Ensure Consistent Holding Temperatures from Kitchen to Customer

Foodservice is an essential part of every full-service lodging establishment. It represents between 25 and 30 percent of revenues in hotels and nearly 50 percent in casinos. Any lodging or casino foodservice professional will tell you the industry is ripe with challenges.

One of the industry’s most significant challenges is the ability to serve hot meals to a large group of people at the same time. It’s easy to get hot food at a traditional restaurant. Meals are plated and delivered hot to the table in a matter of minutes. Maintaining food’s quality and holding temperature are more challenging though when transferring pre-plated meals from a central kitchen or commissary to another location.

Oftentimes transferring meals may be from the kitchen to another floor in the same building. More challenging yet, some lodging and casino foodservice operations deliver pre-plated meals to locations several miles away. When an establishment’s reputation depends on maintaining food’s quality and appeal across several miles, it’s critical to have the right tools for the job.

“Keeping food above the Danger Zone [135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit] is critical during transit,” explains John Davis, business development manager for Traulsen. “This significantly reduces the chance for bacteria growth and lowers the risk of a food-borne illness outbreak. It also helps ensure better food quality, higher yield and reduced waste.”

Proper Tools Make All the Difference
Banquet carts allow lodging and casino foodservice operations to safely and effectively transport pre-plated meals, whether down the hall or across town. Traulsen banquet carts are now ENERGY STAR® qualified, so not only will they help foodservice professionals transport meals, but they’ll also help further sustainability efforts by using less energy.

Banquet carts are also an ideal solution for the mobile kitchen. They allow foodservice professionals to control food temperatures between 135 degrees Fahrenheit and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. They are available in a variety of sizes to accommodate 90, 96 or 150 covered plates.

Be Prepared for Anything
Anything can happen in the lodging and casino foodservice industry. To satisfy virtually every taste, hotels and casinos are offering their guests a variety of foodservice choices, including on-site and off-site events that demand flexibility.

“You never know when you’ll have to prepare mobile meals for a large event, so you have to be prepared all the time and that means having the right equipment at your disposal,” says Davis.

Delivering quality and appealing food—no matter what the distance—contributes to making a stay at a hotel or casino more enjoyable and can help ensure that guests will return in the future.

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