Hot Dogs, Harrods & High Speed Ovens

There is never any respite in the world of High Speed Ovens! During Half Term this week we went full ‘Tourist in London’ mode including a trip to the Harrod’s Food Hall. One of the more interesting concessions was the ‘Hot Dogs By Three Darlings’ counter.

The menu is definitely not your standard hot dog menu with mustard and onions. At £19 per hot dog they are probably the most expensive hot dogs in the country too! Flavours included the Souk Dog (a mix of lamb with Harrisa) and The Texican: a beef hot dog with classic Mexican flavours eg guacamole and chipotle.

The presentation of the hot dogs, as the photo shows below, is very good and exactly what you’d hope for at this price. What is really interesting though is that the entire menu is cooked through one Merrychef E2S (which must be at least 3 years old as the Connex12 has been out for almost 3 years now).  The hot dogs are held in a water bath until they are ordered and then simply cooked in the Merrychef for 40 seconds on 100% fan.

The quality of the hot dogs were excellent. For any restaurants, pubs or bars looking for menu inspiration an entire hot dog category can be created by simply using a high speed oven and a water bath. The extra flourishes of sauces, pickles and herbs helped Harrod’s to create a highly profitable product line. Assuming the price of the hot dogs are similar to these hot dogs from Brakes which will be available throughout the UK, these products added to the menu could offer gross margins in the region of 81%.

For most operators the entry level Merrychef – the Connex12e – would be perfectly suitable. IF selling at the same price as Harrod’s, only 227 would need to be sold to pay for the oven! Realistically, most locations can achieve £10 for a gourmet hot dog and still enjoy gross margins of a respectable 60%.