Heated and Holding Cabinets are designed to keep food fresh and safe during the time between cooking and serving. These cabinets are a must in almost all institutional kitchens as well as banquet facilities to keep your product fresh and delicious as well as holding product at safe temperatures. If you’re in the market for a holding cabinet, it’s good to prepare yourself with a little knowledge about the variations in styles and features as well as functionality. Consider these variations when shopping for holding cabinets:
Size
Holding cabinets can be full height (65”H or more) to undercounter (34”H). You can also find them in half height (between 36” and 41”H) or three quarter height (54” to 57”H), these sizes are great for small or medium sized operations or in addition to a full height cabinet in a high volume kitchen.
Capacity
Holding cabinets capacity refers to the number of pans that the cabinet can hold. It is important to look to see if the capacity is referring to sheet pans or hotel pans as they vary in depth, so that you are comparing apples to apples. You can tell what size pan a cabinet can accommodate by looking at the spacing of the slides.
Style
The most common type of cabinet will be a reach-in, which has a single door. There are also pass through models which open in the front and back, most often used in areas where they are loaded on once side and food is removed from the other door.
Door Type & Configuration
Depending on where you are using your cabinet, you can choose from solid or clear doors for visibility. You can also get full height doors or half or Dutch doors allowing you access while holding as much heat as possible in the cabinet.
Insulation
Holding cabinets can be insulated or non-insulated. Typically, a non-insulated cabinet is less expensive to purchase and are better for a low volume operation. Insulated cabinets have better heat retention are a good choice if you are transporting food or holding food for longer periods of time.
Controls
Digital controls provide very precise measurements and can be more intuitive, but they are also more costly. Manual controls are more economical but may need to be monitored more closely. You should also pay attention to the location of the controls on the cabinet to be sure you can easily access them.
Cook’s carries a variety of holding cabinets from a variety of manufacturers including Metro, Food Warming Equipment, Vulcan and Cres Cor.
