A Complete Guide For Commercial Kitchen Ovens

Commercial kitchen ovens are the primary items of any professional food-serving business. Since they can do various jobs such as cooking, broiling, baking, and roasting, they are crucial pieces of the foodservice business.

Any oven designed to be used at home is a residential oven, and residential ovens can not handle the busywork of a commercial kitchen. But commercial kitchen ovens are built with high performance and designed to withstand heavy use to not let you down even under demanding conditions. So if you need an oven for your business, a residential oven won’t be a good choice for professional use.

Several types of commercial kitchen ovens offer different features and capacities, so it may look hard to decide which one is suitable for you. Luckily, we compiled them and prepared a complete guide for commercial kitchen ovens that will lead the way for you.

Things To Consider Before Choosing A Commercial Kitchen Oven

1. Size of The Commercial Kitchen Oven

The first thing to do before choosing a commercial kitchen oven is to determine the available space for the oven. This will give you an idea about which size you should select. Another point on deciding the size of the commercial kitchen oven is the volume of your business. How many items do you need to cook at one time? How long will it take to cook them? How long can be your serving time? These are the questions that will help you to choose the right commercial kitchen oven if answered appropriately.

2. Commercial Gas or Electric Oven

Another essential point to decide is your commercial kitchen oven should be whether gas or electric-powered. Since both of them has different functions and requirements, you can choose after learning them.

Gas costs are lower in long-term use except for installing costs. Gas heats up rapidly, which removes the waiting time to heat. The unequal heat distribution may cause the food to cook unevenly. Plus, if you own commercial gas ovens, you will need safety equipment to reduce the chance of fire.

Commercial electric ovens require a simple installation but also a vast quantity of electricity. An electric commercial kitchen oven takes more time to preheat, but it cooks more evenly. They are also safer and easier to clean than gas ovens.

3. Commercial Oven Types

There is a proper commercial kitchen oven for any business. Different offers of features and functions, various sizes, and shapes are the things you should take into account while choosing a commercial kitchen oven considering your needs.

• Standard Ovens

One of the most popular types of commercial kitchen ovens is standard commercial ovens, also known as radiant ovens, which can cook nearly any sort of food. They have a heating source at the bottom that generates radiant heat that circulates throughout the oven.

The main disadvantage of this oven is not specialized and the inability to spread the heated air evenly inside the oven. So it can cause some food to be over or undercooked. Commercial standard ovens are preferable because of are the cheapest type of commercial kitchen ovens.

• Commercial Convection Ovens

These commercial kitchen ovens are similar to standard ones, but unlike standard ovens, this type of commercial oven has fans that provide air circulation throughout the cooking equipment.  This ventilation system makes the oven cook evenly and faster, making it ideal for bakeries since bread, muffins, or other bakery products will be baked perfectly.

In addition to baking, commercial convection ovens are perfect for cooking, broiling, roasting, or warming. They are available in deck, countertop, or full-size, and there are gas and electric models.

• Commercial Combi Ovens

A commercial combi oven is a combination of a convection oven and steamer. As a convection oven, fans circulate heated air throughout the cavity, providing quickly and evenly cooked food. Steaming uses steam made from water and heat, producing food that preserves its color and flavor. So when a commercial combination oven blends them, the result is perfection—moist, flavorful food with no shrinkage. So, it eliminates the need for extra equipment by combining them into one, which saves your money and space.

• Commercial Conveyor Oven

Commercial conveyor ovens have a conveyor belt, as the name suggests, where you put food, and the belt transports it through the oven that is heated mainly with convection. This system is ideal for high volume businesses as it produces a high amount of food in less time with adjustable temperature and continually working. The results will be consistent because time and temperature can be set depending on the type of food. You can use your time after putting the food on the belt since the food will be on the other side of the oven when it is ready. So it will reduce the labor and give you perfectly cooked dishes.

• Commercial Deck Ovens

Commercial deck ovens generally use conduction for cooking. They can cook more diverse food than conveyor ovens, and you can control the cooking process more. They can be made of metal, brick, stone, or ceramic tiles to transfer heat efficiently, making them ideal for pizzerias or bakeries. As the bottom of the oven has a stone shelf, it can take some time to heat the oven. Using a commercial deck oven requires more expertise and long recovery times, which can slow down your operation.  If cleaned every day regularly, it is easy to keep up the oven clean.

Brick Ovens: These commercial kitchen ovens are special deck-type oven that is mainly used in pizzerias. Wood is used to heat brick ovens, which gives food smoky flavors. They are hard to heat, but they stay at high temperatures for a long time when heated. A brick oven can take 10 to 12 pizzas at one time, and it takes about 5 minutes to cook one. Keeping the fire up, you can eliminate the recovery time to heat. They usually have only one room to cook, which cannot be convenient for high-volume operations.

