Tabletop Trends Food Prep: The Right Tool for the Job
A great meal starts with preparation. Slicing, dicing, mixing, blending, chopping, emulsifying…. they’re all time consuming tasks but happily there’s a mind blowing variety of tools available to make your customers’ food prep easier.
It starts with chef’s knives and goes up from there… whisks, ladles, spoons, skimmers, tongs, spatulas, potato chippers, lettuce cutters, tomato slicers, food blenders, mandolines, vegetable cutters, food processors… and innovative new products, such as advanced icecream machines and thermo blenders, are being developed all the time (and finding out about them is just one of the very good reasons to attend FEA’s annual LET Forum, by the way!).
What all these different tools have in common is that they save time and labour. They can help streamline processes and increase production, and their importance is underlined by the skill and staff shortages that beset the hospitality industry. Put simply, they can help fewer people produce more food. They can reduce the risk of injury and repetitive strain. And using them is likely to reduce food wastage compared to, say, doing a job like peeling or julienning by hand with a knife. Even equipment at the more basic end of the scale, such as tomato slicers, chippers, dicers and salad spinners, are all designed to save time and provide consistency, and they are often safer and more hygienic than carrying out food prep completely manually.
Making sure the customer buys the right tool for the job is key – and that means finding out about their needs and their business. Identify the need, discuss the budget and spec the right solution. Would they be better off with a manual or a powered tool? The manual one will be lighter, thus easier to move around, less expensive to buy, won’t require electricity (a sustainability tick) and should be easier to look after. Having fewer moving parts makes it more reliable. It will be very quiet to operate. It may also be gentler on the food, which could be important. The powered version will be faster – much faster, capable of handling much larger volumes. It will probably be more consistent, too. It will require little effort to operate. However, it may need more training to operate safely. Often powered equipment will have the option of multiple attachments, for a wider range of tasks. Programmable settings reduce the need for manual intervention and can help if staff are less skilled.
What if your customers are considering buying in pre-prepped ingredients? OK, it will save time but may increase the complexity of their storage needs. More important, they won’t only cost more, they also won’t be as fresh, flavoursome or nutritious as they would be if the customer buys raw ingredients and preps on site – using the right tools for the job.
Want to know more about the Light Equipment and Tableware Forum? If you’d like to be added to the early bird news list about bookings for the 2025 event, email FEA’s events manager, jocelyn.shawyer@fea.org.uk. A full list of Light Equipment and Table suppliers can be found on our Meet Our Members section - simply select Light Equipment / Food Prep from the Product Type drop down menu.
This article is part of Tabletop Trends - FEA's quarterly light equipment and tableware sector newsletter.
Tabletop Trends is produced and distributed by the Foodservice Equipment Association, the UK's largest independent foodservice equipment trade association. All suppliers listed in this article are FEA members. A full list of Light Equipment and Table suppliers can be found on our Meet Our Members section - simply select Light Equipment / Food Prep from the Product Type drop down menu.
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