Cooking with passion

A striking example of cooperation: StarCuisine, specialist in oriental dishes, and Ilpra Benelux from Barneveld, supplier of tray seal machines and foils, have been together for ten years. An absolute win-win situation.

When you enter the StarCuisine building in Rijswijk, you're pulled in. Inviting smells of oriental meals will greet you. Here, 'fresh' is the standard. Good food is the firm belief of the oriental specialist. StarCuisine produces and delivers high quality fresh meals to a broad target group in retail and food service. Ilpra is the supplier of tray seal machines and foils, and provides maintenance and service to the tray sealer and advises on packaging materials.

Flexible production

Although Star Cuisine 'only' started ten years ago, it's making significant progress. The cookery specialist employs about 100 enthusiastic employees who share their own philosophy. You see that everywhere in the company, and you can taste it. Fernand Molenschot, general manager of StarCuisine: "Everything we make in-house is fresh. A team of 20 chefs, each with their own cultural background, enthusiastically works on the preparation of the meals. In addition, there are no automated cooking processes, everything is prepared by hand. The five automatic tray sealers from Ilpra work excellently in this flexible production."

Responding to trends

The company develops, cooks and delivers, among other things, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, Indian and Suriname meals six days a week. But now they are also busy adding Mediterranean meals, flavours from the Middle East, and vegetarian influences on the already rich taste palette. "We do this because the market demands it, but also because we like it ourselves and really love good food. That is why it's important that we know what the customer wants and we constantly respond to the latest trends. Moreover, we have a diverse team with employees who have a passion for food. From celebrity chefs to specialised chefs and developers. They come from all over the world, there are 18 nationalities throughout the company."

One thing is certain. More and more people are going for convenience, but want a tasty, healthy and nutritious meal, Fernand explains further: "You can have it delivered or get it at a supermarket. I foresee that people will start cooking less and less during the week, opting only to heat up. It is our challenge to present a carefully composed meal that everyone enjoys. We enjoy doing it. It's not for nothing that we are in full swing and working together with a team of developers. We do this with the utmost care. Before you as a customer put a nice fresh meal in the shopping basket, there is a whole process behind the scenes, he emphasizes. In fact, the chefs work miracles overnight.

Fernand: "Our chefs get to work on a new meal. They brainstorm, taste, test and fine-tune the product. We also have a test team that evaluates the new meals. We are of course curious what a meal does when it reaches the expiration date. They don't leave anything to chance. But the most important thing is of course: is it good?". "I sometimes compare our profession with the fashion world. Continuously looking for new trends."

Quality control

Fernand would like to give a tour of the large kitchen. Immediately it becomes apparent that hygiene is a top priority. Impressive are the huge cookers where the fresh ingredients find their way. Everything is portioned by hand. So there is always human quality control and every meal is nicely made. The trays are then placed on an automatic feed path. StarCuisine works with the Speedy tray sealers from Ilpra. These machines are known for their flexibility and easy conversion to other tray sizes.

The strength of the cooperation between Ilpra Benelux and StarCuisine clearly has more in store, Fernand confirms: "Ilpra has a great deal of knowledge when it comes to packaging materials, which we are happy to use. In addition, their team constantly thinks along. They maintain the packaging machines and deliver fast 24/7 service. Our machines have never stood still for a day because of a malfunction".

Ilpra not only ensures that the tray sealers function reliably, the Barneveld partner also monitors the foil orders and in this way can respond to a possible inventory shortage. StarCuisine can be confident that there is always enough topseal foil in stock. In any case, the Rijswijk company is in full flow. That requires innovation, says Fernand: "We plan to build a new factory in the immediate vicinity. A nice prospect for all of us".

www.starcuisine.nl
www.ilpra.nl