After experiencing a world with very few restaurants open for service, people now fully understand the monotony that can come with cooking at home. As a result, a newfound appreciation for eateries has emerged. With that said, the pandemic (and convenience) still play a role in how customers are enjoying their favorite restaurants.

According to one study, over half of the consumers (51%) still go out to eat when they don’t feel like cooking. Dining out remains a popular activity, but even so, 27% say that to-go services are more a part of their life than ever before. Consequently, restaurants are juggling it all — dine-in, curbside, delivery, and more. To keep up with the demand, many restaurants are introducing impingement cooking into their operations. Interested in how this smart cooking technology can benefit your restaurant? Let’s explore three top ways.

1. Quicker cook times
Ovens that utilize impingement technology deliver incredibly fast cook times. In fact, some models can even cook food four times faster than a conventional oven. They do this through the use of special nozzles that quickly push concentrated, heated air into the oven’s cavity. This concentrated air increases the impact velocity of the air on the food, but it also cuts through the cool “halo” of air that typically lingers above food after it enters the oven. These two things combined, speed up cook times. With that said, not all impingement ovens are created equal. For even greater speed (and a boost in velocity and precision), always opt for an impingement oven with a triple, not a single-layer nozzle.

2. Incredible consistency
Impingement ovens also go hand in hand with consistency. When a customer bites into their burger, blackened chicken or baked salmon, they want it to look and taste the same way it did the last time they ordered it. Impingement ovens (thanks to those special nozzles we talked about earlier) achieve this by blasting concentrated and incredibly precise heat on the food they’re cooking. As a result, they provide a level of cooking precision and exactness that’s hard to achieve with other ovens.

In addition to incredible heat precision, most impingement ovens also offer programmable preset capabilities, which allow operators to enter and store recipes right in the oven itself. These preset control the cook time, blower speed, and temperature of the oven. So, while this frees up time for staff to accomplish other tasks throughout the kitchen, it also guarantees that each and every food item is cooked to perfection. A win-win for consistency.

3. Increased production (without the waste)
Quick service paired with consistently cooked meals will boost the popularity of your restaurant across all service areas, including dine-in, grab-n-go, curbside, and delivery. To keep up with the demand, you have to get production up. Thankfully, the quick-cooking ability of an impingement oven will help you put out more food, faster — without sacrificing on quality. But that’s not all. Ovens with precise heat and programmable presets decrease food waste dramatically and increase staff’s ability to multitask in other areas of the kitchen. It’s the perfect (happy) storm to send your food production rate through the roof (and boost those profit margins).

To the next level
Supporting your operation with the right equipment can help your restaurant achieve a superior level of service, quality, and output. Impingement cooking is one-way operators today are meeting the demands of their customers and taking their business to the next level. Interested in other ways the right oven can benefit your operation — and your profitability? Check out our blog post, “How the Right Oven Can Benefit More Than Just Your Bottom Line.”