VELTINS Arena, Gelsenkirchen. The home stadium of the Schalke 04 soccer club, with seating for nearly 50,000 people. 50,000 people who want to be fed during the two or three hours they spend in the stadium – including at four UEFA EURO 2024 matches, the European Football Championship in Germany, which were taking place at the stadium (or rather, on the pitch). Here’s what sets the VELTINS Arena apart from many other stadiums: French fries are on the menu – perfectly golden, crispy fries.
Image: Rational
This begs the question: Why can they offer them here, but not elsewhere? Lilly-Marie Schmidt, Director Food & Packaging Supplier Management at Rational, knows the answer. “The Arena offers French fries prepared in our oven using Air Fry technology. That makes all the difference. For thousands of servings of fries, you would otherwise need an industrial-sized conveyor fryer. But you can’t just simply set one up in a stadium.” She adds, “Besides, I think we’ve all experienced how deep-fried French fries get soggy after just a few minutes.” Those made in an air fryer, however, stay fresh and crispy for a long time. And this raises the next question: What exactly is behind the trendy term “air fry ”?
Air fry with the combi oven
The term “air fry ” literally means “air frying,” but is more commonly referred to as “hot air frying.” By using convection, air circulation and strong air circulation, this technology not only cooks food carefully, it also ensures that food remains in the same state as when it comes out of a professional oven, even if it is left standing for a long time. The cooking systems mentioned by Lilly-Marie Schmidt that “make all the difference” are combi-steamers such as the Rational iCombi Pro. Indeed, they have become indispensable in professional gastronomy. An air fry pioneer, Rational brings a decisive know-how advantage, as Schmidt is well aware. “We were actually the first to launch an air fry cooking system that can also function as a hot air fryer for the gastronomy industry. The decisive factor is an even distribution of hot air throughout the cooking cabinet, as well as a high level of ventilation. Our cooking systems do both. This means we can guarantee the product will be really good. After all, food service is always about uniformity. And that’s exactly what we can ensure with our combi ovens and the technology they provide.”
80 % less fat – thanks to convection technology
Air fry also delivers something else: up to 80 percent less fat. The advantages are clear – especially from a health perspective. Numerous studies have confirmed the higher health risk associated with regularly consuming food prepared in a conventional oil fryer. With air fry, the products in question –whether fries, chicken nuggets, falafels or mozzarella sticks– are simply pre-fried and then cooked fat-free on a grid, such as the Rational CombiFry basket. This process even reduces the amount of fat still present in the product, which ultimately leads to the food having a lower calorie content.
Image: Rational
Air fry: Less effort – lower costs
This process offers additional key advantages for restaurateurs. Namely, those which have precisely caused the most difficultly to businesses in these days of energy crisis, inflation and the skilled workers shortage: in the commercial sector, as Lilly-Marie Schmidt explains. “If I use a deep-fat fryer in my professional kitchen, I need a powerful exhaust air system. Not only does this involve acquisition costs, it also causes problems with local residents because of the unpleasant odors. In addition, there’s lots of ongoing work and costs involved, because the system has to be constantly degreased and maintained. That alone costs time and money. And that’s not taking the actual cleaning of the deep fryer into account, nor the investment in purchasing, storing and disposing the oil, not to mention the electricity costs involved.” A professional combi-steamer, on the other hand, can be cleaned and made ready for use again in just 15 to 20 minutes, according to Schmidt. This alone means a saving in personnel costs as well as increased safety. After all, hot air fryers or cooking systems with an air fry setting do not require employees to constantly handle hot oil.
Combi oven instead of deep fryer
Another advantage of a combi oven with air fry technology: you can prepare different products together without the risk of allergen and flavor transfer. If traditional deep-frying is used, there should be a separate deep-fat fryer for each type of food. This means one for fries, one for seafood, one for meat and one for desserts. This is for the reason to ensure that allergens and flavors are not spread from one food to another. The limited capacity of a conventional professional deep fryer is another factor. For example, once a portion of fries has been placed in the deep fryer, you can’t simply add another. That’s why restaurants and caterers need to purchase several deep fryers along with additional equipment. It goes without saying that this involves a great deal of time and money.
“A standard deep-fat fryer might make one kilo of fries,” explains Lilly-Marie Schmidt. “Even our smallest combi oven cooking system, the iCombi Pro XS, has six racks. For optimal results, we recommend a maximum load of five racks with 700 grams of fries each. In total, around three and a half kilos – which are ready in no more than ten minutes. And with each additional order I can add a new rack even while fries are already in the cooking system. This means I don’t have to wait until the first portion is ready, like I would with an oil fryer. Ultimately, this saves a huge amount of time and increases productivity.” Since you can also bake pizza, bread rolls or cakes, not to mention grill chicken and steam vegetables in the combi-steamer, you no longer need a lot of other kitchen equipment. By using this cooking systems, gastronomy businesses can therefore significantly reduce their overall costs.
Image: Rational
People want fat-free deep-fried food
And not just for that. Wherever many people need to be provided with food in a short amount of time, such as at buffets, it is ideal to use a hot-air fryer or a combi oven with air fry. This includes company restaurants, canteens, at schools and universities, in hotels, even at hot counters in supermarkets. You will hardly ever find food deep-fried in fat or oil there because it loses its consistency/crispiness within a very short time – like the French fries we mentioned earlier. In the meantime, food manufacturers have come up with numerous product innovations that offer customers an optimum taste experience and crispiness, including through hot-air frying.
Because one thing is clear: People don’t want to completely do without fried foods such as chips, schnitzel and the like. However, a growing number also want low-calorie, healthy food. Air frying provides a solution to this apparent contradiction. Hot-air preparation also proves that reducing fat does not necessarily mean reducing quality. In fact, the opposite is true. You can serve products that are simply better because they taste as good as they are supposed to taste for longer.
Just like in the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Here, spectators in the stadium (which officially bears the “neutral” name Arena AufSchalke for the European Championships) get their money’s worth, at least in culinary terms.
