Has anyone use this oven or know about it? Turbochef hhc3240

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone used or heard about Turbochef model hhc3240. I’m looking for an oven that can cook a pizza in three minutes. I searched all over the web for info, but I guess it’s still relatively new (2008) for reviews. I’m offered a used one for a good price, but don’t know it’s dependability or real world performance. Any helpful suggestions? Can I do better, for say $10,000? thanks

1st question is…why do you want to cook a pizza in just 3 minutes???

If you are a delivery operation, you’ll kill the drivers quickly & have pies stacking up waiting…

If you are a sit-down restaurant, you’ll never sell any starter courses, as the entree pizza will arrive too early…

Many speedy cooked pies will not develop a great flavor crust…

Yes, coal ovens are quick, but you also get a desirable char/smoke flavor taste…

No, if yer doing a QSR thing, consider the TurboChef that Subway & the like use, but…

Consider just a good deck oven and a super thin crust with little cheese & sauce…

Patriot’sPizza » Tue Nov 23, 2010 5:54 am

States:

1st question is…why do you want to cook a pizza in just 3 minutes???

If you are a delivery operation, you’ll kill the drivers quickly & have pies stacking up waiting…

If you are a sit-down restaurant, you’ll never sell any starter courses, as the entree arrives too early…

Many speedy cooked pies will not develop a great flavor crust.

I agree with Patriot, Most of the chains and high quality shops we have equipped specify 6 min some 5.5 min as a minimum bake time.

Perhaps not a perfect product comparison but think of a stew. You could take th stew ingredients toss them in a bowl and zap them with a micro wave. The product would be heated to proper serving temp but it would not taste like a stew. To a great degree the same is so with a pizza it appears that slower baking gives the flavors time to blend an produces a better final product.

That some folks prefer pizza baked extremely fast is no doubt a fact but I think the vast majority of successful pizza shops bake slower. There are regional preferences to be considered also.

George Mills

Disney (florida)and universal studios use these ovens as well as Hollywood casino in Indiana. They also use a par baked crust, I have ate the pizza and nothing to write home about but it works for them , I do have a turbo chef, but not for pizzas, its awesome wayyyyyy better than a microwave, so fast its great for bread sticks and wings, subs and more…when my oven has been down its a very bad back up, first you can only get 1 pizza in at a time and 3 minutes doesn’t work, you have to back off the micro wave and use full convection, 6 minutes…to get a QUALITY pie. I recently bought a deck oven for my back up. PIZZAS look terrible but if you are in an airport or a stadium some place where you cant get ventilation, may work for you

First, thank you everyone for responding.

I have a pizza restaurant in a mall, kind of like Sbarro if anyone’s familiar. I have a deck oven and we sell by the slices. Problem is,it’s difficult to sell fresh quality pizza when it’s not bake to order. Many times, we sell slices that have been sitting for half an hour to an hour. Food waste control is also difficult because we throw away pizza that have been sitting past the hour. I want to sell personal sizes, like 8" or 10". To control cost and deliver a fresh product.

Mall customers are not patient enough to wait the full 7-10 minutes to bake a pie, especially the holidays. Hence I need it in three minutes. We don’t do delivery as well, just dine in.

I know the product won’t be as good as slow cook. But I was hoping technology was far enough where a fast bake will put out a good pizza. Not great, but good.

I think a fast bake pie is better than one that has been sitting for even 20 minutes.

CiCi’s has a standard of 25 minute hold time for buffet pies…

set your own standard and stick to it…

keep doing slices, as they will reheat quicker than a fresh back…

if you are using 16"-18" pies, consider making them 1/2 & 1/2 or some similar division…don’t fully bake them, as they will look better

Prep some skins ahead of time so you can sauce/top & go…

Tom has an interesting recent article regarding slices…

add a few sprinkles of fresh mozzarella before you toss it back in the oven for a reheat - it will make it look ‘fresher’ for the guest…

use a fresh pack sauce - it won’t darken as much as reconstituted products do…

find a cheese that reheats well, won’t ‘yellow’ & won’t oil excessively

you can add some TIC/gum to the dough & the crust will have a longer shelf life as well, but its quite expensive & won’t add to the ‘eye’ appeal

there is more profit potential in slices vrs 8" pies…

It’s embarrassing to say and I know you guys would give me heat for this. But my holding standard is 1.5 hours. I would love to keep my product fresher, but the mall I’m in is very slow and I would go out of business if I shorten the holding time.

Even if I could shorten the holding time to say one hour or half an hour, reheating the slice doesn’t taste as good as fresh bake. BIG difference, and I’ve tried many different methods. Reheating hardens the crust, dries the topping, and the cheese is no longer as stretchy. My goal is to improve food quality when the customer orders, not how fresh it looks, which I know is important as well.

