{"id":637968,"date":"2026-04-29T07:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637968\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T07:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:30:12","slug":"how-clever-kitchen-equipment-is-helping-chefs-improve-efficiency-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637968\/","title":{"rendered":"How clever kitchen equipment is helping chefs improve efficiency – hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Sydney hospitality group Etymon appointed him head chef of its latest project, Osteria Luna, Peter Fiander has been hard at work optimising the kitchen. \u201cThe kitchen we have is quite small for the size of the restaurant,\u201d he says. \u201cYou do have to get a bit creative with what space and what technology you have.\u201d <\/p>\n

Upon opening in December 2025, the chef quickly identified early bottlenecks in the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a manual pasta roller, and keeping up with the numbers that we were doing was a bit of a struggle,\u201d says Fiander. \u201cSo we invested in an electric pasta machine for rolling out, specifically at the moment, our mushroom ravioli. That cut down our workload significantly. The job that would take three chefs an hour, one chef can now smash out in about 45 minutes. That\u2019s been a real game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ravioli he is talking about is one of Osteria Luna\u2019s most aesthetically noteworthy dishes (a crucial hook in a culture where food has become enmeshed with social media imagery): an entire unseparated sheet of ravioli al funghi doused in brown butter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fiander doesn\u2019t believe that using machinery like the pasta roller has any negative impact on the craftmanship of the dish. \u201cIt\u2019s just motorised rolling pins. It\u2019s doing the exact same thing \u2013 but it saves your arm muscles and does it quicker than you could.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a number of pressure points facing commercial kitchens at the moment \u2013 from tight margins and rising energy costs to labour shortages and increasing expectations for consistency. For chefs like Fiander, finding the right equipment acts as both a productivity tool and a strategic business decision.<\/p>\n

Brisbane\u2019s Norman Hotel Executive Chef Frank Correnti says that for high volume operations, having good equipment is crucial for maintaining consistency and quality in what they produce.<\/p>\n

The hotel hosts more than 3000 covers per week, with most guests ordering steak. Chips make up about 50 percent of the sides that the team serves, which means \u201chaving a good deep fryer system is imperative,\u201d according to Correnti. The hotel installed Frymaster Filtration Fryers from Comcater, which have frequent, rapid filtration that can extend oil life by up to 40 per cent, reducing oil consumption, disposal costs, and overall operating expenses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Correnti says there are a number of benefits with this system. \u201cIn the first year, I saved in excess of $9000 in oil alone, and that\u2019s adding another 25-litre deep fryer to the system. It also helps with the health and safety in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does the oil lifespan save money \u2013 it allows the kitchen to save time (and stay safe) by keeping the oil within the filtration system, which means staff don\u2019t have to carry dangerous hot oil across the floor. \u201cWe used to manually filter the fryers daily, now it\u2019s quite easy for our staff to do, which has reduced the number of hours per week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not every kitchen has such a high output, especially more compact operations. Fiander is no stranger to getting creative in small spaces, having spent a few years at Love Tilly Group\u2019s Sydney CBD pasta joint Ragazzi, where he worked his way up to sous chef.<\/p>\n

\"\"Osteria Luna Head Chef Peter Fiander and Executive Chef Billy Hannigan<\/p>\n

Having a well-oiled team is the first step in ensuring efficiency, and particularly for the Osteria Luna team, where synergy is make or break in the confined space. Fiander quickly developed a \u201csolid\u201d team made up of staff who trained at upstairs restaurant The Charles, which \u2013 like Osteria Luna \u2013 is owned by Etymon, and others who he\u2019s worked with in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars aligned. They were all looking for jobs at the right time, and we ended up working together and creating this team that gels together really well,\u201d says Fiander.<\/p>\n

The kitchen itself didn\u2019t have a huge amount of equipment. At opening, there was only a four-burner gas stove, a target top, a deep fryer, and \u2013 despite the kitchen\u2019s compact size \u2013 a very welcome Rational combi oven.<\/p>\n

