We often need to warm-up food, which sometimes may be a difficult process. For example, if you are out of town or at a lengthy banquet when the dishes should always preserve their expected temperature. The solution here is a new type of cooking equipment, chafing-dish or a heated table container.

Chafing-dish consists of three elements: a lower part, a container and a cover. It looks like a medium-sized casserole on a small burner. The lower part is really a heating element that may be powered by electricity, special candles or paste, making warming-up more convenient and faster. Besides, the burner is protected from environment, so no wind can extinguish it. The body and the cover are made of 18/10 stainless steel and are designed to warm up to 180^o C. The brass handles do not incandesce, so these wonder casseroles are simple to use. Thus, when the heating element is activated the container will be warmed up as you set it and the dish will stay warm as long as it takes. Chafing-dish is easy to disjoint, which makes its cleaning and storage quite simple.

Depending on the dish to be served there are different chafing-dishes. Firstly, containers may be round, orthogonal, oval or square thus helping select the most appropriate design in each case. The covers are also divided in two types: common casserole covers (with a handle in the middle) and hinged covers like in breadbins (they need less room). Depending on the container contents you may select 90 or 180 degree hinges. The casseroles may have different capacities. Liquid dishes, soups or sauces may fit into a container of 2-4 liters; however, the majority of chafing-dishes has a ten-liter capacity and is designed to contain several dishes in different containers.

Chafing-dish is a unique unparalleled kitchen appliance, which enables to complement the cold snacks buffet-style menu by hot ones. It may be used to warm up dishes of you have no access to electricity. Beside warming up, the heated containers may be used to cook food. Many original dishes, like fondue (literally translated as “melting”), require the foodstuffs to stew very slowly. Therefore, in some dinnerware supplier catalogues chafing-dish is called “fondue-casserole” with practically the same meaning.

Ksenia Monakhova