Commercial Food Steamer vs Microwave

Commercial Food Steamer vs Microwave

Who will be the champion in this commercial kitchen smackdown?

When preparing your best, knock-out menu items, you do so with care because you know that quality is key. That means, you need efficient equipment that packs a punch.

Commercial food steamers provide even heating throughout food without leaving any remaining, localized hot or cold areas. Maintaining the ideal color and texture when holding and rethermalizing pasta, vegetables and proteins is made easy with a commercial kitchen steamer. High-quality restaurant steamers from Antunes generate steam with less condensation so your food is made to the desired temperature every time without being soggy.

Pro tip: The Antunes Deluxe Food Warmer bakes a moist and delicious cake. Listen, if you take a bite of cake made on one of these commercial food steamers, you’ll be seeing stars.

It really is hard to compete with Antunes commercial food steamers when it’s comes to menu flexibility and quality. Some commercial kitchens prepare the same menu items with a microwave for convenience and speed; however, this could impact the food quality from uneven heating, localized overcooking and other issues commonly experienced when preparing your food in a microwave.

Sure, anybody could pop the product in the microwave to half-heat it while simultaneously turning it into something that oddly mimics the texture of rubber. I mean, what says quality like serving a piece of protein that’s a tad frozen in the middle but scalding hot on the edges?

Okay, we aren’t here for the microwave slander. Instead to compare commercial food steamers to microwaves… for entertainment purposes, these commercial kitchen heavyweights are going head-to-head in a fight.

Commercial food steamers and microwaves will be compared in how they affect the appearance and texture of pasta, vegetables and proteins.

The Antunes commercial food steamer is a solid contender, and the challenger is a microwave. Ding, ding, ding – Round 1…

Rethermalize and Hold Pasta on a Commercial Food Steamer

Commercial kitchen steamers are perfect for rethermalizing pasta. The pasta can be rethermalized to be made al dente without being soaking wet. When you retherm pasta in the microwave, the microwave removes water molecules which can dry food out resulting in changes to shape, color and texture.

Using a microwave to retherm pasta often results in pasta that is all stuck together or dried out – neither of which are ideal for serving to your customers. It’s only the round 1, and the microwave is having a hard time rolling with the punches.

The InfiniSteam IS-8000, Rapid Steamer and Deluxe Food Warmer from Antunes is best for retherming pasta to the ideal, ready temperature.

For hot holding pasta, the Antunes InfiniSteam IS-8000 is suggested as it can hold at your preprogrammed temperature for up to 4 hours. With 8 drawers, the IS-8000 can hold up to 2-pound portions of pasta, vegetables and proteins, without any unwanted transfer of flavor or contamination, allowing for maximum menu versatility – all with a single piece of equipment.

Ouch, It’s not looking good for the microwave… Round 2.

Rethermalize and Hold Vegetables on a Commercial Food Steamer

Veggies come alive with steaming. Antunes restaurant steamers help retain the original vibrancy of the orange of carrots, green of broccoli and other vegetables and enhances them with steam.

Steaming preserves food’s nutrients since the food does not come in contact with the water (steam).  Heat-sensitive, water-soluble vitamins are maintained in your vegetables when cooking, retherming and holding vegetables.

Retherming veggies in a microwave on the other hand, can result in muted colored vegetables as rethermalizing in the microwave seems to strip the vegetables of the bright color.

Using a steamer for restaurant usage to prepare vegetables is the best way to ensure that you are not losing nutritional value.

The Commercial food steamer is the already champion in our eyes – especially after attempting rethermalizing veggies in the microwave. There’s no comparison. On to Round 3…

Rethermalize and Hold Proteins on a Commercial Food Steamer

Moist, high-fat content meats will maintain their appearance and texture when rethermalized on an Antunes steamer. Other proteins that benefit from being prepared and help on a steamer include Canadian bacon, ham, seafood, hotdogs, pork sausages, shredded chicken, sandwich proteins and eggs in scrambled or patty form.

Microwaves tend to dry out proteins leaving you with a tough, less than desirable texture. Again, the advantage of the Antunes commercial food steamers is that it can also hold said proteins for up to 4 hours.

Hot dogs, in particular, really take a beating when rethermed in a microwave. They become warped, discolored and certainly not something you’d want to serve to your customers.

Look for yourself… let’s just say this is the equivalent of the steamer throwing a haymaker and knocking out the microwave. And that concludes the fight.

And the winner by unanimous decision is…. Antunes commercial food steamers.

Which Antunes Steamer is Best for your Commercial Kitchen?

Having the correct equipment for your commercial kitchen is essential. Every commercial kitchen operation is different and could need different steamers depending on what it is you are preparing and/or holding. Antunes makes a commercial food steamers with these unique needs in mind.

Antunes restaurant steamers take the guess work out of retherming and holding pasta, vegetables and proteins. The result is a higher quality product.

Select the ideal Antunes steamer for your commercial kitchen’s unique needs.