The kitchen is the hub of your restaurant. Selecting the proper equipment helps ensure that you’re producing the best tasting foods for patrons and that your hub continuously runs efficiently.
When considering ovens – whether it be a new piece or a replacement, be sure to consider a convection oven. Below you’ll find a deep dive on convection ovens to help you understand how they work, how they can be used, and what benefits they can have to your kitchen.
What is a convection oven?
Convection ovens are fan-assisted ovens that create a quicker, more thorough cooking process. Located inside of the cooking chamber, the fans circulate hot air around the cavity. The hot air envelops the food inside, cooking it from all sides and speeding up the overall cook time.
What are convection ovens used for?
The convection oven can be used for a range of cooking styles. Some of the most common are as follows:
Roasting
Convection ovens create a drier environment than a traditional oven. This yields crispier, caramelized results for foods like meats and vegetables. Additionally, the power of a convection oven speeds up normal roasting time.
Baking
Pastries and pies are another great food to make in a convection oven. Due to the circulated heat, steam is created faster, which can help lift pastries, pies and doughs. The circulation of heat also promotes even cooking for a nice, light browning to crusts.
What are the differences between a convection oven and a standard oven?
Unlike a convection oven, a standard oven relies on radiated heat from heating elements inside the oven. Depending on your model, these heating elements can be on the bottom or sides, creating an inconsistent heating environment. With a convection oven, heat is emitted and blown around the space for constant, consistent heating on all sides.
What are the advantages of a convection oven?
Convection ovens provide versatile, powerful cooking for kitchens of all sizes and styles. By making the switch from traditional radiated heat to circulated consistent heat, you can expect to receive the following advantages:
Faster Cooking Times
High velocity air wipes away the moisture barrier created as food cooks and allows the heat energy to penetrate; accelerating the cooking process.
More Even Results
Depending on where the heating elements are located in standard oven, there can be hotspots that impact the overall result. Convection ovens use fans to blow around the heat to ensure that all sides of the food are being cooked evenly and consistently.
Quicker Browning
In regular ovens, the air can tend to stay humid. Convection ovens use intense heat to create a completely dry atmosphere that can create better and quicker browning than traditional models.
Energy Savings
Because of the decreased cooking time, you can spend less on energy costs in the long run.
Finding the Right Convection Oven for Your Kitchen
Convection ovens are a powerful kitchen tool that can leave a positive impact on your energy consumption, food quality and cooking speed. Because of this, there are many different styles of convection ovens that help restaurants of different sizes and styles to maximize its versatility.
