Since opening in March 2019, Beatrix Oak Brook has used the RATIONAL VarioCookingCenter® to prepare its distinctive brand of healthy-meets-delicious fare. Beatrix is a full-service restaurant, coffee house, and meeting place with four Chicago area locations, but only the Oak Brook location has a RATIONAL VarioCookingCenter®. Its 100 employees serve several hundred meals daily – more on weekends – for breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch.
“Beatrix offers great tasting food, but with a healthy twist,“ said John Chiakulas, corporate executive chef partner of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises restaurant group. “We offer a lot of vegetarian and special dietary needs options; we try to take care of everyone and have a little bit of something for everyone.“ Celebrated for its coffee and pastry bar with fresh baked goods, Beatrix’s seasonal menus include skirt steak, burgers, salads, short ribs, and homemade soups and sauces.
Chiakulas, who has worked with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises for 38 years and used RATIONAL combi ovens since the 1990s, was delighted to see that the Beatrix recipes could be consistently and easily replicated in the VarioCookingCenter®.
“Transferring the recipes did not take long at all,“ he said. “It was simple; the transition was seamless. With recipes that needed to be adjusted, the VarioCookingCenter® was able to fine-tune those recipes a bit, with excellent results.“
