Realizing the Benefits of Contact Toasting for Your Operation

There are many strains on the modern kitchen – actual floorspace to be utilized, price and energy efficiency, total cost of ownership for every piece of equipment you need to succeed, and more inform every decision you make.

However, there are also increasingly innovative solutions.

At Antunes, we’re proud to offer contact toasting solutions that address a variety of operational challenges you face, giving you an avenue toward efficiency, a boosted bottom line and more.

Contact Toasting and Your Footprint

One of the simplest ways to maximize space in your kitchen is to leverage equipment that doesn’t sacrifice performance for a smaller footprint.

With the Antunes Vertical Contact Toaster Mini, you can do just that.

The VCTM offers the same performance as the Antunes high-performance Vertical Contact Toaster in a tighter, compact footprint that’s 60% smaller, freeing up critical space in your kitchen without skipping on industry-leading toasting capabilities.

The VCTM also provides flexibility with a variable speed motor, allowing for a range of light/dark adjustments and future-product-ready options, dual-sided platen and two toasting lanes, multiple compression settings to maximize color and taste.

Also, as with other Antunes toasters, we have several accessories which can be added (butter wheels, auxiliary heaters, belt wraps).

Boosting Price and Energy Efficiency and Addressing Labor Concerns

When you free up more space in your kitchen, the ripple effects on price and energy efficiency and your total cost of ownership go well beyond the surface-level benefits of a smaller, more efficient unit that costs less and requires more power.

By offering greater efficiency, you’ll allow your staff to serve your customers more quickly, cutting down on frustration on both sides and freeing up your staff’s time for tasks that help push operations forwards.

With simple, innovative equipment, you’ll also negate the need for extensive, difficult training, saving time, money and manpower.

Finally, like all of Antunes’s innovative solutions, our contact toasting solutions offer low maintenance, easy cleaning, thoughtful design and more all aimed at reducing your overall cost and boosting efficiency across the board.

These aspects are critical – labor shortages are some of the biggest challenges you face as an operator, and providing equipment that makes your staff’s job as simple as possible can help you avoid turnover and provide a less stressful environment.

Contact vs. Radiant Toasting

So, why choose contact toasting over radiant toasting? Put simply, both have their advantages.

While radiant toasting extracts moisture from the bread and leverages the Maillard reaction (most commonly associated with the new taste of browned foods) to provide a deeper crunch. It’s best used for English muffins, bagels, croissants and more when that thorough, deep toast is appreciated.

Contact toasting, then, is more concerned with the surface of breads. It makes complete contact between the heat source and the food, creating a sealed finish that’s more consistent.

It’s also tremendously beneficial for keeping the bun or other bread product from getting soggy – by creating that recognizable, smooth “seal,” contact toasting keeps products crispy, fluffy and delicious long after they’ve been prepared, leaving even drive-thru customers satisfied. Brioche buns, hamburger buns and other sandwich buns are all great candidates for contact toasting.

To decide which is best for any given item, ask these questions:

• Are there condiments or toppings that could soak into the bun?
• Should the sandwich have a lot of crunch or a smooth, caramelized surface?
• What flavor profile complements the sandwich?
• Consistency in toast quality

Choosing Antunes

Antunes takes pride in being the leaders in vertical and horizontal toasting solutions and offering unmatched custom solutions tailored to your specific needs.

To learn more about our toasting solutions and how they can boost nearly every aspect of your operation, visit antunes.com/category/products/toasting/.