Cooked food staging device and method

• US 5,724,886 A
• Filed: 06/18/1996
• Issued: 03/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Restaurant Technologies Incorporated (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Restaurant Technologies Incorporated (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ewald, Henry T., Sus, Gerald A., Venetucci, Patricia A., Coffey, Jimmie L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Scherbel, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hook, James F.
• Application Number:
  US08/665,781
• Time in Patent Office: 630 Days
• Field of Search: 99/483, 99/373, 99/374, 99/389, 99/448, 99/468
• US Class Current: 99/374
• CPC Class Codes: A47B 88/43 at cabinet side
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 10/06 for restaurant service systems table equipment A47G ; dirty crockery transport in association with crockery washing machines A47L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 39/006 for either storing and preparing or for preparing food on serving trays, e.g. heating, thawing, preserving
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 3/00 Ohmic-resistance heating
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 3/286 the insulating material being an organic material, e.g. plastic

Abstract

A cooked food staging device and method is provided. The cooked food staging device allows previously cooked food items, particularly sandwich fillings such as hamburger patties, fish fillets, biscuits, Canadian bacon, pork sausage, eggs, chicken patties, chicken fillets and nuggets, to be stored over extended periods of time at an elevated temperature without significant deleterious effects to the appearance, taste and texture of the food while avoiding risk of bacterial contamination. The food staging device is composed of a plurality of discrete compartments bounded by upper and lower heated compartment surfaces. Food can be stored within the compartments in trays having side walls of a height such that a gap is achieved between the top of the tray and the upper compartment heated surface to limit and control the evaporation of liquid from the food stored therein.

Claims

1. A device for holding a plurality of previously cooked food portions at elevated temperatures, comprising:

at least one discrete compartment for holding the food portions, said compartment having a compartment height and being bounded by an upper heated compartment surface and a lower heated compartment surface;

a cabinet defining a volume that encloses said at least one compartment therein, said cabinet including at least one inlet opening for inserting the food portions into said compartment and an outlet opening opposite said inlet opening for removing the food portions contained in said at least one compartment, said inlet and outlet openings located on opposed sides of said cabinet; and

at least one tray for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray including a tray bottom and a tray sidewall, said tray sidewall extending upwardly from said tray bottom and terminating at an upper edge, wherein said tray has a height that is zero to about 0.25 inches less than the height of said compartment such that when said tray is stored in said compartment, evaporation of liquid from the cooked food portions contained within that said tray is restricted.

2. The device of claim 1 having at least two of said compartments, wherein said compartments are vertically spaced apart and said cabinet further comprises a plurality of vertically spaced-apart inlet and outlet doors such that each said compartment is bounded on opposed sides by one inlet door and one outlet door.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein each of said inlet and outlet doors is attached at opposed sides thereof to said cabinet for pivotal movement of said inlet and outlet doors in a generally upward direction.

4. The device of claim 2 wherein successive pairs of said inlet doors are vertically spaced apart from each other to define an open gap therebetween to provide an air passageway, said gap being approximately equal in vertical distance to at least the thickness of said inlet door that is immediately below said gap.

5. The device in claim 1 wherein the height of said tray is approximately 0.16 inches less than the height of said compartment.

6. The device in claim 5 wherein the height of said compartment is in range of from about 1.0 to 2.75 inches.

7. The device in claim 1 wherein at least one tray has a length that is less than and substantially equal to the depth of said compartment.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein said lower heated compartment surface is heated by a respective lower electric resistance heating element and said upper heated compartment surface is heated by a respective upper electric resistance heating element.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein said upper and lower heated compartment surfaces are substantially planar and horizontal.

10. A device for holding a plurality of previously cooked food portions at elevated temperature, comprising:

a cabinet having a cabinet front, a cabinet rear, spaced-apart first and second opposed sidewalls, a top and a bottom;

an uppermost shelf and a lowermost shelf, said uppermost shelf comprising a lower heated surface and said lowermost shelf comprising an upper heated surface;

means for heating said upper and lower heated surfaces;

at least one interior shelf located above said lowermost shelf and below said uppermost shelf and comprising an upper surface, a lower surface vertically spaced apart from the upper surface, and heating means for heating said upper surface and said lower surface of said interior shelf, said heating means being located in the space between said upper surface and said lower surface of said interior shelf;

an upper holding chamber and a lower holding chamber for containing cooked food portions, said upper holding chamber being bounded and heated by a lower heated chamber surface defined by the upper surface of the interior shelf and an upper heated chamber surface defined by the lower heated surface of the uppermost shelf, said lower holding chamber being bounded and heated by a lower heated chamber surface defined by said upper heated surface of the lowermost shelf, and an upper heated chamber surface defined by said lower surface of said interior shelf;

a first inlet opening located in said cabinet front for inserting the food portions into said cabinet;

a first outlet opening opposite said first inlet opening and located in said cabinet rear, for removing the cooked food portions from said cabinet; and

at least one tray for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray comprising a bottom and a sidewall extending upwardly from said bottom, said sidewall defining a tray height that is in the range of from about 0 inches to about 0.25 inches less than the height of one of said chambers.

11. The device of claim 10 further comprising a plurality of vertically spaced apart inlet and outlet doors such that said lower holding chamber and said upper holding chamber are each bounded by one inlet door and one outlet door.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein said inlet door bounding said lower holding chamber is separated from said inlet door bounding said upper holding chamber by an open gap approximately equal to at least the thickness of said inlet door bounding said lower holding chamber to provide an air passageway.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein said inlet door bounding said lower holding chamber is separated from said inlet door bounding said upper holding chamber by a gap approximately equal to 0.25 inches.

14. The device of claim 10 wherein the height of said tray is approximately 0.16 inches less than the height of one of said chambers.

15. The device of claim 10 wherein the length of said tray is less than and substantially equal to the depth of one of said chambers.

16. The device of claim 10 wherein said means for heating said interior shelf and said means for heating said uppermost lowermost shelves each comprises at least one electric resistance heating element.