Negril. Washington, D.C., USA.

When the Negril family started inviting friends and neighbours over for Jamaican barbecue on weekends 45 years ago, they soon realized that the delicious cuisine was not available anywhere in the area. It inspired them to pursue the goal of opening a restaurant in Washington, D.C., and bringing affordable, authentic Jamaican fare to the neighborhood. Today, customers can enjoy authentic Jamaican cuisine's broad range of distinctive flavors and cooking techniques at any of the four Negril locations in the D.C. area. “We use real food,” says Negril's Chief Financial Officer, Brian Chinn.

“We use real ingredients. There are no shortcuts. We do dishes that traditionally simmer for a long time to develop their signature blend of flavors.”

Of course, this comes with its own challenges. Negril relied on stoves and convection ovens, so their kitchens were often hot and hectic, and when large catering orders came in, their staff sometimes had to come in at 3 AM to start preparing food.

At times, they even had to turn unexpected orders away, which meant lost business. “Our relationship with RATIONAL started some time ago,”

Chinn recalls. “When we first saw RATIONAL cooking systems demonstrated, they were highly sophisticated, but we were hooked. We started working with RATIONAL Regional Sales Manager Cindy Selby to really examine our menu and our food production. Having a professional partner to guide us through the transition as we optimized our kitchen processes was crucial.” The menu at Negril features jerk wings, oxtail, goat, cabbage, rice and peas, rum cakes, and specialty drinks. Each location 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 filled savory pastry. We're also known for our jerk chicken and our curries.”

“Time savings was the first thing we dove into, and transitioning from conventional technology to RATIONAL has offered tremendous benefits. The jerk chicken is our main selling menu item, and we've not only managed to elevate the quality of the results, but we can also prepare it a lot faster.”

Shaun Holness grew up in Jamaica and moved to the United States seven years ago, where he started off as a dishwasher at Negril's Bowie, Maryland, location. Two years later, he had worked his way up to district manager. Training employees on the iCombi Pro has gone very well, he says. “It’s simple to explain, and they catch on quickly. Once you program all the recipes, it's straightforward.” Switching from conventional equipment to RATIONAL didn't slow them down at all, he says; in fact, it allowed them to move faster than ever before. “We're still learning a lot, still working to incorporate different dishes,” Holness says. “But because we are all using the same ConnectedCooking program, the results are more consistent between locations.”

Negril managers rely on the ConnectedCooking app to check performance history and examine individual locations in detail. They can review ConnectedCooking and HACCP data at weekly meetings to ensure everything was prepared correctly and troubleshoot any quality control issues.

“One very surprising benefit we noticed after installing the RATIONAL equipment was the change of temperature in the kitchens, in our working envrionments. Since we started doing a lot more of the cooking in closed cooking systems that work faster and are well-insulated, the kitchen staff has been feeling a lot better – it's a perfect environment now, not a sauna.

Third, we had to talk about the necessary investment costs, and through our partnership with RATIONAL, we discovered that there's actually a really high level of investment security involved. The investment pays off on several levels and even elevates our business. In the end, that's our main motivator.”

The change in the kitchen climate mentioned earlier reduces the burden on our ventilation systems.

• It means we use up to 3-5 tons less AC per kitchen, which means big $$ savings.
• The cooking precision they offer has let us reduce our raw ingredients usage.
• Shorter cooking times mean lower cooking losses on the chicken, which has allowed us to buy smaller birds and save $200-300 per store per week.

Staying on top of combi-oven maintenance is key to long cooking system life.

Trudy Wilson, Negril district manager, adds that RATIONAL makes their catering process far easier. “Our chicken turns out juicy and delicious,” she says. She’s now able to take on more last-minute orders, business she would have had to turn down in the past. “It feels really good to be able to say, ‘We can help you’, and not have to turn customers away,” she says.

“If I were to open another restaurant, RATIONAL would definitely be in it,” Chinn says. “These investments pay off. They're like like having a second pair of hands in the kitchen.”