For Vinnie Cimino, One Piece of Equipment Does It All

Vinnie Cimino, chef/partner at Cordelia in Cleveland, has leaned on RATIONAL combi ovens for some time. In fact, he has a hard time remembering working in a kitchen that didn’t have one. Touting accolades such as a James Beard nod, Cimino opened Cordelia in 2022 with Andrew Watts, proprietor, who he worked with as chef de cuisine at The Greenhouse Tavern. In the back-of-house at Cordelia, Cimino says, a RATIONAL combi oven serves as a workhorse.

“Once I used a combi oven for the first time, I decided I would never open up another restaurant without one because it’s that much of a game-changer,” Cimino says. He appreciates how the combi oven offers many cooking applications, labor savings and fast throughput.

Cooking Flexibility

Cordelia, seating 160 guests, offers an ever-changing menu focused on the freshest ingredients from its farmers. It serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday and brunch on Sunday. Cimino says the RATIONAL combi oven performs a range of cooking tasks.

“We use it for everything from proofing bread to smoking chicken schmaltz to dehydrating chicken skins and beef tendons,” Cimino says. “It’s the one piece of equipment that if it breaks down, we’re unable to operate because of how much we rely on the different types of cooking applications that it has bundled into one.”

Cordelia relies on the combi oven to support private events, too. “We use the combi oven to retherm, to make sure that we’re still putting out the best quality of food,” Cimino says.

Maximizing Efficiency

Cordelia’s RATIONAL combi oven helps reduce the number of staff members needed in the back-of-house. It also speeds throughput compared with a convection oven.

“It’s an expensive investment up front, but our one oven probably replaces three different pieces of equipment that we didn’t have room to put in, plus a prep person,” Cimino says. “It saves time and money over and over again every day.”

Cimino also says the combi oven’s self-cleaning feature helps save labor.

Related to throughput, Cimino says the combi oven cuts cooking time in half. “Before, I was using convection ovens and such and they serve their purpose,” he says. “But with the RATIONAL, it’s just like night and day as far as the things you can do and how quickly you can do them.”

When the team at Cordelia moved into the space, they inherited double-stacked convection ovens. They got rid of one of the ovens and use the other one to do slow braising, which doesn’t need a lot of control. Cimino says any product they can put in the combi oven, they do.

Coming Up

As Cordelia continues to grow its business, Cimino plans to add a second RATIONAL combi oven to keep up with demand. He also aims to add a combi oven to the display kitchen at a 45-seat restaurant he’s opening in Fall 2025. “To me, a combi oven is kind of like a cheat code to be able to do so many more things in a smaller space,” he says.