The Middleby Corporation is once again the official Kitchen Equipment Sponsor of the Restaurant Zone at the 2025 Bar & Restaurant Expo. Don't miss their electric, ventless equipment on display in the Food & Beverage Innovation Center on the second floor of the Expo Hall!
As more foodservice operators evaluate concepts and options for 2025, two design obstacles repeatedly emerge and complicate plans.
First, the desire to sell appealing meal options exists, but adding a Type I Hood to exhaust cooking fats, oils, and grease just isn’t affordable. Second, the landlord of the bar & restaurant site isn’t going to allow cooking odors to be exhausted out and potentially drift into the windows of the residential units surrounding the venue.
So, potential restaurant operators are stuck, foregoing and missing out on gaining incremental meal revenue. Even the desire to enhance an existing restaurant’s menu and drive incremental F&B sales can be halted, remaining just an “impossible dream.” Well, those culinary dreams can come to fruition. Innovative and fresh, ventless cooking solutions exist to eliminate the design problems, landlord barriers, and even avoid odor issues, too.
Ventless Equipment Provides Design Flexibility
There are numerous ventless cooking options that can handle just about any menu demand or culinary requirement, according to Scott Heim, president Ventless Cooking Solutions, The Middleby Corporation. Additionally, creating a kitchen environment or adding cooking throughput options can be done without the expensive Type I Hood remodeling demands.
Anyone evaluating the cost implications for a remodeling project, including an externally vented air system, knows just how severe and financially jarring the design estimate can be during the planning phase. Therefore, all operators need to know how ventless cooking equipment offers a variety of advantages, drastically reducing construction costs and the time to complete a restaurant project.
Create Pockets of F&B Revenue, Even In Dead Spaces
“The decision to go with ventless equipment always depends on the facility and space,” says Heim.
In many instances, the space and facility under consideration may have constraints that may not allow for ductwork to run through and penetrate the roof. Fortunately, the flexibility of ventless technology allows cooking stations to be placed almost anywhere without the costly externally ducted air systems, especially in nontraditional spaces.
Ventless systems are also designed to be energy-efficient, which helps to lower operational costs and supports sustainability goals. Additionally, operators can literally take their investment with them to another location if necessary. Unfortunately, a Type I Hood, ducting, compressor, and support structures are static. That investment will just have to be left at the site, no residual value to the restaurant operator. Fortunately, the ventless units and products are portable and can move with the operator.
Primary Factors Driving Meal Trends in 2025
Enhancing the dining experience has become a growing mandate. Even stadium concessions, airport restaurants, and hotel operations have learned that the guest’s meal standards are ever increasing and that they demand a superior overall dining experience.
“Creating an open kitchen can help make the meal preparation more theatrical and engage the culinary staff with the customer,” says Chef Sarah Tresser, VP Business Culinary Development, The Middleby Corporation.
Seeing the culinary team in action reinforces the freshness message and makes the experience memorable and enjoyable, especially if the guest engages with the culinary staff, creating a bond. Why hide the staff in the back-of-the-house? The star attraction is the food, with sights, sounds and aromas to be showcased. “After all, ensuring the customer returns to the restaurant has to be the operator’s primary goal,” said Tresser.
Essentially Any Site Could Become a Restaurant Venue
The hood location and accommodating external air systems are no longer a restriction and design priority.
The Taffer’s Tavern restaurant model depends heavily on ventless equipment to run its restaurants. This emerging franchise chain, led by Jon Taffer, hospitality consultant, and Bar Rescue TV personality, prepared the layouts and expansion plans with ventless cooking solutions. Combi ovens and TurboChef speed-cook ovens are key workhorses for this restaurant. Taffer’s Tavern seats between 120 to 150 patrons, making this restaurant a showcase for ventless cooking success in a high-volume, small-footprint format.
How to Choose the Correct Ventless Cooking Equipment
With so many ventless cooking options to evaluate, how does an operator select what’s best for their restaurant?Middleby firmly believes there are three factors to consider: menu, volume and location.
Menu. Review your menu and determine what you are going to need to prepare and cook. The menu will definitely dictate the type of equipment that your restaurant requires, whether that’s a griddle, combi oven, or fryer. There are no limits on menu creativity or culinary concepts with all the ventless options available.
Volume. What’s the demand at your venue? Focus on the key “bewitching hour during lunch service.” That will help you ensure you select the appropriate cooking assortment to handle the largest cooking throughput needs at lunch and dinner.
Location. What is the square footage you’re working with? Are you in a non-traditional space, with high ceilings? Is your location surrounded by residential units? Is your landlord concerned about cooking odors and smoke?
By considering these three factors, you’ll be able to evaluate and select the ventless cooking equipment that’s ideal for your operation.
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- 2025 Bar & Restaurant Expo, March 24-26, 2025, Las Vegas, Nevada. Register Now!
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