Catering businesses have an important role to play in ensuring that everyone feels welcome and included at events. One way to achieve this is by offering menus that cater to a wide variety of dietary needs. Here are 5 tips for how to create inclusive menus that will delight every guest.
Read moreInnovations in Food Preservation
As a catering business, you know how important it is to keep your food fresh and safe. From delivering meals to events to catering large-scale corporate events, ensuring that your food is preserved properly is key to your success. Fortunately, innovations in food preservation are making it easier than ever before to keep your catering fresh and safe. Let’s take a look at some of the latest food preservation innovations that you can use to help your catering business thrive.
Read more3 Ways Farm to School Makes an Impact on Schools, Students and Community
In the late 1990s, Farm to School programs started springing up across the country in order to provide students with more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods. For most of us, our school lunch experience was anything but fresh! After nearly 3 decades, Farm to School has evolved from a trend into a permanent necessity for many schools.
Read moreRevolutionize your kitchen storage with the Camshelving pegboard; the chefs space saver
Professional chefs know the importance of having an organized kitchen. It's more than just aesthetics – it's about efficiency and safety. Fumbling around for utensils or ingredients can lead to prolonged cook times, burned food and even accidents. Enter the Camshelving® Pegboard Storage System– the first NSF-listed plastic pegboard that replaces unhygienic and unorganized storage practices.
Read moreNationally Recognized School Breakfast Program Utilizes Cambro Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks
If your operation relies on metal sheet pan racks, you’ve experienced rails and castors falling off, squeaky wheels and loud noises reverberating on the walls while you move them around. When Caitlin A. Lazarski, Director of School Nutrition at Newburgh Enlarged City School District, had the opportunity to apply for equipment grants, she requested Cambro’s Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks because “we knew ours were falling apart and they weren't gonna hold up.”
Read moreThis Cambro product increased small batch bacon production by 300%
What if we told you one Cambro product could help scale your business more than three times without having to add any additional space? For Bill-E’s Small Batch Bacon, that is exactly what happened.
Read moreSustainable Catering: Streamlining Your Catering Operations
Throwing away food, wasting energy and contributing disposable waste never felt good but the foodservice industry had accepted it was just something that had to be done. However, in recent years, a greater focus has been placed on improving the sustainability of foodservice operations. Businesses are realizing how much their practices are impacting the environment negatively and many customers appreciate seeing businesses working to decrease their carbon footprint. Becoming more sustainable may seem costly or difficult, but there are small, surprisingly inexpensive ways to make a big difference
Use Energy-Efficient Equipment
Many state governments, local governments, and utilities offer rebates for foodservice equipment that is deemed energy efficient. Jaime Soltero Jr., owner of Tamale Boy, was able to purchase Cambro UPCH400 units at a big discount thanks to the rebate offered by the Energy Trust of Oregon.
“[The UPCH400] is at a lower wattage, so it’s like a lightbulb. It’s a lot of energy being saved,” said Soltero. “I think [the rebate] is a great incentive because it allows operators to control hot-held foods at the correct temperature, avoiding a lot of people getting sick if the [food’s] temperatures drop.”
Our UPCH400 is certified by Energy Star to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants caused by the inefficient use of energy. By transferring food directly into his UPCH400 units after cooking, Soltero is able to save both gas and electricity when he’s working in his food truck.
Cambro insulated transport units like the UPCH400, UPCH800, UPCH1600 and Camtherm® are designed to be energy efficient without compromising on performance. For more information about the rebates available in your state, search this Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.
Source local ingredients
Ordering ingredients from local farmers is a great way to support your community and decrease transportation emissions. When you order food locally, you can tailor your menu to each season and highlight ingredients that are special in your area. Whats more, local ingredients will arrive much fresher than those that took a road trip to get to you.
Reduce Food Waste
When food is thrown away, it emits methane a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Although food waste has become very common, it’s extremely easy to prevent!
Proper Storage: When you receive produce, take it out of cardboard boxes and immediately put it into food safe Camwear® Boxes. After cutting and preparing your ingredients, make sure everything is stored in a food safe container with a lid. For delicate produce like chopped tomatoes and pineapple, use a drain shelf or colander pan to lift food away from drippings.
Serve Smaller Portions: After a wedding, you can always find half eaten cake slices strewn about on every table. Very few people want to eat an entire cake slice in between dances. Offer pre-portioned desserts in dessert glasses to give guests a little taste that will satisfy their sugar craving without leaving a graveyard of crumbly cake behind.
Provide Eco-Friendly To-Go Containers: Encourage guests and customers to take home leftovers rather than throwing them in the trash. Most people would love to enjoy a second helping the next day and are more inclined when containers are sitting at the ready.
Find a Food Rescue Organization: The EPA offers a comprehensive guide to donating food to organization no matter where you are serving.
Reduce Use of Disposables
Many catering operators use two disposable items that can easily be replaced by reusable, sustainable items instead.
Dinnerware: If you must use disposable dinnerware, make sure it’s compostable. Although compostable plates still end up in the trash, they’re able to decompose in less than a year rather than plastic that can take centuries. Plus, items used with food can be difficult to recycle, but food remnants have no negative impact when it comes to composting.
Deli Cups: Disposable deli containers have been a staple in nearly every foodservice kitchen for decades because of their size and convenience. There was never a legitimate alternative until now. CamSquares® FreshPro Translucents are the food industry’s first commercial grade ½ qt and 1 qt reusable deli containers. CamSquares FreshPro Translucent have the advantages of deli containers without the smells, stains, leftover grease and environmental concerns.
Becoming more sustainable can seem intimidating but implementing even one of the ideas above will make an impact on the environment.
How to Ban Speed Racks from Your Walk-In
advent health
Our customers’ kitchens are our favorite place to be because they are where some of our best ideas have come from. After seeing walk-in after walk-in crammed with metal speed racks in between their shelving, we were inspired. Moving the racks in order to reach the items on your shelving is inefficient, and if you have to completely move the rack out of the walk-in, you risk disturbing the temperature of the food.
Each day, Mario Rinaldi, Food & Nutrition Services Manager at AdventHealth Palm Coast, had 6 speed racks sitting in the middle of their cooler.
“We don't want anybody going in the cooler and having to fight a speed rack. You don't like walking in a room and then having to move everything to get where you have to go,” Rinaldi.
Rinaldi first noticed a problem with their walk-in when they performed a deep clean and pulled everything out. Upon doing that, he realized that “almost every single shelving unit had rust on it, more rust than you would want on any kind of foodservice equipment or storage.”
After converting to Camshelving Premium Series®, they made the decision to order 6 Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf.
“[The Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf] eliminates the need for speed racks in the cooler. If you're gonna use a speed rack, you take an empty speed rack into the cooler, grab whatever you need on these sheet trays, and then leave,” said Rinaldi.
“There won't be any standalone carts; there won't be any rogue carts left in that cooler. Anybody going in there is going in there with purpose and going in there with whatever they need to get what they need out of there. Therefore, it makes it easier on everybody in the long run.”
After Rinaldi and his team started using their shelving, they realized they needed even more Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf than they anticipated and purchased 7 more.
When you’re serving 420 meals to patients a day, plus more in AdventHealth’s café, an organized and efficiently designed kitchen makes a huge difference.