Have just returned from a holiday involving stays at two members of leading world-wide chains. Neither could solve the problem of producing enough hot breakfast toast for the 200-300 people who wanted simulatneously. They each had a machine that runs a sort of treadmill through an open oven. There were long queues at each, no-one was happy :mad:
Anybody ever seen something better, otherwise I’m going to go out and invent one, and grow rich and famous ( :rolleyes: or at least a lot fatter in the testing phases :rolleyes: ).
Seeing as how the continous conveyor system is probably the most efficent method around (since there is basically no manual intervention - drop the toast in one end, toast comes out the other), and how other methods of, er, ‘toasting’ (real big UV lamps? flash toasting?) probably wouldn’t lead to great tasting toast, and assuming the hotel doesn’t want 50 toaster units lying around all day (except during peak breakfast hours), what do you propose?
Only way I see, have an employee man the conveyor oven(s) to ensure a steady stream of toast for the masses. How impatient were these crowds ?
Part of the trouble is, toast doesn’t “hold” well. It turns in moments from magical crispy delight to limp disrag consistency. If you could invent something to keep the toast at its best, then you can be rich and famous. Or fat. (j/k)
Toast racks that hold the toast vertically (as seen in all most UK hotels I’ve stayed at) stop the toast going soggy through condensation of it’s own steam, but of course they don’t keep it hot (I don’t find this a problem as I like my toast crisp but cold)
I cannot remember where (Italy or Germany?) but I once went to a small hotel that did indeed have a toaster at every breakfast table. They also had pot warmers for coffee and tea at the tables as well.
The real solution is to convince the majority of those 200-300 folks that they’d rather have a biscuit or roll or pastry or some other breakfast bread that more easily lends itself to mass production.
I once worked at a hotel which had only one toaster in the breakfast area for all of the guests. Admittedly, there were only 60 rooms, but the line sometimes stretched back through the lobby. As the front desk clerk, I was the recepient of many dirty looks and angry comments.
bcullman - you have hit the head on the nail. The secret will be to find some way of dropping toast in one end - so that all it has to do is warm up and crisp up. Something like the equivalent of par-boiled rice.
?
