H2O Road Test: Kick the tyres

As part of our Road Test series, Steve Bell from the award-winning Yellow Bicycle Café turns up the heat on Merrychef’s brand-new conneX® 12 oven and panini press...

Our parent company, H2O Publishing, has been undertaking a series of Road Tests recently, with some of the industry’s finest chefs taking the latest products and equipment for a spin. The project was designed to give the finest suppliers a chance to shine, by taking their creations and seeing how they fare in a professional kitchen environment.

Once we heard about Merrychef’s new conneX® 12, we realised it was time for OOH to get in on the action. Not only is it a revolutionary platform designed specifically for the café and coffee shop sector, but its brand-new panini press really is a game-changer too.

“The panini press is incredibly easy to use,” a spokesperson for Merrychef explains. “It couldn’t be simpler to create food with perfect grill marks and help to create the perfect looking panini in less than 40 seconds.”

Another advantage is that it’s extremely easy to take in and out of the oven. “It simply replaces the cook plate and sits on the internal cavity stubs, so it doesn’t stop you using your oven when the panini press is not in use.”

The conneX® 12 boasts a striking design in stainless steel or carbon black, and a 7” high-definition operating controller that is as intuitive to use as a mobile phone. “Easy and quick to install, the conneX® range takes high-speed ovens to the next level with its ventless, compact and cool-touch sides. The oven slides effortlessly into small spaces and can operate from a low-amp plug, which results in a quiet and energy-efficient product.”

Needing someone to put Merrychef to the test, we immediately thought of our old friend Steve Bell from the Yellow Bicycle Café in Blandford Forum in Dorset. Not only was he a winner at our 2018 National Breakfast Awards, he also returned for the next two years to judge the competition. All that and Steve regularly changes up his menu with specials that he cooks up from scratch at his café’s counter, so we knew he was the perfect man to put the equipment to the test.

How did you find participating in the Road Test?
I just had to knock my griddle out for the trial, then work out if I could still turn out my normal base menu. It turned out the only difference was I had to make pancakes in the frying pan. Everything else I was able to adapt.

Great stuff, and what new dishes were you able to come up with?
Being asparagus season, we created an asparagus, Cheddar and sweet chilli toastie. It went on the specials board and went down a storm with the customers. It worked really well visually as well.

I also made a breakfast pizza. I used sweet chilli again, local sausages and bacon, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and an egg. That was great because if you use the programme with the combination of the oven and the fan, you can cook a perfect egg where the white is cooked and you still have a runny yolk. You just have to remember to spike it because it’s a microwave as well.

It sounds like it all went well then?
Yes, it was just really straightforward, even doing my normal menu. There are certain things that the oven is superb for, such as bacon, which comes out lovely and crisp on the edges.

In terms of reheating, the one thing for the breakfasts that I pre-prep is the sausages, which I slow-cook in the oven until they’re cooked but not coloured. For something like that, if you use the machine, you get a lovely colour on the top of the sausage and it puts stripes on them.

It also produced the best looking toastie we have ever done. That’s the one thing I’ve been missing – you get those lovely lines across the top. I was doing my normal toast in there too, so people were getting those lovely stripes and what looks like a chargrilled effect.

     

What was your overall impression of the equipment?
If you use it for what it’s designed to do, it’s an awesome piece of kit. I’d say it produces a perfect toastie in 60 seconds every single time.

In terms of reheating pre-prepped stuff, again it’s superb because it’s really fast. Plus you’ve got control of that combination of making sure that the inside is heated back up properly and putting controllable colour on the outside.

What would you tell someone who is considering using this equipment in an OOH environment?
It’s great because of the speed, because with my normal equipment, I can’t produce a panini in 60 seconds.

For takeaways offerings, which are just starting to pick up for the summer, if someone wants a couple of toasties, in the past they were competing for space, so it would be difficult. With this, it’s fantastic, ‘Yeah, sure, I can do two toasties’.

For somewhere like a Costa, where they are already made up, they’ll be in and out in no time. Also, they’re perfect and I don’t have to worry about it, because the machine is on a timer and it tells you when it’s done. I can put it in and forget about it until it starts beeping. It’s fool-proof. As long as you press the right button, you can’t go wrong.