A cubby unit includes a unit housing, a plurality of cubbies disposed within the unit housing, and an interface positioned along the unit housing. Each of the plurality of cubbies includes a cubby housing defining an internal compartment and a door coupled to the cubby housing. The door facilitates accessing the internal compartment of the cubby housing. The interface provides a cubby selection interface that facilitates manual assignment of a respective cubby to a respective order by an employee.

A vending machine system for loading and dispensing pre-baked unpackaged food including a fixed cartridge disposed in a refrigerator of a vending machine, and a transport cartridge adapted to removably attach to the fixed cartridge, the transport cartridge operable for holding trays of unpackaged food and loading the trays of unpackaged food from the transport cartridge into the fixed cartridge, wherein, when the transport cartridge is removably attached to the fixed cartridge, a front opening of the transport cartridge aligns with a front opening of the fixed cartridge, and wherein the rack of the transport cartridge aligns with the conveyor system of the fixed cartridge such that trays of unpackaged food within the transport cartridge can simultaneously be transitioned from the rack to the conveyor system.

A modular food holding system includes a plurality of individual modularized food holding chambers, each of the plurality of food holding chambers being physically and communicatively removably connected to one another. Each of the food holding chambers includes a food holding cavity and at least one of a heating element and/or a cooling element for heating or cooling the food holding cavity. A chamber base is physically and communicatively removably connected to one of the food holding chambers and operation of at least one food holding chamber is controlled by the chamber base.

A method of displaying a battery life for a warming cart battery is provided. The method includes the steps of detecting with a processor that a warming cart battery voltage is out of range of a predetermined threshold, determining with a processor an operation state of each of a plurality of periphery warming cart devices, and automatically setting a battery scale of a warming cart battery based on which of the plurality of periphery warming cart devices are in an active operation state.

The present invention relates to a device that can be used for heating and/or refrigerating and/or maintaining the temperature of a receptacle. According to the invention, characteristically it comprises a base module which comprises: heat-producing means (5) and cold-producing means (7), said cold producing means comprising a reservoir (7) containing a fluid and possibly connected to an evaporator, said heat-producing means comprise a thermochemical reactor (5) connected to said reservoir (7) and containing a reagent able to react reversibly with said fluid during an exothermal reaction:—means forming a valve that allows said reservoir (7) or said evaporator to be connected to said thermochemical reactor (5) to produce heat in said reactor (5) as a result of said aforementioned exothermal reaction and simultaneously to produce cold in said reservoir (7), as the result of the expansion and/or evaporation of said fluid;—at least one receptacle (3) made of a thermally conducting material which has a first face able to house the foodstuff that is to be heated/refrigerated and a second face, opposite to said first face and arranged in contact with said heat-producing means (5) or said cold-producing, means (7);—an insulating element (15) which thermally insulates said heat-producing means (5) from said cold-producing means (7); and said reactor (5) and/or said receptacle (3) are removably mounted on said base module.

Pan support apparatus, systems, and methods. A pan support system includes a pan support having a pan storage space sized for receiving at least a portion of a pan. The pan support includes at least one slide surface for slidably receiving and supporting the pan in the pan storage space. A cover for covering an open top of the pan is selectively receivable in and removable from the pan storage space. A retainer retains the cover in the pan storage space. A pan storage module including a pan support is releasably mountable at a plurality of elevations on a frame.

The devices, methods, and algorithms of the present disclosure provide a hot food holding cabinet to detect the presence and uniquely identify a plurality of food holding trays within a plurality of food holding locations within a hot food holding cabinet. There can also be multiple, separate food holding cabinets that are linked together. Timing and other functions related to the storage of the food holding trays are initiated automatically, without any manual input from a user. This allows for the automated initiation and tracking of product quality parameters by the cabinet computer. The parameters can include product timers and holding profiles, and whether the food holding trays are removed, transferred between bins in a single cabinet, or transferred between separate cabinets.

A food cabinet is provided that includes an enclosure with an access door, shelves carried by and vertically arranged within the enclosure, and a heat transfer arrangement. The heat transfer arrangement includes a pump, fluid conduits coupled with the pump and associated with the shelves of the enclosure, a primary tank, and an auxiliary tank. The primary tank is fluidly connected to the pump and contains a heat transfer medium. The auxiliary tank is coupled with the primary tank and provides make-up heat transfer medium to the primary tank. Also provided is a method of warming food using such a food cabinet that includes the steps of placing a food item on one of the shelves, heating the heat transfer medium to a temperature between 200° F. and 250° F., and pumping the heat transfer medium through the shelf.

The present invention provides a roll-in kitchen unit having an outer housing and a trolley that fits substantially within. The trolley provides a cast frame coupled to a scaling plate for sealing the trolley within the outer housing. In one embodiment, the cast frame is reinforced with inner and outer ribs to minimize deflection of the cast frame and bring the sealing plate into alignment with the corresponding gasket of the outer housing door.

Pan storage apparatus, components thereof, and associated methods. A pan storage apparatus can include a housing including a pan support surface for supporting a pan. The pan storage apparatus can include cover support structure for supporting a cover to cover an open top of the pan when the pan is supported by the pan support surface. A variety of covers can be used, and/or the covers can be rearranged to accommodate holding different types, sizes, and/or arrangements of pans. Desirably, the covers are retained in the housing when the pans are inserted into or removed from the housing.