When Kendall College needed to grow and modernize its offerings, it knew it wanted to partner with RATIONAL. The Chicago-based college, part of National Louis University, recently added an event space and expanded facilities for its baking students with help from RATIONAL.
“RATIONAL has played a great role in our development, in our curriculum, and in the new space,” says Leigh Uhlir, the dean of Kendall College.
She adds, “In the old space, we were very tried-and-true and traditional, and I think we were very similarly aligned in the curriculum. We can still have the tried-and-true gas stoves, but we can also have the new technology to make sure that our students are seeing the vast array of equipment and how that works in business models these days. RATIONAL really allowed us to create a space that shows a little bit of everything.”
A partner to grow with
National Louis University asked Kendall College to build an event space that could host internal and external events, from lunches to large banquets at the Downtown Chicago campus.
RATIONAL worked with Kendall College to design the 1,200-square-foot kitchen, which is equipped with the company’s iCombi Pro ovens, which are intelligent combi ovens. Chefs can use the iCombi to roast, grill, bake, smoke, air-fry, steam, and cook at low temperatures—all in one unit.
“RATIONAL is a great partner to work with. I appreciate having them really take the time to understand what we need and not force anything that wouldn't work for us in our curriculum,” Uhlir says. “I think that onboarding, as well as that training, has really put us in a position to understand that RATIONAL's goal is not just to sell us a piece of equipment, but to really get us to understand how the equipment can be part of our community.”
A pastry kitchen challenge
RATIONAL also recently helped Kendall College expand its baking program, which is incredibly popular with students and has long had a waitlist. There just wasn’t space to add traditional ovens, explains Marianne Albovias, a chef-instructor at Kendall College.
“I've been pushing for a long time to have another kitchen, for baking and pastry because we were at capacity,” she says. “So there was definitely a demand for a kitchen. But where we're located, there's not a lot of space.”
The challenge was to create a baking and pastry space that didn’t require vents or hoods, she says. “With RATIONAL, we were able to create a kitchen,” she explains. The RATIONAL iCombi Pro is available with UltraVent, which is perfect for smaller spaces that need ventilation without a lot of overhead space. Now Albovias can hold her pastry and baking classes every day of the week.
“I'm glad we have that opportunity to show the students how to use the iCombi, because they'll be able to take off and run with it when they get out in the industry,” she says.
As she’s become more familiar with the iCombi, Albovias has marveled at the consistent results she and her students get from RATIONAL equipment.
For Uhlir, it’s the efficiency that’s impressed her the most.
“When you have more time to be able to finish up your reports, when you have more time to be able to get to that extra lesson because you're using a piece of equipment that is more efficient,” she says. “You really focus on what you've gained.”
See what you can gain from working with RATIONAL.
This post is sponsored by RATIONAL