Al Scalleat can close his eyes and remember the first time he smelled the wafting aroma of melting, sharp Parmesan cheese and tasted the bright, fresh basil on the best slice of pizza that ever crossed his lips. He was in Brooklyn, New York, eating at the world-famous Di Fara Pizza about 10 years ago.
“I never forgot that pizza,” recalled Scalleat, now 72. “It took me years to try and convince the owner, Domenico De Marco, to share the recipe with me.”
The food service entrepreneur lived in Las Vegas and wanted to open a restaurant that featured pizza exactly like Di Fara’s. He had the recipe. He even analyzed the water in Brooklyn in order to come as close as possible to Brooklyn water for the cooking. What he did not have was the right commercial oven that could help him duplicate the transcendent pizza made by an antique Baker’s Pride gas oven in New York.
Fortunately for Scalleat, his local utility, Southwest Gas, has a state-of-the-art-demonstration center and test kitchen for the food service industry, featuring the newest natural gas equipment. The Southwest Gas Corp. Food Service Demonstration Center invites chefs, caterers and restaurant general managers for hands-on experience, allowing them to “test-drive” equipment from a number of manufacturers before making purchases.
Lorri Davidson, a trade partnership specialist for SW Gas, said Scalleat spent several months at the demonstration center, working on dough and sauce recipes and using different ovens to create the mouthwatering pie. The key, said Davidson, was the commercial gas oven. It was one of the biggest costs for Scalleat’s new restaurant, so it had to be right.
“The demonstration center allowed Scalleat to stay true to his unique tastes and quality by helping him find the best natural gas equipment for the job,” said Davidson. “Our goal is to promote the efficient use of natural gas. The demonstration center allows those in the food service industry to test different natural gas commercial equipment and find the best fit for their needs.”
Scalleat said the test kitchen was extremely helpful and saved him money in the end by guaranteeing he had the right equipment to give him the results he wanted.
The SW Gas demonstration center is one of only a half-dozen such utility test kitchens throughout the United States. Working with them is Tina Read, manager of commercial & industrial markets for the Energy Solutions Center, a nonprofit organization comprised of energy utilities and equipment manufacturers that promotes energy-efficient natural gas solutions and systems for residential, commercial and industrial energy users. A consortium of the ESC is the Gas Foodservice Equipment Network, whose goal is to help food service operators improve productivity, efficiency and profitability.
Read collaborates with the demonstration and test kitchens to provide support and help promote the use of natural gas in commercial kitchens, which is a key market segment.
“The center educates and trains both utility staff and energy customers about the role natural gas can play in meeting customer efficiency, conservation and environmental goals and objectives,” Read said. “As a consortium, we pool our resources [and] introduce new, energy-efficient natural gas solutions to thousands of end users seeking to increase productivity, reliability, efficiency and comfort.”
Cooking Up Opportunity
According to Read, more than a million buildings in North America house some type of commercial or institutional food service, including restaurants, bars, fast-food chains, cafeterias, hotels, motels, long-term care facilities, institutional operations and more. More than 100 manufacturers are producing around 600 models of gas-fired kitchen appliances, and at any given time, many of those models may be in a utility’s test kitchen, waiting to be fired up. These include:
Alagasco: The Center for Energy Technology in Birmingham, Alabama, offers equipment users, decision-makers and trade allies access to a demonstration/showroom area where they can observe and test the latest natural gas equipment in real-world applications.
CenterPoint Energy: Located in Minneapolis, CenterPoint’s Foodservice Learning Center provides professional consultation and hands-on training, educational materials and workshops.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: Based in San Ramon, California, PG&E’s Food Service Technology Center is operated by energy consulting firm Frontier Energy Inc. (formerly Fisher-Nickel) and provides a demonstration kitchen, seminars, and energy and efficiency programs for commercial kitchens. PG&E has been a strategic partner with Fisher-Nickel since 1987, which recently merged with Bevilacqua-Knight Inc. and Davis Energy Group to form Frontier Energy.
Piedmont Natural Gas: The utility operates three centers in Charlotte, North Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee. The centers provide equipment testing and brand comparisons, training workshops, techniques for cooking with gas, and efficiency comparisons.
San Diego Gas & Electric: The Commercial Demonstration Kitchen offers equipment demonstration and testing, rebates and classes.
