Convenience and efficiency are key words to describe the latest innovations in bakery oven and cooking equipment for bakeries and foodservice operations.

Winner of a best new product award at Europain 2018, the software tool MIWE shop baking suite (MIWE sbs) allows you to manage, monitor and synchronize your baking systems’ data remotely and to benefit from the opportunities of networked systems. Consisting of interconnected modules, the software suite represents an extremely versatile toolbox for not only branch and regional managers, but also master bakers, administrators and quality managers.

MIWE sbs allows you to map your own organizational structure and to centrally manage and distribute your baking programs, so that all ovens belonging to the same profile can be supplied with the same information at the click of a button. A regional manager can thus easily organize baking operations in all branches, such as setting the autostart or cleaning times or deciding which image is to be shown in eco mode.

Baxter is introducing the VersaOven, a new type of kitchen equipment that combines the best features of rotisserie, convection and combi ovens into a space-saving oven category all its own. Built with patent-pending technology to offer versatility, performance and intuitive operation, the VersaOven enables cooking, baking and steaming without the difficulty of operation that can come with combi ovens, or the arduous cleanup that can be a hallmark of convection ovens.

“The Baxter VersaOven is truly unique because it handles so many kinds of food and styles of cooking with terrific results,” says chef Michelle Bridges, Baxter’s manager of bakery/culinary support. “Cooks of all skill and experience levels can easily use the VersaOven to cook racks of rotisserie-style chicken, steam vegetables and bake moist, flavorful cakes.”

The National Restaurant Association recently announced recipients of the 2018 Kitchen Innovations (KI) Awards, honoring progressive equipment that increases efficiencies and productivity for back-of-the-house operations and benefits restaurant operators. Each recipient and their product will be showcased in the interactive Kitchen Innovations Showroom at the 2018 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, to be held May 19-22 in Chicago at McCormick Place.

The 2018 KI Award recipients reflect the trends and topics most important to foodservice operators today. The 22 selected innovations address operator concerns from labor, energy and water efficiency to food safety, sanitation, cross-functionality and space-saving. New software and new materials continue to make new solutions possible.

The 2018 Kitchen Innovations Award recipients in baking and cooking include the following:

Alto-Shaam, Inc.
Vector F Series Multi-Cook Oven 
Features larger chambers to accept full size sheet or hotel pans.

Antunes
GST-1H Flatbread-Toaster
Wide-mouth loading and dual platens located inside dual conveyor belts heat a variety of products consistently.

Evo, Inc. 
MultiZone Plancha 
Offers three independent cooking zones, each separated with IsoBar technology, which mitigates temperature carryover.

Markov
Level RF Oven
Employs radio frequency cooking to cook foods to prescribed standards for internal temperature, surface doneness, etc.

Marra Forni
Electric Brick Oven with Open Mouth 
Provides cooking temps up to 1000°F, cooking a pizza in 45 seconds.