At the University of St Andrews student catering is prepared separately at the nine halls of residence, including one hall designed for students with nut allergies. 

Mark Nixon, senior chef manager at the University of St Andrews is responsible for keeping over 2,000 students and staff fed everyday. 

He said: “We have a four-week menu cycle, which includes lunches with a choice of three hot items and dinners with four, plus soup and dessert. Obviously we also offer a vegetarian and vegan choice with every service, and we have big challenges around allergens and dietary restrictions.

“We also have a commercial catering team who handle internal delivered catering, conference catering, the Principal’s dinners, graduation garden parties and lunches and more. It’s very varied, and busy, so we need our equipment to be reliable and versatile.”

The University of St Andrews currently has two VarioCookingCenter (VCC) 112L and 211 appliances, as well as eight SelfCookingCenter (SCC) 201 appliances in kitchens across its campus. 

Nixon added: “Getting consistent results is vital, especially with our allergy control kitchen. We have an entire kitchen set aside to cater for students with nut allergies, so we need to be able to control every aspect of production.

“The SCC iLevelControl and VCC systems give such precise results that we can be sure about that aspect of the production process, and the data collected allows us to keep full records should we need to audit or investigate issues.”

The VCC will help the university catering team to prepare as many as 400 fish and chip servings, while using less oil. According to Nixon the savings on the oil alone will pay for the VCC in three and a half years.