Decades of experience went into the iHexagon from RATIONAL, a new oven that intelligently coordinates steam, hot air, and microwave across six racks.RATIONAL has been making products for the restaurant industry for more than 50 years. And the people behind the iHexagon brought their own restaurant expertise and advanced culinary knowledge to the making of this product. It takes that kind of experience to create an entirely new category of professional cooking equipment.Steve Snitkin, the director of product management of the iHexagon, for example, used his culinary education and experience running restaurants to ensure the equipment met restaurants' needs. Part of his job is to speak to restaurant operators about the challenges they face. Snitkin has found the iHexagon alleviates many of the biggest restaurant industry pain points regarding labor, training, menu development, and space.“Basically, the iHexagon is a supercharged combi oven with the most intelligent microwave you could have,” he said. RATIONAL, he explained, took its acclaimed iCombi Pro and supercharged it with faster cooking times and higher capacity. The iHexagon can handle multiple cooking methods—grilling, roasting, braising, steaming, baking, and reheating—in a single piece of equipment.“The nice thing about our technology is we're limited by practically nothing,” Snitkin said.Speed and serviceSnitkin knows quickly turning tables and efficiently moving customers through queues is how restaurants can make their margins work. And the iHexagon, which is 30% faster than the iCombi Pro, is the perfect way to speed up cooking times without sacrificing quality.The iClimateBoost, a feature of the iHexagon, intelligently coordinates steam, hot air, microwave, fan speed, and cooking time, and calibrates for product type. So 20lbs of chicken wings, for instance, can cook from raw in just 10 minutes without degradation of quality. Snitkin said “That’s because the microwave is assisting—it's not the core cooking platform.”At fast-casual and quick-service restaurants, the iHexagon can deliver when customers have high expectations and limited time. A restaurant with an egg sandwich on the menu could use the iHexagon to handle every element of the sandwich, from cooking the eggs and bacon to baking the bread. Restaurant staff can cook and assemble sandwiches before the morning rush and heat them up for diners on demand, even if those sandwiches are pre-wrapped.“With traditional combis, it's very hard to get that product hot in the center because the paper's blocking the heat and humidity,” he said. “But with the iHexagon having the adaptive intelligent microwave, it goes right to the heart of the product and starts heating it up right away, so you’re getting the quality of combi cooking with the speed of a microwave.”Adding menu items, not headachesRATIONAL and Snitkin know that demands on restaurants are enormous, and training employees is one of the biggest concerns for many operators. While the iHexagon is a complex, high-tech product, it’s simple to use.“The iHexagon can do a thousand and one things, but maybe your cooks only need to see the 12 or 15 items that they're doing. We could make everything on the screen disappear except those items,” Snitkin said. Icons of different foods and instructions available in multiple languages allow new employees to take on kitchen tasks with minimal training.Restaurants that want to expand menus or develop a ghost kitchen model with a new concept within the same kitchen will find exceptional benefits with the iHexagon.The iHexagon can grill, roast, braise, steam, bake, and reheat food, so chefs can add new menu items without incorporating a new piece of equipment. And the iHexagon can handle multiple menu items simultaneously with iProduction Manager. The intelligent display will indicate which items can be cooked together. The system monitors each rack separately, adjusting cooking times based on quantities and desired results.“That's the nice thing about the iHexagon. It isn't just another piece of equipment in your kitchen,” Snitkin said. “It is the kitchen.”To learn more about how the iHexagon can benefit your restaurant and to schedule a demo, visit the RATIONAL website.