Negril Jamaican Eatery. Washington, D.C., USA.

Authentic Jamaican food normally cooks slowly, simmering to develop its signature blend of flavors and seasonings.

When Negril Jamaican Eatery opened its first restaurant in Washington, D.C. nearly 45 years ago, its goal was to bring affordable, authentic Jamaican fare to the neighborhood. Today, Negril has four locations in the D.C. area, giving customers the full spectrum of distinctive flavors and cooking techniques that Jamaican cuisine has to offer.

“We use real food. We use real ingredients. There are no shortcuts,” says Negril’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian Chinn. “We do dishes that traditionally take a long time to make.”

That is, until they installed RATIONAL iCombi Pro units in Negril’s kitchens and central commissary. They have sped up cooking times significantly, and the cooking process no longer requires close monitoring. Everything is automated, timed, and consistent across the four locations.

The menu at Negril features jerk wings, oxtail and goat, cabbage, rice and peas, rum cakes, and specialty drinks. Each restaurant serves approximately 500 meals per day.

“What we're most known for is our Jamaican beef patty,” Chinn says. “It’s almost like an empanada, a turnover with filling inside. We also are known for our jerk chicken and our curry dishes.”

Previously, Negril relied on stoves and convection ovens. It got hot in the kitchens, and large catering orders sometimes meant staff needed to come in at 3AM to begin preparing food. RATIONAL equipment changed that: perfectly seasoned and textured chicken that used to take nearly two hours to cook is now ready in 35 minutes, cutting production time by over 70%.

“The stress of running a restaurant is at an all-time high,” Chinn says, “and all I’m trying to do for my staff is make their lives easier.”

Installing RATIONAL in the kitchens means less stress, less chaos, and less heat load while delivering consistent results. “The staff absolutely love it,” he says.

Shaun Holness grew up in Jamaica, moved to the United States seven years ago, and began working as a dishwasher at the Negril in Bowie, Maryland. Two years later, he worked his way up to district manager.

Training employees to use the iCombi Pro has gone very well, he says. “It’s a simple explanation, and they get it easily. It’s straightforward once you program all the recipes.” He says the move from conventional equipment to RATIONAL did not slow them down a bit; rather, it enabled them to start moving faster than ever before.

“We are still learning a lot, and still working to incorporate different dishes,” Holness says. “But because we are all using the same ConnectedCooking program, it is more consistent over all the stores.”

Negril managers rely on the ConnectedCooking app to see performance history and take a closer look at a particular location. During weekly meetings, they can review ConnectedCooking and HACCP data to ensure everything was prepared correctly and troubleshoot any quality control issues.

“Prior to ConnectedCooking, the only way of doing this was to physically be there all the time,” Chinn points out.

Trudy Wilson, Negril district manager, adds that RATIONAL makes the catering process far easier. “The quality of our chicken that’s coming out – it’s moist, it’s wonderful,” she says. She’s now able to take on more last-minute orders. In the past, she had to turn them down.

“It feels really good to be able to say, ‘We can help you’ and not have to turn customers away,” she says. And if they show up late to pick up their food, it still has excellent integrity, juiciness, and consistency.”

“With Jamaican cooking, you cook with love. Jamaican cooks are like, ‘Oh, I know what I'm doing…a sprinkle of this and a sprinkle of that…’ and so each store would have an extra sprinkle here and an extra sprinkle there. Now we are all uniformly doing the same thing. I think it has a major impact.”

“If I were to open another restaurant, it would definitely have RATIONAL in it,” Chinn says. “Obviously these are big investments, but it will pay off. It’s like a second pair of hands in the kitchen.”