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Eloma and Stellar Steam entered the 2007 NAFEM Show, which took place from October 11 to October 13 in Atlanta, seeking to build further industry brand awareness and to give large numbers of foodservice professionals their first look at several recently introduced products.
According to Mitch Cohen, vice president of cooking system sales for Aga Foodservice Equipment companies Eloma and Stellar Steam, as well as Infinity Fryers, the first part of this task was accomplished at the show in part through the popular practice of hosting live cooking demonstrations, which were performed, in this case, on Eloma combi ovens. Samples of the meal items produced by the AFE equipment and corporate chefs was on offer throughout the show.
"Since it's not a food show, having our chefs prepare food on our equipment really helped bring people into the booth," Cohen confirmed.
Once attendees were in the booth, Eloma staff demonstrated the features of its new Multimax B and Joker combi ovens lines, which were both introduced shortly before NAFEM.
As expected, the unique-in-the-market, 2/3-sized countertop Joker line garnered positive reviews from personnel from QSRs and fast-casual chains, who were drawn to the model's boilerless combi cooking capabilities and small footprint, according to Cohen. Somewhat unexpected was the attention the Joker got from grocery store operators, who praised the unit for similar reasons.
The Multimax B line, a close cousin to Eloma's popular Genius T series, hit its target of appealing to school foodservices and other operations that need high boilerless productivity, but prefer a simplified, knob-based control panel, Cohen said.
For Stellar Steam, the show served as one of the first opportunities to display its new Polaris mobile, boilerless catering steamer. According to Cohen, caterers and hotels, as well as consultants and dealers who do business with such customers, showed significant interest in the units.
"Stellar's Polaris was extremely well received," stated Cohen. "It's the first portable catering steamer out there, so there was a lot of interest from operators who cook outside of a traditional kitchen setting." |
