Diners score at Villa Park VarioCooking Center boosts catering at Aston Villa FC

The Villa Park stadium has been extensively refurbished, enabling it to serve a range of customers from supporters enjoying a snack before the game, through to match-day hospitality packages and a thriving function business including conferences, banqueting, exhibitions, and outdoor catering events.

Executive chef Peter Reed oversees the catering operation, ensuring that the food and service match the facilities. To help meet high customer expectations, two FRIMA VarioCooking Centershave been installed at the stadium by Bournville Catering Equipment.

The VarioCooking Center is a new generation of cooking system which sets out to change the way chefs operate in the kitchen. Designed to make many conventional cooking systems obsolete, the VarioCooking Center is a multi-purpose cooking tool combining a tilting pan, a kettle and a deep-fat fryer, making a compact three-way system with a sophisticated and easy to use computerised control and monitoring system.

In the Holte Suite, at the legendary Holte End of Villa Park, a large VarioCooking Center 311 features in the new-build production kitchen. As well as offering match-day dining facilities for season ticket holders, the Holte Suite is a purpose-built venue for events from conferences and black-tie dinners through to trade exhibitions.

Match-day meals need to be served quickly. French fries are a core part of the menu, with the VarioCooking Center’s deep fat fryer function coming into its own, “Popular match-day meals are roasts, pies and curries, and it’s chips with everything” says Peter.

The VarioCooking Center cooks up to 50 per cent faster than conventional appliances, with up to 40 per cent lower energy and water consumption, less food shrinkage and lower fat consumption. The faster cooking times and savings in running costs come via a feature called VarioBoost. This uses a network heating structure that helps to prevent the food from sticking in the pan. VarioBoost can raise the cooking temperature to 250C in under four minutes, for example searing up to 60kg of goulash meat in only 17 minutes - cooking it to perfection - and maintaining the heat even when the pan is filled with food.

Using the greater throughput offered by the VarioCooking Center over a standard deep fat fryer, the Holte suite has seen the number of portions of chips served on a typical match-day increase from around 1500 to 2300 portions. This enables more of the club’s fans to enjoy a meal in the build up to the match, as well as boosting sales.

To achieve consistent cooking results the unit is fitted with a VarioCooking Control which allows the chef to select the type of food to be cooked. The unit then automatically detects the size and amount of food and adjusts the cooking parameters to suit.

In the Directors kitchen, a compact VarioCooking Center 112 has been installed, replacing a deep fat fryer and solid top. The Directors is a versatile, modern function suite overlooking the pitch. As well corporate hospitality on match-days, the suite is used throughout the week as a venue for receptions, conferences, gala dinners and company meetings.

“The a la carte menu in The Directors changes all the time,” says Peter. “We use the VarioCooking Center for many different cooking methods, including poaching, shallow-frying, baking and even sous-vide.

“For example one dish is pheasant breast marinated in brandy with a little thyme. We cook it slowly in the bag, and then finish it by gently pan frying it. One of the biggest benefits of the VarioCooking Center has been the lack of shrinkage when it comes to cooking meat, which has generated considerable cost savings. There have also been time savings which in turn generates lower labour costs.”

Patented technologies on the VarioCooking Center include an automatic food recognition system, a core temperature probe, a water drain system, and automatic lift/lowering that ensures accurate cooking of pasta, poached and deep-fried foods. A full range of accessories is available, including dedicated baskets and carts for special foods, and multiple VarioCooking Center units can be linked together by computer for remote monitoring and data logging of the cooking processes for HACCP.

For more information on Aston Villa Hospitality FC visit www.avhe.co.uk or call 0800 612 0960.

FRIMA is currently expanding its distributor network in the UK. For information and brochures, or to come to a free Cooking Live demonstration, call FRIMA UK on 0870 312 0321, emailinfo@frima-uk.co.uk or visit www.frima-uk.co.uk