Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/143040
Foster Frable 60 Years Ago Was the Golden Age of Foodservice Equipment– Why Not Today! By Foster Frable Jr., Clevenger Frable LaVallee fosterf@cfldesign.com ohn Hain's "Do you remember?" list on page 16 certainly shows how far some facets of our industry have changed over the past 50-75 years. Changes in the heavy equipment side of the business, however, have not necessarily kept pace with the progress in other comparable businesses. When the product offerings in our industry are compared to the progress of other industries servicing businesses and institutions, our line has remained quite static. As an example, think about what office equipment distributors sold 30 or 40 years ago—small business photocopiers, scanners, tablets, and computers weren't even in the catalogs! Compare our equipment to tremendous changes that have occurred in supermarket display cases, packaging and refrigeration. Almost every piece of equipment in today's supermarket, except maybe the meat saw,is radically different from the food market 50 years ago. In our industry, the basic processes of food storage, preparation, cooking, baking, frying, sautéing, broiling, and warewashing have remained essentially the same.This point is really brought home when one takes a tour of a 1930s or '40s era warship restored to its original condition. Tour the control room, engine room, even the laundry: The equipment that's there would be completely unrecognizable when compared to installations on a new vessel.The only area of the ship with very little difference to the equipment or layout of today is in the galley. Other than the 50- to 60-year-old equipment being heavier and stronger, there is very little difference. J The Albert Pick-Barth Companies: Foodservice Equipment Pioneers One of the most valuable books in my library is a hotel planning and design guide published in 1928 by the Albert PickBarth Co. This company was a powerhouse supplier of furnishings and equipment, at the time, primarily for the independent hotel industry. Albert Pick, based in Chicago, and L. Barth & Co. in New York sold almost every product needed to outfit or renovate a hotel, resort or restaurant. Albert Pick's John Van Range manufacturing division offered catalog and custom-built equipment and a full line of metal fabrication from a 250,000-square-foot plant in the Oakley section of Cincinnati, Ohio. Its literature touted this facility as the 22 FEDA News & Views world's largest kitchen equipment manufacturing plant with "the most advanced labor-saving machinery." Their Lorillard Refrigeration division in Kingston, N.Y., made all their refrigeration products.The photos of the production areas of these factories appear very much like some of the equipment factories or fabricator shops in operation today. What could a customer buy from Albert Pick and L. Barth in 1928? Almost every piece of equipment currently available at this year's NAFEM and NRA shows, with the exception of microwave ovens and induction ranges,is the same. Even these products aren't really new. They are just another addition to the oven and range family, in this case using "electronic-generated wave energy" rather than gas, steam, or electric resistance heat. Almost all the food prep equipment is the same— evolution not invention! Fabrication went from Monel metal and porcelain to stainless and galvanized steel.Walk-in coolers evolved from either built-on-site cork panels with wood doors to modular insulated wood panels to foamed-in-place stainless or aluminum panels with the camlocks we have today. Hoods went from curved front to straight fronts; but like so many other items, the design and function stayed basically the same. We know a lot more about the science of how hot, greasy air and smoke moves under a hood,but the old designs seemed to work very well in most applications.What didn't work were the short cycle hoods developed and sold in the last 25 years. They didn't work because they were designed to circumvent code requirements, rather than to improve heat, grease and vapor capture on the cooking lines. What about tilt skillets, cutter mixers, steam ovens and other European equipment that is popular today? In reviewing old hotel and catering books in libraries overseas, it appears these types of equipment were in use in some form or another in the 1920s. It just hadn't been exported to North America. Food processors were called puree mixers; braising pans were called Swiss kettles and featured as "steam roasting kettles" in the 1928 Pick catalog! Equipment Ahead of its Time Sadly, we have lost more good equipment than we gained. Almost every large restaurant, club, or hotel kitchen had a liquid chiller for quickly and safely chilling soup and sauces. Often called consomé coolers, these refrigerated chill tanks,