Mini Meals Catering

Serving private day nurseries, Mini Meals Catering relies heavily on its commercial equipment to not only meet demand on a large scale, but deliver quality and nutrition in every plateful prepared. Chris explains how an increase in business led to the installation of a combi oven in his busy kitchen:

“Before, we used a big, monster industrial oven which did the job but took its time to do it! A friend of mine is the Head Chef in a local school, and he wanted me to take over the catering for summer holidays and half terms to cover his own breaks – so I needed something that would work harder for me with all those extra meals to cook.

I had a look round his kitchen and the school’s combi oven really impressed me. So I decided that would do the trick for me too. I went searching for a supplier, spoke to a few people and eventually chose JLA who helped me decide on the right model for my needs.

The main thing I’ve found is how quick the combi is. Let’s say for instance that we did 20kg of carrots – you can imagine the size of the pot we needed! By the time you’ve brought that to the boil and cooked the carrots, you’re looking at an hour and fifteen minutes. In the combi steamer it’s 20 minutes for the same amount!
 

The combi keeps all the nutrition and flavour in…my carrots are a lot sweeter, not boiled to death. And other veg doesn’t turn to mush due to over-boiling.The kids and staff say it’s a lot, lot nicer, which means everything to us. We just have a small combi at the moment, but we’ll be moving to new premises soon so I’ll be in touch with JLA to talk about getting another unit or two!”

– Chris Davis, Managing Director at Mini Meals