Contact grills: how to choose them?

Contact grills, which many people associate with Italian sandwiches (paninis), are among the most common items of equipment in restaurants, cafés, kebab shops and other catering establishments. If you are looking for a similar grill, you may have noticed that there are many different types of them on the market. According to kitchen professionals, the key thing is that the food cooks evenly and the equipment is easy to clean and reliable. This article describes the technical features that determine such criteria.

WHAT IS A CONTACT GRILL?

A contact grill is designed to heat, bake and toast various foods: meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, bread, or the aforementioned panini sandwiches. Its distinctive feature is the compression technology. When firmly compressed, the cooked food is juicy and looks beautifully brown on the outside, even without the use of additional fat. These grills are essential for many cafés, especially fast-food restaurants, including lots of kebab shops.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A CONTACT GRILL?

Contact grills are available in many different types, so it is best to choose yours according to the needs of your restaurant. For example, the cooking surface of the grill can be:

• Smooth. These grills have a large cooking and heating area; therefore, dishes and ingredients are heated very evenly.
• Grooved. These grills are among the most popular for several reasons. The food cooked in them is slightly leaner because some of the fat seeping out of the food escapes through the grooves in the plate. The food pressed on such plates also has a distinctive look, with the markings of the grooves visible on it.
• Mixed. These are the grills that usually have a flat plate at the bottom and a grooved plate at the top. When the plates are different, they ensure even temperature distribution and cooking speed and leave grill marks on the food. Some contact grills have interchangeable plates, so you can use different combinations of plates for different dishes.

Because the plates are in direct contact with the food, it is important to assess the safety and properties of the materials from which they are made. This will ensure that your frequently used grill will remain a reliable professional tool for a long time.

Grill plates are usually made of:

• Cast iron. The advantage of this material is that the longer and more often it is used, the better the cooking result. Cast iron plates heat up somewhat more slowly and require preparation in the very beginning of use. However, if you plan to use your grill very often, this choice will definitely pay off.
• Ceramic coating. Ceramic material is easy to maintain, slippery, resistant to high temperatures, it does not get burnt and is very convenient. This makes ceramic-coated grills slightly more expensive, but long-lasting and of high quality.
• Aluminium. A contact grill with aluminium plates is a great choice if it is not going to be the main tool in a professional kitchen. The advantage of this grill is that the plate heats up very quickly, which will help you heat up your food in no time.

WHAT ARE THE MOST USEFUL FUNCTIONS OF GRILLS?

We mentioned key features of contact grills. Now let’s take a look at some of the additional features. Some of them can be indispensable for your professional kitchen. Before buying a grill, consider the following aspects:

• Power. The more powerful the grill, the faster it will heat up and cook your food.
• Size. Grills are available in single and double sizes. In a double grill, you can heat and/or cook more different dishes at the same time.
• Timer function. A timer helps you to control how long your food is cooked to ensure it’sdone perfectly every time.
• Tray for grease and cooking residues. Almost all contact grills have a special tray that collects the fat seeping from the food. Pay attention to the material the tray is made of, whether the tray is large enough, whether the grease protection layer comes off and whether it is easy to wash.
• Energy-saving mode. This is useful when you don’t want to turn the grill off completely, but you also don’t need to keep it on full power.
• Thermostat. The heating temperature of contact grills ranges from 0 °C to 300 °C. If you are using a double contact grill, each unit will have its own thermostat. We recommend to check whether the grill has an automatic temperature setting function.
• Cleaning. Please note whether it will be easy to take care of the hygiene of the grill, whether the plates are removable and whether they can be washed in a dishwasher. You may also want to check in advance if the equipment can be cleaned with a cooking chamber and grill cleaner and scrubbed with a grill scraper.

WHICH MANUFACTURERS PRODUCE THE MOST RELIABLE KITCHEN APPLIANCES?

Quality restaurant or café equipment saves time for staff and helps to delight customers. To ensure that all your kitchen equipment works flawlessly, we recommend to trust professional kitchen equipment of world-renowned manufacturers, such as Bartscher, Silex, Fimar, POTIS or Neumärker.

And if you are planning to have more grilled dishes in your restaurant or café, take a look at the AUDORES products, which includes lava stone grills, charcoal grills, kebab grills, grills with stands, sausage grills, and other food heating devices.