Not many of us get to see the kitchen of hotels or bakeries here. Yet, going by machinery manufacturers and distributors here, it looks like the cooking space at hotels, bakeries, industries, and institutions have undergone a sea change during the last few years.
Automated and mechanised kitchen that need minimum number of men to wash or cut vegetables, cook, bake, mix ingredients, fry and clean vessels are common.
These also save on time, cost and labour and ensure hygiene and consistency in quality.
Given the huge potential in this segment, Coimbatore is next only to Chennai in the State in kitchen and bakery equipment manufacturing, says a manufacturer here. The city has over 50 industries, including pan-India distributors for some of the well-known international brands.
M. Sathish Kumar, Managing Partner of EssEmm Corporation, says “Good food is through good process and it is not just the cooking process. Quality and hygiene are important at every stage of cooking,” he says. Hence, even small-scale hotels and institutions are going in for automation and the demand has increased manifold during the last five years. See-through kitchen are becoming common and the machinery customers are cost conscious too.
Germany is a pioneer in kitchen equipment manufacturing. Some of the international brands are ready to modify the product for Indian cooking needs. Indian manufacturers have the capacity and need to focus on innovation, he says.
John Peter, Manager of Coimbatore Kitchen Equipment, adds that several of the manufacturers here are now moving towards production of automated machinery.
K. Karthikeyan, Managing Partner of Imayam Engineering Works, says Coimbatore is an industrial city and has technically skilled workers.
It also has a large number of bakeries, and hence the demand for bakery equipment is huge.
With labour shortage, most of the outlets go in for automated or mechanised kitchen and this has given a boost to machinery manufacturing for this sector.
The basic equipment for a bakery are for flour kneading, cake mixing, baking and slicing. There are advanced versions of the machinery. Some manufacturers export to neighbouring countries too.
