One of the biggest and best oven manufacturers on the country, Blodgett, is based in Vermont. We’d love to use them but we can’t. We already use their neighbor to the East, Pitco, for our fryers. But Blodgett doesn’t make the oven we need.

(A not-so-quick aside about Pitco. There are a bunch of fryer manufacturers in the country. On the West Coast many use Frymaster. But on the east coast it’s generally Pitco. And down South there are a few big ones, including Henny Penny. But here’s where the fun comes in. Henny Penny’s specialty? Pressure fryers, best thing going for fried chicken. And Pitco? They have a special well at the bottom of their fryers, no other fryer is designed that way. It’s a “crumb trap.” It was designed because so many of their fryers are used for fried sea food on the east coast. The little trap takes the fallen stuff out of the heat so it doesn’t continuously oxidize and ruin the oil. What does the West Coast have going for it’s fryers? I don’t know, but they use them at In-N-Out.)

The oven we love isa Moffat. I found it early on. All ovens are rectangular, and fit a common sized sheet pan. But every oven places that sheetpan with the long direction going left to right, making the oven wide and shallow. But these ovens ALWAYS go in a lineup with other equipment, like fryers, that are deep. For whatever reason Moffat is the only one that gets this. Their oven goes deep and narrow. Much, much better. AND, you don’t loose as much heat when you open the door, so they have better real world energy efficiency.

Now that I’ve told you more than you ever wanted to know about ovens (and fryers), this is a picture of our newest beauty. Our equipment supplier for the restaurant, Phil over at Boston Showcase, wanted me to rush order some of the last of the old stock. I said I’d wait. He said he couldn’t guarantee availability of the new model. I said I’d risk it. I called the rep for Moffat and learned about the improvements. Very glad to have waited. These new ovens are spectacular. They’ve improved a bunch of things that matter to us, including better placement of the top vent, better control knobs, more robust door hinge, and a window on the door that will not break on the 5th day of use (as the previous 2 models always did).