More than 70,000 industry professionals converged on McCormick Place in Chicago, for the 100th National Restaurant Association Show, which ran May 18-21. Manufacturers and suppliers displayed their newest products and services across more than 700,000 square feet of exhibit space, along with the newest technology and innovation in the marketplace. 

More than 100 high performance and energy-efficient commercial kitchen products from ITW Food Equipment Group brands like Hobart, Baxter, Traulsen, Vulcan, Wolf, Berkel, Stero and Somat were showcased during the National Restaurant Association Show 2019.

New to this year’s show is the introduction of Centerline by Hobart, featuring the Centerline HMM20 Standard Heavy-Duty 20-Quart Mixer and the Centerline CUH HighTemperature Undercounter Dishwasher. Hobart also introduced its new line of HS Series portion scale slicers, which save retail foodservice operations time, resources and the need for separate pieces of slicing and weighing equipment.

Traulsen gave show visitors a chance to check out R-Series refrigeration units featuring the new StayClear Condensers for reduced maintenance and the next generation Smart Control for ease of use. Trauslen also featured its glycol prep table, best-in-class blast chillers, and ENERGY STAR certified reach-in and compact refrigerators.

Baxter recently introduced VersaOven, which combines the best features of rotisserie, steam, convection and combi cooking into one space-saving design in addition to self-cleaning capability. For the first time, Baxter introduced its new BC100E five-pan electric convection oven with a self-contained steam system.

Visitors to the Middleby brands at the National Restaurant Association Show experienced foodservice concept solutions. Middleby’s leading technologies were displayed in the following concepts: casual dining, two concepts of burger bar ventless applications, delivery, soup, grocery, bar, convenience store, bakery and fine dining.

Middleby demonstrated Middleby Connect, its IoT Cloud solution, to further demonstrate the benefits of a connected Middleby kitchen. With Middleby Connect, foodservice operators can perform data-driven analysis, monitor equipment health and distribute recipes on a global scale.

Perfect for bakery and dessert professionals, the Vitamix Aerating Container is ideal for finessing delicate blends like emulsions, culinary foams, whipped cream, meringue and more. From oxidizing citrus juice to making large batches of foam, the disc blade provides an easy way to create new textures. For use with The Quiet One, Blending Station Advance, Vita-Prep, and Vita-Prep 3. And the Vitamix disc blade features a design that creates dense and pourable culinary foam, flavored whipped cream, mousse, infusions, and emulsions with minimal splashing.

Additionally, during the National Restaurant Association show, Alto-Shaam corporate executive chefs demonstrated how Vector H Series Multi-Cook Ovens provide efficient, high-quality food production in the smallest footprint. Vector allows simultaneous, high-quality preparation of a wide variety of food. Thanks to exclusive Structured Air Technology, each chamber has independent temperature, fan speed and cook time control, which allows operators to cook up to four different food items simultaneously with no flavor transfer.