Southern California Gas: The Foodservice Technology Center is located in Downey, California, and offers seminars and test drives of more than 150 pieces of equipment.
Southwest Gas: Located in Las Vegas and Phoenix, the centers provide hands-on experience with natural gas-fueled kitchen equipment, seminars and cooking techniques.
David Zabrowski, vice president of Fisher-Nickel, said restaurants and industrial kitchens can use a great deal of energy in their kitchens, and trying to find the most efficient methods to prepare large amounts of food at the most affordable cost is key to profitability. Commercial gas ovens can be expensive, added Zabrowski, who is an active member of GFEN. By allowing hands-on testing for the food service industry, customers can ultimately save a lot of money, time and effort in the kitchen.
“If you are buying the top-of-the-line car, you would test drive it, kick the tires, maybe look at the fuel efficiency and do the research,” Zabrowski said. “These test kitchens are providing that experience and it’s free of charge. We are a neutral party providing equipment for customers to test while at the same time promoting the usage of natural gas as the most efficient way to cook.”
In addition, restaurants are facing rising costs with higher minimum wages, health insurance and product prices, so any savings to reduce cost in the kitchen is helpful, said Janel Rupp, workforce education and training manager for PG&E. All PG&E customers who run commercial kitchens are welcome to test equipment, prepare their own recipes and even take classes.
Natural Gas Preferred
A few years ago, the Energy Solutions Center hired Fryett Consulting Group to survey chefs from 41 states about their preferred method of cooking. An astonishing 98 percent chose natural gas. More than 93 percent cited “consistent and even control of heat,” “gas is faster” and “better cooking results.” Survey results further revealed that chefs preferred natural gas for:
It’s these kinds of responses that are driving the success of the test kitchens. “It’s all about increased production, higher quality and speed,” said Ann Lovcik, Foodservice Energy Efficiency consultant at CenterPoint Energy. “Natural gas is the best energy choice for [a chef’s] food service operation, providing shorter cook times and energy savings with efficient natural gas commercial ovens.”
All of the test/demo kitchen managers are focused on assisting the end-use customer in choosing the equipment that best fits their menu needs and operates most efficiently, said Lovcik. Customers may come to the test kitchens, for example, to try out high-efficiency fryers that retain heat better and have a faster recovery time, batch after batch.
Manufacturers of commercial kitchen equipment are also on board, working with utilities’ food kitchen staff to train them on the fryers, ovens, steam equipment, broilers, ovens and ranges. Although all of the test kitchens are a neutral site and don’t promote one particular brand, staff must have a working knowledge of all the brands in order to assist customers with individual needs.
Turning Up Efficiency and Savings
Lovcik and Zabrowski said hotel chains, food chains and institutions such as hospitals and prisons don’t often know about the test kitchens, so it’s important to get the word out. When millions of dollars could be at stake, buying the right natural gas equipment is critical for cost savings.
Those savings include both equipment rebates and the energy savings of natural gas itself, said Melissa Marks, Food Service Center manager for Southern California Gas. “Once customers recognize the savings, it makes a great deal of economic sense to look strongly at natural gas in the kitchen,” said Marks.
U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis found that out firsthand. The sports stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings, discovered that natural gas equipment maximized value and efficiency in its massive food service operation. Working with the CenterPoint Energy Learning Center, the stadium utilized gas equipment rebates and saved the stadium owners more than $37,000 for gas equipment. The facility also discovered savings with gas fryers. One gas fryer used five hours per day cost $3.60. An electric fryer cost $11 for the same time period. Those kinds of savings add up.
“We need to get the food service industry more involved,” said Lovcik. “In some cases, these institutions could save 25 percent by testing and finding the right natural gas equipment. In addition, many utilities are offering rebates from $15 to $2,000 to help offset the initial purchasing price.”
While that amount may not sound like much, imagine those rebates multiplied, for example, over several hundred pieces of equipment. “It’s worth getting involved and getting the word out,” she added.
For those in the food service industry, GFEN is offering a Food Service Workshop, April 4–6, at the Charlotte Natural Gas Technology Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The workshop is hosted by Piedmont Natural Gas. For registration and agenda, go to www.gfen.com/meetings-and-events.
