While soup is good all year, it’s great when the weather gets chilly. Adding soup, stew or chili to your menu can be an easy menu addition to attract new customers and satisfy your current following. While any commercial food warmer can be used to keep hot soup hot and ready. If you want to add soup to your buffet or serving station, you’ll need a soup warmer that’s designed for the front of the house, but what should you look for in a soup warmer? Here are questions and answers to get you started.
1. What types of soup warmers are there?
Soup warmers can be found in two different styles either as a simple round food warmer or in a style that looks like a small kettle. No matter what the commercial soup warmer looks like, they both typically would have the same functionality and many of the same benefits. The soup kettle style is most appropriate for a front of the house application where the round style soup warmer may be front or back of the house.
2. How many wells are available in a soup warmer?
Most commercial soup warmers have capacities between 4 and 11 quarts, with a soup serving averaging about 10 oz, and therefore three servings to a quart. Depending on the number of soups you are serving, you can usually find soup warmers that have one, two or three wells to accommodate three different types of soup options.
3. Do soup warmers have lids?
Because you want to keep your product hot and fresh, soup warmers have lids available. Lids are usually solid or hinged. A hinged lid allows for partial covering of the product to hold in heat, even when soup is being served. Additionally, hinged lids are great in self-serve applications because customers won’t need to find a place to set the lid while they serve themselves. A solid lid offers greater coverage to hold in heat but does need to be removed and usually set in place for soup to be served. Solid lids are easier to keep clean than hinged lids because they don’t have the hinge to trap food.
4. What common features are available with commercial soup warmers?
Because soup warmers and soup kettles are often placed in the front-of-the house or in self-serve applications, you can often purchase signage with your soup warmer to help attract customers. Depending on the application or environment, a free-standing kiosk for your soup would act as a display and a serving station and can be beneficial.
Adding soup to the menu is a great way to attract new customers and change things up for your current customer base. With the addition of a soup warmer or soup kettle to your serving line or buffet, you can easily add seasonal soups in any day part.
