The reason I was in Hamburg of course, was to attend the biggest commercial gastronomy exhibition in Germany with my new employer. Although the primary purpose was to get to know our regional sales reps and dealers as well as see how things are done from a marketing perspective, I was free to periodically roam around to familiarize myself with the industry in general and our business partners and competition in particular.
The exhibition basically consists of multiple enormous halls containing the newest, the biggest, the most high-tech and of course most expensive commercial kitchen appliances, tools and gadgets (many of which I didn't even know existed) in the world. A good percentage of the exhibitors had professional chefs (some of them famous TV chefs) working fully functioning commercial kitchens, demonstrating their wares by creating every imaginable gourmet delight in record time and dishing it out free of charge to whomever happened to be standing in front of them. You can begin to imagine my enthusiasm. Every now and then I thought "And they're paying me to do this?!"
I actually only made it though a few of the halls, so I can't tell you what was in the other ones. But from what I saw, I can tell you that there is no kitchen task so small, that some company somewhere hasn't made a machine to assist you in that operation. Case in point - I'm not making this up - there was a company proudly displaying a large, fully automated cutlery sorter: pile your various-sized spoons, knives and forks in one end, and it will dispense them in the appropriate holder at the other end. I suppose you would have to have an extremely high-volume dining hall to justify such a purchase, but items like that made the exhibition a fascinating experience.
Close to our display was a company proudly showcasing a huge kitchen island I think any of us could live with. This stainless steel beauty features two convection ranges and one gas range, three various sized frying stations, a built-in barbecue grill, a pressable griddle, several sinks and overhead faucets, all controlled either manually or with three touch-screen LCD displays.
My favourite two items were a little simpler, and conveniently displayed side by side. Just think, you too can have your very own mongolian grill on the patio, composed entirely of stainless steel with a marble ledge.
Or, if you're a little more old-fashioned, you can spring for the partitioned frying pan the size of your entire stovetop. Breakfast for the whole family couldn't be easier.
"Who wants bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes and apple fritters?"
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