Fry Basket Lifts for the Multi-Tasking Commercial Kitchen

No matter what industry you work in, labor challenges exist, and both finding and keeping employees is not a new challenge to the foodservice industry. Now that many restaurants are opening up, or getting ready to open up to full capacity, the challenge is amplified by the fact that not all of the furloughed or laid-off employees are returning to the industry according to Restaurant Business. While businesses have been changing their go-to-market strategies and pivoting to manage with all of the rules and regulations, they are forced to do the same with their staffing and labor issues.

Managing Your Fryers with Constrained Labor

Every restaurant should be evaluating its operational efficiencies to discover opportunities. These evaluations uncover not only opportunities to keep wait times low for increased customer satisfaction, but to streamline labor functions to increase throughput. For some kitchens it means adding dedicated labor to your fry stations at all times, for others it may mean investing in technology to make their labor constrained kitchen an easier place to function.

While there are many options to help automate frying processes and procedures from built-in filtration, smart oil quality sensors, and upgraded controls, there are also automated basket lifts.

Quality and Consistency with Automation

Fry basket lifts can only be used with fryers that have timers built into their controls and will both lower and raise the fry baskets for your cook cycles. For twin basket sizes only, these lifts allow kitchen staff to multi-task as their fry cook times elapse. Once cook times are complete the basket lifts food out of the hot oil and alerts staff to remove the food from the basket.  This fryer accessory ensures food goes into and is pulled out of your oil exactly when it needs to. Preventing foods from burning in your fryer not only helps reduce food waste but also prevents your fryer oil from degrading faster.

Safety Measures with Automation

With timers and automatic lifts, kitchen staff not only sees operational efficiencies but operational safety as well. If you’ve ever been in the weeds during a major kitchen rush, you know the pressure to complete tasks as quickly as possible. While a dedicated fry cook would always understand the finesse of dropping a fry basket into hot oil, someone who is rushing off to another task could potentially drop a basket too quickly causing a splash of hot oil. Basket lifts prevent this by allowing staff to push a button and move on to their next task.

Not only do basket lifts provide safety during rush times, but they also provide better safety measures for operations that fry heavier, more dense products. While a basket of fries is more easily manageable, filling that basket with chicken or other heavier products puts strain on your staff and at risk of wrist injuries. If you’re mostly dealing with fried chicken, explore the ROV Rack fryer that features both manual lift-assist or fully automated lifts, as well as automated built-in filtration.

Are Basket Lifts Right for You?

Not only do you have to match your use case for basket lifts, but make sure your kitchen is ready. Basket lifts add height to fryer models and require specific controls. If you are buying a new fryer or checking to see if your existing fryer can benefit from this accessory, talk to your local expert today!