I want to find out how to build a box for keeping hot food in a van for catering,can someone give me some poin
Question:A friend of mine is starting a catering service and has asked me to build a stainless steel or aluminum box with access on two sides to keep food hot or very warm for bringing to short locations of 15 miles or so.
Answers:
I have one better than that maybe. Entertain this:
Get some styrofoam ice chest that are light weight & portable.
Ice coolers are insulated so well that they can actually finish cooking meat right off of the bone to perfection, HOT off of the grill with using foil. (my brother is a caterer)
Stainless steel is costly and heavy, + it rusts.
Aluminum is light weight but absorbs cool & heat fast.
If you are worried about stacking items, build custom shelves for the inside of the insulated chests.
The chests are also capable of holding the meats colder to cook fresh on the spot too if you have a cook off or tail gate party. I would get red for HOT foods, Blue for Cold items.
Use bungy cords with the hooks to secure inside of the van.
Good luck!
fabricate a double-layered stainless steel box(whatever design you want). at the mid between two layers, put some styro as an insulation between the two stainless plates.
note: do not attach the inner stainless layer to the outer. say, insulate it with engineering plastics between those points where the plates needs to be bolted to join the two plates together. get what im trying to say?
bottomline. create an inner and outer layer where there is no physical metal contact between each other.
heat insulation or avoid heat transfer
make a box that will fit the vehicle and line the inside of that with insulating material, the hard type not the fiberglass stringy type. then overlay the metal u choose over the insulating material.
Try using the pizza packs that pizza delivery people use to keep the pizza hot for delivery. 15 miles should be ok. the hot packs stay hot for a long time. Check with your local pizza place, perhaps they will tell you where to buy them.
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