A lot of the times, I’m only baking half pies as well. But with a 7-10 minutes baking time, and having to deal with sporadic rushes especially during lunch and dinner time, it’s difficult to control waste food and quality.

I know there is a greater profit margin for slices, but I believe higher quality from freshly baked pizza will bring in more returning satisfied customers.

If yer pie looks like garbage, then it won’t sell & you’ll still have waste…holding pizza that long - I wouldn’t eat there & it sounds like many of your potential customers won’t either…

You might try taking down the display/selection & go to a menu board alone & then just keep a cheese pie(s) hidden/on-the-make-line for the slices…

you contradict yourself…too busy then too slow…which is it…you can’t keep up because you can’t toss/sauce & bake quick enough? I’m not trying 2b an a$$…maybe your business model is wrong for that location, or the location is wrong 4 pizza…

read Tom’s article on slices…slices will never be as-good-as freshly baked & folks know this, but it sounds like your dough formula needs a bit 'o tweaking and your methodology needs tweaking as well…

Subway serves inferior pizza (I’m told…) You can join their bandwagon & serve a poor product, or you can buckle down & do a slice operation with little waste…

if you do a 16" pie cut into 6ths & can’t sell it in an hour, maybe slices aren’t what you should be doing…

Think Chipolte or Moe’s - use a flat/pannini product & twist your pizza theme on it, ala minute…

Whoa. With a post count as high as you, I expected a little more manner and professionalism. Please refrain from quick judgment and insult towards others you hardly know.

I operate a franchise, there’s very little I can do different operationally. I can only do my best within the system. The first year in business, everything was good. Business was brisk and quality was high, around half an hour holding time for sure. Then the economy tanked, and we lost a major mall anchor, Gottschalk. Business has slowed down terribly bad. I have a choice of either trying to stay in business, or close my doors. I have invested everything into this restaurant.

No one, including myself, wants to put out and leave a shitty product. But the business model of selling by the slices already cooked, doesn’t work well when there’s very little customers for an entire food court. That’s why my plan is to sell personal sizes. Reduce wasted food cost and increase quality. My franchise agreement is expiring real soon, that’s why I’m thinking of positive changes when I go independent.

Have you ever operated or seen a pizza restaurant like Sbarro? We don’t just carry regular slices of pizza. We also have stuff pizza, thick/thin crust pizza, calzone, and stromboli. It’s not as simple as trying to sell one pizza of six slices in an hour.

And I’m not contradicting myself as to how busy or slow the restaurant is. Even though the mall is very slow, we still get small busy rushes when it’s lunch and dinner hours, like any other restaurant. And while I may not be a pizza making champion, I am reasonably fast enough to stretch, sauce, and cheese a pie. But then what? When whatever rush is over, I’m also left with leftover pies. It’s not as simple as being able to sell six slices in an hour. What happens when a customer wants a combination and I don’t have it? They could walk away. If I make them one, I now have five slices I need to sell in addition.

I don’t want to join Subway ‘bandwagon’. I’ve tried their pizza cooked in 90 seconds and frankly it sucks. I’ve done some research and was led to believed that today’s conveyor belt oven with their newest technology puts out quality pizza at a very fast time. Most of the major pizza franchises like Domino’s uses conveyor belt oven. Papa John uses Middleby Wow conveyor belt ovens that bakes a pie in three minutes as well.

Heck, read this article by Tom Lehmann, Dough Doctor, (http://www.lincolnfp.com/docs/uploaded/ … monial.pdf). He said the new Lincoln conveyor belt oven put out very high quality pies in four minutes flat.

By the way, my pie don’t look like garbage or taste like shit. It may not have a fresh look or tastes great, but once reheated, it looks and tastes good enough. I consistently try all my food product to be sure.

people eat with their eyes…no offense given or meant…

Sometimes ready to go operations pay too much attention to food cost…Let me try to explain…One of our local donut chains is so focused on food cost they never seem to have enough donuts to sell…Now I am a person that wants what I want or I leave…No matter how low your food cost is, you can not make a profit on a sale you do not make…

So I am a fan of putting out more selection even if it results in waste…I will try to explain how this helps…

Say your food cost on slices is 20%…And you sell 400.00 (100 slices at 4.00) over a period of time…So your food cost is 80.00 (0.80 per slice)…Your contribution is 320.00

By putting out 50% more slices you increase your sales to 500.00 but you waste 1/2 of the extra slices…So you make 150 slices (including the 25 you waste)…Your food cost is 120.00…But contribution is 380.00 even though your actual food cost has gone up to 24%…

Your numbers will vary but I hope it illustrates the point I am trying to make…

PS…I have also slice operations that sell old slices for less…But that is penny wise and pound foolish…You lose the contribution on a full price sale which may be more on 1 slice at full price versus many slices at a reduced price…Now at the end of the day it may be worthwhile but not in good selling hours…

Good luck…