Contact Grills are a fundamental piece of equipment for commercial kitchens, sandwich shops, delis and Cafes. Although the commercial contact grill is a relatively simple piece of equipment it can be put to a huge variety of uses; from paninis & toasties to a full breakfast offering, allowing you to offer real variety on your menu combined with quick service.

With such an abundance of commercial panini grills on the market it can be a difficult task to choose the right unit for your application and establishment.

Let’s start with size. Our offering includes a range of sizes to suit any business. Our compact panini grills designed for small cafes, Bistros and Coffee shops from top manufacturers including the Buffalo DM903 & GJ455, Blizzard BRSCG1, reliable Cater-Cook CK8013 & CK8015 and medium duty Maestrowave contact grill range. These compact ranges of sandwich grills offer a generous cooking surface of W220 x D215mm to easily grill paninis, toasties, steaks etc. Perfect for smaller establishments.

Larger single contact grills such as the Buffalo L518, the CK8111 / CK8112 from Cater-Cook, the Sirman ELIO & Waring CF230. These units are all designed for higher volume operations with powerful, reliable heating elements and larger cooking surfaces for busy Cafes, bars, restaurants, kiosks & delis.

Finally, the Double Contact Grills. These contact grills have two liftable high performance cooking plates so you can easily cater for more than one order at the same time. The double contact grill has two variable heat controls – during quieter periods one side can be turned off to keep your energy costs down. Caterkwik offer unbeatable prices. Double contact grills including the French made Roller Grill Majestic Grills, Lincat LCG2, Sirman PD and the Cater-Cook CK8013 & CK8017.

The next thing you need to consider when purchasing a commercial contact grill is the cooking surface. The ribbed panini grills allow you to brand the foods and the ribbed cooking plate also allows a rapid heat up and recovery time. The flat bottom panini grills provide more versatile cooking, giving you the ability to cook food such as eggs.

You also need to consider the cleaning, look out for an easily removable grease tray which can be washed in a dishwasher at the end of service. It might not be the first thing on your mind when choosing a new piece of equipment for your commercial kitchen, but certainly not a consideration to be over looked. Most of the café grills are constructed from durable stainless steel to deal with heavy rigours of a typical commercial kitchen. The cooking plates are made from cast iron, renowned for durability.

How big are your butties? Ensure you get a Panini Grill with a swivel head or counter balance top plate so no matter how thick the panini or food is you are grilling, you will still get an even cooking result.

If speed is your number one concern, then Caterkwik also offer the Electrolux SpeeDelight Panini Grill. The SpeeDelight is the fastest panini grill combining 3 different heating sources you can prepare and serve the best sandwiches in the market in under a 1 minute. Or less time than it takes to serve a coffee. With 8 editable preloaded programmes, LED display, automatic lid opening, USB port, Wifi connection and a self- adjusting upper plate this really is the mother of all panini grills. This machine, whilst requiring a hefty initial investment relative to a standard panini grill – can, in the right environment, pay for itself many times over in a very short space of time.

Pound for pound best value is undoubtedly the Cater-Cook range of Panini Grills which encompass all the features needed for a reliable work horse grill with great cooking results. Featuring counter balance top plates, cast iron cooking surface, variable heat controls all available in a variety of sizes to suit any business and backed by industry leading after sales support.

How to make the most out of your contact grill.

Although the contact grill is a simple piece of equipment, they can also be a great money maker for your business, so it is important you make the most out of your grill and ensure you get the best flavours from the cast iron cooking surface. It is important you season the cast iron panini grill well before you cook with it. Although the cooking surface less oil than most cooking surfaces it does require a layer brushed on to form a non-stick layer on the cooking surface. The non-stick properties of cast iron actually improve over time unlike chemical coated cookware which deteriorates over time. So, providing the panini grill is well seasoned before initial use the grill will last you a life time!

The panini grill needs to be pre heated before use – so the cooking surface has time to evenly heat up and prevent parts of the food cooking quicker than other parts. Cast iron has a poorer thermal conductivity compared to aluminium and steel cooking plates so you need to pre heat the surface on high heat before you begin cooking.

If you need any further information or advice regarding contact grills then please do not hesitate to call our friendly customer service team.

We’re here to help.

Tags: Cafe equipment, cafe panini grill, cafe sandwich grill, commercial catering equipment, commercial contact grill, commercial electric grill, Commercial panini grill, contact grill, panini grill, ribbed top panini grill, sandwich grill

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2019 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.