Blast chilling is a process that allows you to rapidly reach very low temperatures to correctly preserve food products, both raw and cooked, in full compliance with the HACCP regulation. Essential in restaurants, bakeries and anywhere long-term food preservation is necessary, it drastically reduces the proliferation of the bacteria, which are responsible for the deterioration of food.
But that’s not all: using a professional blast chiller allows you to perform other essential functions for preparing dishes in a professional kitchen. Let’s take an in-depth look.
Blast chilling: functions and procedures for a professional kitchen
What are the main functions of a blast chiller for a professional kitchen?
- Positive chilling: to rapidly lower the temperature from +90°C to +3°C. Being able to quickly and easily lower the temperature of food to the ideal level for their preservation, makes work in a professional kitchen much simpler. When done correctly, blast chilling extends food preservation times, whilst maintaining all its quality and ensuring complete safety
- Deep freezing or negative blast chilling: to lower the temperature from +90°C to -18° and reduce the proliferation of bacteria through thermal shock. Rapid deep freezing of food maintains the structure perfectly, along with the organoleptic properties, flavours and aromas by transforming the water molecules found in the food into micro ice crystals. This is particularly useful for food that is not cooked before being eaten, such as raw fish.
- Fast, controlled thawing: an essential function to uniformly bring frozen food back to a temperature of +4 degrees without altering its structure (as per the HACCP regulation). The main nutritional properties in the food are thus retained even during thawing.
- Slow cooking: a latest-generation multifunction blast chiller can also be set for slow cooking at a low temperature. An extremely useful function for simplifying work in the kitchen and optimising your time
And what about bakeries and ice cream shops?
A bakery is not truly complete without a professional, hi-tech blast chiller, essential for simplifying the different preparation stages.
Using a blast chiller after baking, rapidly lowering the temperature of some preparations to the ideal preservation temperature gives master bakers complete control over each step. Blast chilling also allows you to maintain a high percentage of humidity, thus preventing cakes and bread from drying out, ensuring they stay perfectly soft and moist.
And what about ice cream shops? Professional blast chilling ensures the perfect preservation of ice cream and maintains its unmistakeable creamy consistency by forming micro ice crystals which trap the air incorporated during the preparation process. The ice cream thus remains soft and creamy when it passes from the tray to tub via the blast chiller.
Alexander and Alexander Touch, the professional blast chillers by Studio54
To meet the demands for professional refrigeration, we have designed two different types of professional blast chillers, dedicated the world of bakeries and catering.
- Alexander, the entry-level model, made entirely of stainless steel, has four different operating modes: blast chilling by time or temperature, deep freezing by time or temperature, and temperature holding after blast chilling or deep freezing. It comes equipped with grills and Gastronorm GN 1/1 or 600×40 baking trays without the need to replace the internal racks.
The evolution of the entry-level model, the multifunction Alexander Touch allows you to easily manage positive and negative blast chilling cycles thanks to the new Full Glass Touch controller. It features a wide range of customisable cycles: sanitisation (specifically for fish), fast controlled thawing, defrosting, ice cream hardening, proofing, slow cooking at low temperature and pre-cooling. With an integrated clock to store HACCP alarms and recipes, and save the blast chilling settings of a program, Alexander Touch is the perfect tool for simply and efficiently managing your culinary activities.
