Brand Ambassador Dipna Anand Q & A
We were thrilled that Dipna Anand, renowned chef, culinary influencer and Retigo brand ambassador joined us for an exclusive Q&A session. With her expertise in blending traditional flavours with modern techniques, Dipna shared her insights on the art of cooking and how Retigo's innovative Combi Oven solution has helped elevate her culinary creations. It was a unique opportunity to gain inspiration and practical tips from one of the industry's leading figures!
Can you describe your initial impressions of the Retigo Combi Oven when you first started using it?
My initial impression of the Retigo combi oven was WOW, where has this combi oven been all along? Why hasn’t this piece of kit come into my life already? It’s a dream to work with, so easy to use, from start to finish its simple to use. The cleaning mode is even easier, just the click of a button, you don’t have to do anything once its programmed, how you want it to cook your chicken, lamb or your potatoes is as simple as pressing one button. Having the Retigo at my restaurant is amazing, I fell in love with it as soon as I started using it.
What specific features of the Retigo Combi Oven do you find most beneficial in your cooking process?
In terms of features that we use, steaming is something we use all the time, when we do large events, we regen all our curries and the steam just helps maintain those moisture levels. When we do wraps, we do them on steam roast to helps crisp but also maintain the softness of the wrap. When we do our lamb chops or chicken tika or tandoori salmon the roast functions are impeccable, the features are so user friendly, simple one button press. We have programmed all our dishes, and I’ve never cooked more consistent and quicker than when I’m using my Retigo Combi.
How has the Retigo Combi Oven changed the way you approach cooking and recipe development?
It’s made things so much easier and a lot less complicated, of course when we try out recipes, before we would just be using the stove or a normal oven, now we use the Retigo, there is so many features on the Retigo that we didn’t necessarily know about that we are discovering as we go, its making our cooking approach far more easy and saving a lot of wasted time. Its making all of our chefs understand how we cook because we can set the oven up how we like to cook dishes correctly time and time again at the press of a button.
Can you share a memorable dish you’ve created using the Retigo Combi Oven and what made it special?
We have done so many so far, we have recently started a new offering for Brilliant Oriental Food and I thought I have 100 kilos of ‘bang bang’ noodles how will I cook these in a timely manner, honestly I put all the noodles into the Retigo with water and cooked them on a steam function, and honestly within minutes the noodles were boiled and cooked, it completely put away the theory that you have to cook your noodles in a saucepan, we then mixed all the ingredients together and the dish came out perfect! I and the team were blown away and we were all so pleased.
In what ways do you think the Retigo Combi Oven compares to other combi ovens you’ve used in your career?
The Retigo Combi Oven is 100% the most user-friendly oven I have ever used, the features are unbelievable, with loads of features undiscovered by us as of yet, the simple cleaning functions are such a time saver and super effective, there is so much online promoting the Retigo Brand, the UK Web Shop is a fantastic place to order your accessories and cleaners, the content that is put out on social media is second to none. The Retigo is easily the best Oven and Brand out there that we have used to date. The website is up to date, the Retigo team are impeccable and quick to deal with, the information they put out is informative and the oven itself, well, I call it a dream. Its honestly one of the best pieces of kit we have ever had, I often wonder why we didn’t have it already in our kitchen, going forward we will only be using Retigo Combi Ovens.
Could you tell us about a cooking tip or technique you’ve discovered while using the Retigo oven?
One thing I have discovered and learnt which we never know is that you can adjust the amount of moisture content you wish to keep in your food, as before we never knew about that, it’s great because sometimes when cooking with lamb you don’t want it to dry out, so we always set our moisture content to ensure its cooked to perfection every time. It makes such a difference to the overall dish and makes the food outstanding. So my key tip is that, when you use a Retigo Oven you’ll discover you can secretly keep the moisture inside a dish. We love this feature.
What advice would you give to aspiring chefs who are considering using the Retigo Combi Oven in their kitchens?
They don’t need to think twice, its simply the best oven myself and my team have used to date, its eased service pressure, the features are second to none, I guarantee once you use it you will become addicted. I know as I travel the country cooking and other large scale cooking events, I often feel lost, I find myself asking where my Retigo is when I need it most ha-ha!
