Comparision of cook-chill and conventional production systems in catering establishments

The purpose of this study was to enlighten the advantages of the conventional and the cook-chill production systems adopted in catering establishment by comparing both systems from the respect of performance criteria. For this purpose, the performance criteria related to both systems were identified by literature review, pilot survey and expert panels. The production process, finance, cost, productivity, personnel, distribution and customer services are seven criteria. Also these criteria were divided into 37 sub-criteria. By using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, the manager of twenty six catering establishment were asked to fill a questionnaire prepared for this survey. Furthermore, the managers of these establishments were interviewed about the systems. Also, the observation method was conducted in thirteen establishments. Moreover, the perceptions of the customers were analysed from data obtained from the second questionnaire.In this study, to collect data, the methods of interview, observation and questionnaire were conducted. Based on the results of the interviews, it was found the managers prefer the cook-chill method. In the observations conducted, it was observed that the establishments work with sufficient and adequate equipment?s and the establishment adopting the cook-chill method have more technological appliances. Also, it was observed that the conventional method is more frequent in production of the main products. However, the cook-chill method is also used in pre-preparation and production of some meals.From the respect of the customers, it was found that their perceptions related to the cooking methods, taste of meal, flavour, the balance of nutrition, natural aroma, meal appearance and leftover are positive. However, the level of customers? satisfaction about the meal temperature is lower and they do not have any idea about the hygienic conditions and the natural texture of meal components.According to the application of AHP, it was concluded that the cook-chill system is more advantageous from the respect of distribution, productivity, production process, and cost and personnel criteria. However, there are no meaningful differences between two systems in finance and customer services criteria.According to the results of this multidirectional survey, it was concluded that the cook-chill method is more advantageous than the conventional system (% 62,5-% 37,5).