The new MaxiPrep Station features open wells with a clever air curtain that keeps ingredients safe, fresh and easy for chefs to access. It also offers multiple work prep surface choices, including sliding chopping boards that double as lids for the wells and an optional overshelf.
The MaxiPrep has ingredients wells mounted into the worktop. They allow chefs to easily see and access the ingredients they need for preparing menu items such as salads, pizzas and sandwiches. What sets the MaxiPrep apart is the number of different ingredients that can be held at once. Its twelve drop-in wells can each accommodate one 1/3 GN container, two 1/6 GNs, or 3 1/9 GNs, all 100mm deep. Each well can also hold a combination of 1/6 GN and 1/9 GN containers. Ultimately, one MaxiPrep station could be used to hold up to 36 different ingredients separately – all of them within easy reach for the kitchen staff.
The unit’s clever design means that, despite the number of wells, there is plenty of prep space for chefs to work in. The worktop to the unit’s front can be used with the chopping boards, which can slide from side to side over the ingredients wells, to give an extensive prep area.
Two optional extras add even more flexibility to the MaxiPrep’s capabilities. First, there’s the overshelf, which is sited at the rear of the unit and can be used as an additional prep area or as a place to hold prepared dishes. Then there are the extendable worktop shelves, which give more prep room at the front of the MaxiPrep.
“There’s been a significant increase in demand for prep stations from sites offering menu items such as pizzas, sandwiches and salads,” says Malcolm Harling, sales and marketing director of Williams. “Having integral ingredients wells in the prep counter speeds things up, as the food is ready to hand, but traditional designs take up valuable work space. However, the MaxiPrep’s flexible design gives more workspace when it’s required, yet at the same time it offers instant access to more ingredients. It’s a big win – hence the name MaxiPrep!”
The ingredients are kept chilled and protected by our advanced airflow system. It guarantees storage temperatures and food safety – yet also saves energy. It chills ingredients pans from below whilst passing a curtain of cool air (at 1°C) over their open tops. This double action not only chills more effectively, keeping ingredients at 4°C, it also puts a cold air barrier between the ingredients and the warm kitchen air, whilst allowing chefs instant access to them. After passing over the ingredients wells, the cold air curtain is drawn back into the MaxiPrep to recover the ‘chill’ and recycle the energy.
Practical features include a compartment, mounted on the side of the MaxiPrep, to store the removable lids/chopping boards and keep them in easy reach. Designed to work in ambient kitchen temperatures up to 43°C, the prep station is built on a three-door refrigerated storage counter, with self-closing doors and a capacity of 336 litres. Spare ingredients can be stored within, so that the pans on top can be quickly restocked as required.
Tough stainless steel construction combines with useful features such as automatic defrost and removable internal fittings to create a practical, robust and attractive unit that’s equally suited to the kitchen or front of house. Energy saving features include the Williams CoolSmart controller, which minimises power consumption, and a waste heat recovery vapouriser. The high performance insulation delivers excellent thermal efficiency and has low GWP and zero ODP.
The MaxiPrep is 860mm deep, 1057mm high, including the optional overshelf, and 1420mm wide, or 1482mm wide with the lid storage compartment.