• Commercial Roaster and Smoker Ovens

A commercial roaster oven is generally used for slow-cooking meat, especially turkey or chicken. They can do more than just roasting, such as baking or warming. They have a lid to keep the food moist while cooking. They usually have removable pans and racks, which make them easy to clean.

You can give the food a barbecue flavor with a commercial smoker oven without a need for an outside grill. To create that delicious smokey flavor, adding wood chips to the oven will do the job. They reduce shrinkage by working at a lower temperature. Most of them have a holding feature that will keep the food warm after cooking. Commercial smoker ovens can use different fuel types such as wood, gas, charcoal, or electricity. Charcoal or wood smokers provide more smokey flavor than gas or electricity ones. If you have smoked dishes on your menu, you can use a smoker with peace of mind as there will be no mist.

• Commercial Cook and Hold Ovens

Cook and hold ovens remove too much labor and avoid burning or overcooking by switching into holding mode after the food is cooked. They cook until the required temperature or the timer instructs, then stop cooking and keep the food at safe serving temperatures. The slow cooking method reduces shrinkage, and with overnight cooking, you can save considerable time.

Rethermalization Ovens: These commercial kitchen ovens are one of the holding oven types, but not cooking. They can not cook raw food, but they are designed to reheat or keep the precooked food warm at safe temperatures. They can be used for slow roasting as well.

• High-speed and Microwave Ovens

High-speed ovens have convection, impingement, infrared, and microwave cooking methods all in one. They work almost 20 times faster than other traditional ovens. Infrared cooking gently browns and crisps the food with radiant heat. Microwave is another fast way of cooking that uses electromagnetic waves to heat. The microwave method can not be enough by itself for cooking. Combining it with other cooking methods speeds up the cooking process and fixes the irregularity that a microwave can cause. Apart from hybrid ovens, you can rapidly reheat or warm foods using commercial microwave ovens.

• Commercial Rotisserie Oven

Commercial rotisserie ovens are a kind of commercial kitchen oven that is primarily used for roasting meat. The meat is put on a spit which continuously turns, and the glass door it has makes it a merchandiser at the same time. By rotating slowly, the meat evenly cooks while retaining its juice inside.

• Commercial Steam Ovens

Steaming is a healthy cooking method, which retains the flavors, vitamins, color, and texture of the food. A steam oven is actually a steamer with multiple shelves. The shelves let you cook various food simultaneously and avoid the flavor transfer. Seafood and vegetables are the main food items that a steamer cooks.

• Commercial Impinger Ovens

As one of the fastest cooking commercial kitchen ovens, the impinger’s working principle is to blow away the cold air by using heated air jets and radiant heating. This system speeds up the process and provides fast cooking times.

• Commercial Rack Ovens

Commercial rack ovens use both steam and dry heat, and rotating provides evenly cooked food. The see-through windows make them a merchandiser simultaneously, and the racks facilitate the cleaning process excessively.

Commercial Kitchen Oven Parts and Accessories

As the principal and costly item of a professional kitchen, a commercial kitchen oven should perform well for many years. With the available replacement parts and accessories, you may extend the life of your commercial kitchen oven and add new features to run it efficiently. For instance, you may insert a light bulb to see the oven cavity. Racks will provide you a place to safely cool the products, which you can put on sheet pans after they cook.

Commercial Kitchen Oven Maintenance

Just like most other commercial equipment of a restaurant, your commercial kitchen oven will need routine maintenance. This will guarantee that your commercial kitchen oven works appropriately and will prolong the operating time. Even though all commercial kitchen ovens have specific care due to their types, you can easily maintain your commercial kitchen equipment, avoiding costly repairs with regular and simple tasks.

• It is critical to clean the internal and external parts of your oven on a regular basis. Especially the burners and supplementary such as racks are the essential parts. Soaking racks in soapy water at the end of the day- or at least once a week- will take all the dirt away. You can soap the burners once a month in the same way with racks after scrubbing. And the fans require cleaning twice a month as they can clog airflow.
• The oven door seal will wear out after a while because of heavy usage. Because the interior of the commercial kitchen oven must be hot, the damage of the seal can cause extra energy expenditure. So be sure to check it regularly and replace it immediately if damaged.

To Sum Up

A commercial kitchen oven is the heart of a food service business where various savory dishes are created. As almost everything you offer to customers will be passed through an oven, a commercial kitchen oven plays a critical role in the success and life spent of a business. So be sure that the commercial oven you purchase meets all your needs and expectations to run your business seamlessly.