There’s a new school of thought regarding energy savings in the kitchen, and it starts with discarding an old-school mindset for equipment operation.

“I was a banquet chef when I was younger, and the first thing we did in the morning was turn everything on in the kitchen so we would be ready for a 7 p.m. plate-up,” says Fred Bohn, director of culinary operations at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Delaware. “Change is difficult, and it’s often about breaking a routine that people have had for years.”

For decades, that routine at many hotels was simply to crank it up and leave it up. Today, managers are re-evaluating such practices due to sustained high energy costs and an overall heightened environmental awareness.

Bohn is taking that re-evaluation a step further; he’s created a daily equipment usage schedule for each of his nine kitchens, based on forecasting the hotel’s flow of business every week.

“Rather than just turning everything on in the morning and having it waste energy all day, we turn it on with precisely the right amount of time to get the ovens ready for service. That saves a lot of energy,” says Ed Sutor, president and CEO of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino.

How much energy? Since the program rolled out in December 2008, Bohn says it has resulted in a six percent decrease in gas consumption property-wide and has cut the cost of gas per square foot from six cents to four cents. As more time passes, Bohn says he’ll also be able to quantify energy savings in other areas, such as electricity.

PEAK HOURS, SOFT HOURS
Bohn says recognizing when it’s busy and when it’s not—peak hours and soft hours—depends not just on a seasonal forecast based on the previous year’s business levels, but also knowing the food and beverage rhythms of the hotel and casino. Sometimes it’s easy. Banquets and large events are completely planned on BEOs, so the equipment schedule reflects that. Bohn says it’s not as simple in the outlets, however, where customer traffic changes throughout the day.

“Our Garden Café opens at 11 a.m., for example, so all the equipment on the line goes on at 10:45,” he says. “Later, if business slows down, we might need one oven or one steam table on, but that’s it. We’ll turn the grill on when we mark our steaks, then turn it off again. Overall, Monday through Thursday is a little slower than Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so there are separate weekday and weekend schedules.”

Another outlet, The Festival Buffet, opens at 7 a.m. The kitchen opens at 5 a.m., and the peak customer rush is at 9:30 a.m. There are six ovens available, but according to Sous Chef Lori Johnson, the staff only uses four to start, and “as we’re getting closer to our peak time, we’ll turn on the other ovens and utilize them until after our 1 p.m. lunch rush. Then we’ll shut two ovens off until about 4 p.m.,” she says.

ALL FIRED UP
Speed equals efficiency in the kitchen, and it’s a key factor in keeping the equipment schedule on target at Dover Downs.

“Our chefs know exactly how long it takes all their different pieces to warm up. Some of them, like steam-jacketed kettles, take almost no time at all,” Bohn says. “Most of our equipment takes under 15 minutes, except for steamers, which might be 20 minutes. We recently purchased some on-demand steamers that only steam water as it’s requested, so that’s expected to save money too.”

Sutor and Bohn are part of a six-person energy savings committee that meets biweekly to discuss new ways Dover Downs can be more efficient. It’s here that the idea for the equipment schedule originated.

In the past year, the property has spent $3 million replacing traditional light bulbs with LED bulbs, upgrading the HVAC systems in the kitchens, and instituting a full recycling program that includes bottles and used fryer oil. Sutor says the investment is expected to return about $600,000 a year in lower energy bills.

The success of the equipment schedule ultimately depends on the 80 cooks and 15 chefs at Dover Downs executing the program as planned. Bohn says no one has had a problem breaking any “crank it up and leave it up” kitchen habits like he had as a young banquet chef.

“Our staff is looking to cut their energy bills at home, so they understand the concept,” he observes. “It’s a constant awareness that all of my chefs have, and they buy into it completely.”

Michael Costa is industry relations editor for HOTEL F&B. He worked for several years in the kitchen and in F&B purchasing at a large convention hotel in Chicago, as well as having attended culinary school.