A Sneakies kitchen upgrade with help from Comcater

Find out how Comcater's equipment addressed Sneakies Kitchen's pain points.

In the foodservice industry, meeting the customer demand for service time and food quality heavily relies on kitchen efficiency. This is why QSRs are constantly on a hunt for solutions to speed up production while ensuring consistency in the quality of the food they serve.

For Sneakies Kitchen, the search ended when they discovered the commercial kitchen equipment solutions from Comcater that did not only address Sneakies Kitchen's pain points but also complemented its workforce capabilities.

“The biggest issue we have in our industry is labour and consistency so having the right equipment that can help us with these pain points is important. When you invest in good quality equipment, it simplifies the process,” says Baz Kopus, owner of Sneakies Kitchen. 

Kopus did not open Sneakies Kitchen to be just another burger or pizza shop, so ensuring that they serve the best burgers and pizza in Homebush is not just an option but a must. This vision, and their kitchen's predicament, made him decide to invest in high-quality kitchen equipment from Australia’s leading commerical kitchen equipment supplier Comcater.

Before Comcater sneaked into their kitchen, Kopus shared that their waiting times were long, which frustrated customers and delivery riders. "The staff were getting frustrated too as it was easy to burn things, food safety was an issue, and we were constantly checking the temperature of the food," he adds.

These scenarios pushed Kopus to look for a solution to save both his customers and his staff from the frustrations caused by a kitchen that obviously could not keep up with the business needs and customer demand.

More productive, more efficient kitchen

“In our kitchen, we now have a Garland XPress Grill that cooks all our burgers; Frymaster Filtration Suite which we use for all our frying needs; and the MercoMax Holding Cabinet which allows us to hold food at the right temperature whilst maintaining its moisture. These three pieces of equipment from Comcater have made a tremendous difference to our business,” he shares.

Garland XPress Grill helps QSRs double their production by reducing cook time by 50% while ensuring food quality and consistency. This grill’s capability is best illustrated by how a 120 gram that usually takes about seven minutes to cook can be ready within 90 seconds using Garland XPress Grill.

“The Garland XPress Grill allows me to cook up to 16 burger patties in 80 seconds, which is fantastic and really helps us with our productivity. However, the issue then becomes how to hold all the patties, so the MercoMax Holding Cabinet compliments the Garland XPress Grill perfectly,” Kopus shares.

MercoMax holding units make it possible for QSR favourites to be served just as how they are fresh off the grill, even if they were prepared way ahead of the time of order. These holding units maintain the perfect holding temperature and respond to any temperature fluctuation to keep the food quality.

“Now we can do batch cooking to prepare for our busy lunches and dinners. When we see large groups coming through, we can batch cook and hold the patties at the perfect temperature so we can ensure that we meet all food safety guidelines. We no longer have to pull out probes all the time. It just simplifies the process in the kitchen,” says Kopus.

Meanwhile, the Frymaster Filtration Suite deep fryers are designed for high performance frying with minimum maintenance. The fryer of choice of major food chains and restaurants worldwide, Frymaster has unbeatable high oil saving and filtering capabilities, on top of its patented centreline thermostat that allows the oil temperature to return to heat quickly ensuring food is cooked at optimum temperatures, resulting in the perfect fried food everytime.

The Comcater experience

Like any other business owner, Kopus was not one to just take a brand’s word for it before investing in new equipment. He wanted to experience firsthand the solutions that Comcater had to offer and it could help Sneakies Kitchen’s operations. Good thing that Comcater has a demonstration kitchen where clients are allowed to see and test the equipment themselves.

“The team at Comcater was very helpful and patient. I had a lot of questions, and I wanted to push the boundaries of how the equipment could help us in our kitchen. They supported me through the entire process. What gave me confidence was that they were transparent and honest. They allowed me to use the equipment and test my menu with the equipment. They gave me the peace of mind that what I was investing in was the right equipment to support my business,” Kopus shares.

Although the commercial kitchen equipment that Comcater offers is state of the art, learning how to use them is not as complicated as it seems. For Sneakies Kitchen, training their staff took a significantly shorter time with the easy-to-use and intuitive features of the equipment.

“The equipment has reduced the training time of a skilled staff member from four weeks to just one week. Previously, an unskilled staff member could have taken me up to three months to train them on the original equipment. Now, I can genuinely say that I can train an unskilled staff member how to cook with the new equipment in just two weeks. This is priceless to me,” says Kopus.

With a more productive and efficient kitchen, Sneakies Kitchen has significantly shortened waiting times and is now able to easily meet high demand on peak days, even on days when they are short-staffed.

“Friday nights are generally our busiest nights. One Friday night, two of my staff didn’t show up. From four kitchen staff, I was down to just two. That night, the equipment from Comcater were my 3rd and 4th team members. If I only had traditional equipment, there was no way that I would have gotten through that night without upsetting a lot of people. But we didn’t upset anyone. It was the equipment that we have that got us over the line,” Kopus shares.

“We only installed the new commercial kitchen equipment from Comcater about four months ago but we are already seeing impressive results, and I know that it’s only going to get better,” he concluded.