure to open our professional event series with two ladies: Sara di Palma, AngeloPo corporate chef, and Glauca Vesperini, marketing and communications director, brought us the latest research and development results of the Italians, the automation of the kitchen Cook & Chill processes.

The kitchen of the future: automated Cook & Chill processes

The ARI.O is nothing more than a multifunctional blast chiller, which can programmatically do everything for us that can happen in a kitchen between -40 and + 85 degrees C with percentage humidity control.

What prompted the need to rethink the Cook & Chill process, which is not too old anyway?

They also made no secret of the lack of skilled labor, the increased energy costs, the issue of sustainability – not only as a result of less food waste, but also by creating more sustainable kitchen working conditions, because food safety and food shelf life have become even more important since the epidemic.

The blast chilling process has begun to spread in recent decades with the same speed as combi steamers before. Nowadays, we rarely equip a new kitchen without a blast chiller with at least a positive range. A dual-temperature range appliance is practical, an appliance that can not only cool quickly, but also freeze quickly.

Why is it so important to buy a powerful and high-quality machine from a blast chiller? Because the more efficiently it can cool food and the faster it works, the more perfect the result. The water particles are arranged into microcrystals, and after thawing, frozen food regains its original state and texture without cell damage. Sara demonstrated this with frozen fruit, which the audience could then easily chew, and with a frozen savory amuse bouche, during which the crackers were as crunchy as when they were new, despite freezing and thawing.

The real surprise, however, was the vitello tonnato, which was cooked in a slow overnight cooking program in the device. The temperature, core temperature and set humidity guaranteed a perfectly crispy result, but as our chef mentioned, he didn’t have to be near the machine when it was ready, because the ARI.O automatically shocked the roast to +3 degrees, and as soon as the core temperature reached the desired temperature, it kept it cold. It was easy for him to slice the roast the next morning on a Berkel slicer and serve it with asparagus and other vegetables, also sautéed in the ARI.O.

Lets think about how convenient this is for a hotel, event hall or banquet. We can decide in advance how many hours the food should be prepared and the device will store it warm for a few hours or cold for days for service. If we decide to automatically freeze the ready-made food, it can last for weeks or months.

It is brilliant because ARI.O eliminates the time between the preparation of the food and the shocking, which is also very critical from the point of view of food safety. It shocks immediately, immediately bringing it into the correct temperature range. The data can of course all be extracted for HACCP monitoring either with a USB stick or with the help of MyKitchen APOLink.

Slow cooking and steam reduce weight loss, but more importantly, it uses only a fraction of the energy compared to a combi steamer. The closed system does not even require extraction, the ladies deliberately kept the demonstration outside the extraction screens.

The ARI.O will not replace combi ovens, as it cannot toast, crust, or bake, but we will list the functions again here:

• blast chilling & freezing,
• thawing,
• proofing,
• slow cooking,
• sous vide.

All of the above functions can be linked together into 5-step programs, automating a lot of complete procedures in our kitchen!

ARI.O the multi-function blast chiller is a real revolution in kitchen technology!