The Ships Cook Book

Recipes, Insight, Theory and Everyday Management for Students, Ships Cooks, and those with an interest in Marine Catering Operations. All Recipes have a fully adjustable servings feature, just change the number of servings and the ingredients recalculate automatically.

The Ships Cook Book
Recipes 

Rational Ovens and Cooking Centres

shipscookbook

When considering purchasing Combination Ovens for a ship in our opinion one brand stands head and shoulders above all others, RATIONAL, during my career I have worked with so many different brands, types and sizes of ovens, but the one brand of equipment I really always hope to see when joining a new vessel for the first time is RATIONAL.

There are many types and brands of excellent ovens we have worked with, but when it comes to combination ovens we prefer Rational.

Why Rational?

Accurate, reliable, efficient, flexible and self cleaning, and absolute control during cooking, above you can see images of two rational ovens on a very busy Dive Support Vessel with a POB of 100, these ovens were in constant use day and night, and both of these ovens where 10 years old when these pictures were taken, notice how clean they look..!

Rational ovens are easy to use and will produce great results, although inside they are complex controlled by advanced electronics, there are many different models but in my experience every model is a joy to work with.

Just look at the advanced electronics inside these ovens, as a ships cook I don’t know what any of  these things are? But some of the excellent E.T.O’s and Engineers I have had the pleasure to sail with have shown me the inside, so that I could take these pictures, so I can identify the steam generator, the pump and the micro processors.

Just look at the features Rational Ovens provide;-

  • Dry Heat
  • Steam Heat
  • Steam and Dry Combination heat
  • Accurate to within 1°C
  • Some Models are programable.
  • Excellent door seal.
  • Outside surfaces stay cool
  • Timer with audible alarm
  • Temperature Probe fitted
  • Water Hose fitted
  • Plumbed in drainage
  • Self Cleaning Program
  • Accepts all sizes of Gastronome trays pans and tins

It is important that crews understand how to care for these ovens and keep them clean.

We at the Ships Cook Book strongly recommend you use Ratonal’s own chemicals as recommended for your particular model. Rational ovens have a fully automatic cleaning cycle, and so no one opens the oven door during the cleaning cycle we hang signs on the oven door to show the oven is not available due to cleaning. Also remember to check the air filter periodically as it will get clogged up, this small filter is where cool air is sucked in to keep  the electronic motherboard cool.

Marine Specification Models  

You will also notice that these are Marine specification ovens, and it is easy to tell this because on top of the oven there are lockable arms attached to the doors, one on top of each oven, when the door is in the open position it is possible with the turn of a handle on the top to hold the door in the open position so that it won’t move if the ship rolls, this is a simple but well thought out and practical safety feature specifically for ships. It should also be noted that Marine versions of these oven come in 60hz to accommodate marine voltages which is most common on ships.

There are similar types of ovens made by different brands, but in our experience nothing else comes close to matching Rational for quality of build and performance.

Why we at the Ships Cook Book enthuse about Rational Ovens

Being a ships cook is one of the best jobs in the whole of the catering industry and just like any job or trade you need the best tools for the job, the quality of the equipment you have to work with can have a direct effect on the quality and efficacy of your work, As a ships cook the equipment is vitally important to me, and although not mine personally, I take ownership of every piece of equipment in my galley and look after it as if it were my own. For us at the Ships Cook Book in our opinion we view Rational Ovens as the Rolls Royce of ovens, if we believed there were a better brand of oven out there we would tell you about them, our assessment is based of years of hands on practical on the job experience, (I worked with my first Rational Oven in 1993) and that is why we believe in this particular brand of oven,

“They do what it says on the tin.”