Over the last two decades, The Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State College has earned a reputation for superior programs, faculty, and facilities. With more than 350 students enrolled at a time, Jay Zwerin, Central Operations Manager at Cincinnati State College, prepares the next generation of foodservice professionals in culinary and pastry, dietetics, food science and brewing.
MCI’s goal is to offer state-of-the-art technology with first-class tools of the culinary arts. Over the years, Zwerin realized some of their equipment wasn’t living up to their standards anymore.
Rust-Free Shelving
“The storage was based off using the metal shelving that peels and eventually rusts and speed racks. We were running into a lot of problems because we’re bound by the American Culinary Federation, and a lot of the requirements are making sure that we have air holes for breathing so that things can dry properly, and then trying to do that with the existing shelving and speed racks was very difficult,” said Zwerin.
After installing Camshelving® Elements® Series in one kitchen, Zwerin switched to Camshelving in three additional kitchen spaces.
“It’s worked really well; it looks great, it cleans easily, it holds the products well and display-wise, you really just can’t beat it because it presents so easily,” said Zwerin.
“We were able to reduce all those speed racks that we were using just to hold the material, so now it’s hung up and it’s easily accessible and dries really well,” said Zwerin.
Functional Ingredient Displays
Each week, their capstone class is tasked with designing a three-to five-course menu. Previously, the students’ ingredients were wheeled out on metal carts, but to protect the food, the only option they had was to put a cover over the entire cart.
“The gases that are coming off the different fruits and vegetables were really just destroying the produce inside,” said Zwerin.
Using mobile Camshelving Elements Series and the Universal Storage Rack, Zwerin was able to create a rolling system that securely holds ingredients in Camwear® food pans and on sheet pans.
“It not only functions well, but it holds the products really well because now we’re able to cover everything up [with lids] after the class and hold it in the coolers without it being broken down by the big fans that we have in the coolers,” said Zwerin.
Durable Containers
“We were having a lot of problems with the containers cracking; the lids would crack or the lids would pop off,” said Zwerin. “[My local Cambro sales rep Stuart Langsdale] introduced me to the CamSquares® FreshPro containers, which are excellent.”
“The [FreshPro] system, how it looks and how it seals, is unbelievable; it’s like a perfect seal and they don’t pop. Between freezing them and unfreezing them, so far, we have had no problems; we’ve been using them for about three months now,” said Zwerin.
Products mentioned in this article:
AUTHOR: ADRIANA COCHRAN IS THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT CAMBRO.