The kitchen team uses the combi oven for steaming, baking, roasting, and braising the likes of lamb shoulder overnight for ragu.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really cuts down on how much time you need to utilise the oven for when you need it for service,\u201d says Fiander. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be able to do the kind of braises and ragu that we do without it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The combi oven also helps save space in the tight kitchen, allowing the team to \u201cthrow things in there on steam rather than having however many pots on the stove for blanching and all the rest of it,\u201d says Fiander.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real space saver, especially in something like an Italian restaurant where the food is so heavily based on all the sauces that you\u2019re making. If you come in the morning and you\u2019ve already got six pots for your base sugo sauce, your ragu, and then you\u2019re trying to fit a cotoletta and whatever else on there, it gets a bit tight when you\u2019ve got a four burner gas stove and a target top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoddart Food Equipment Corporate Executive Chef Nick Marsden adds that being able to use combi ovens while the kitchen is closed makes them an asset to commercial kitchens. \u201cTo be able to take advantage of lower energy costs in that off-peak period, but also have those ovens working when they\u2019re not there is a huge benefit to chefs,\u201d says Marsden.<\/p>\n

Marsden says that due to the computer programmability, and multi phase cooking abilities, combi ovens are \u201cvery versatile pieces of equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marsden points to Giorik combi ovens, which have revolutionised traditional systems. Rather than the traditional boiler driven or injector driven oven, they have a hybrid steam generating system. These ovens also have smaller boiler sizes: Rather than a six to ten litre boiler, they use a 400ml boiler in a 10 tray combi. \u201cThis means we\u2019re providing less power for more efficiency to heat the water in the steam generator,\u201d says Marsden. \u201cAnd we\u2019re providing steam to the unit a lot quicker.\u201d <\/p>\n

Marsden says that combi ovens are suitable for all sectors of hospitality, a benefit of the different sizes available.<\/p>\n

In terms of robotics optimising kitchen processes, Fiander is optimistic. \u201cI\u2019ve been cooking for about 11 years, and I\u2019ve seen the evolution of things like a Thermomix or a Robot-Coupe. That\u2019s such a game changer. I can\u2019t tell you how many Hollandaise and Beurre Blancs I split as an apprentice. Being able to chuck them into those machines and set them to the perfect temperature is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiander says machines like this can make the training staff much easier and much more consistent. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about splitting another hollandaise and throwing it away again. So there\u2019s definitely the money saving aspect of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though machines are improving and allowing consistency in the kitchen, Fiander still prides himself on his hands-on, minimal machinery knowledge. \u201cIt\u2019s a responsibility of the chef to be able to do it without all the luxury,\u201d says Fiander. \u201cTechnology has come a long way and it\u2019s quite reliable, but it\u2019s never 100 per cent accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Osteria Luna<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see videos all over the place of wok robots making a stir fry, or something like that. But in terms of cutting out more of a chef\u2019s job, I think we\u2019ve still got a way to go. You can\u2019t really, as far as I\u2019m aware, teach a robot how to taste a sauce.\u201d <\/p>\n

Because of this, Fiander values taking an \u201canalogue\u201d approach in the way he trains. At the end of the day, says Fiander, making what you\u2019ve got on hand work is just part of being a chef.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking in the restaurant industry, you have to be pretty savvy,\u201d says Fiander. \u201cI had this big grand wish list of things, as every chef does. But when you really tear it back, you don\u2019t need all the other fluff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photography by Steven Woodburn and Comcater.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published in the March\/April 2026 edition of\u00a0Hospitality. Read more or subscribe\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Sydney hospitality group Etymon appointed him head chef of its latest project, Osteria Luna, Peter Fiander has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,4722,17016,308829,308830,302842,308831,30621,308832,18601,105],"class_list":["post-637968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-efficiency","tag-equipment","tag-etymon","tag-kitchen-equipment","tag-optimisation","tag-osteria-luna","tag-pasta","tag-peter-fiander","tag-restaurants","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}