Cooked food staging device and method

A device for holding a plurality of previously cooked food portions at elevated temperature, comprising:

• a cabinet having a cabinet front, a cabinet rear, spaced-apart first and second opposed sidewalls, a top and a bottom;
• an uppermost shelf and a lowermost shelf, said uppermost shelf comprising a lower heated surface and said lowermost shelf comprising an upper heated surface;
• means for heating said upper and lower heated surfaces;
• at least one interior shelf located above said lowermost shelf and below said uppermost shelf and comprising an upper surface, a lower surface vertically spaced apart from the upper surface, and heating means for heating said upper surface and said lower surface of said interior shelf, said heating means being located in the space between said upper surface and said lower surface of said interior shelf;
• an upper holding chamber and a lower holding chamber for containing cooked food portions, said upper holding chamber being bounded and heated by a lower heated chamber surface defined by the upper surface of the interior shelf and an upper heated chamber surface defined by the lower heated surface of the uppermost shelf, said lower holding chamber being bounded and heated by a lower heated chamber surface defined by said upper heated surface of the lowermost shelf, and an upper heated chamber surface defined by said lower surface of said interior shelf;
• an opening located in said cabinet front for inserting the food portions into said cabinet and for removing the cooked food portions from said cabinet;
• and
• at least one tray for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray comprising a bottom and a sidewall extending upwardly from said bottom, said sidewall defining a tray height that is in the range of from about 0 inches to about 0.25 inches less than the height of one of said chambers.

A device for holding previously cooked food portions at elevated temperatures, comprising:

• at least one heated compartment for holding the food portions, said compartment having an upper compartment surface;
• a cabinet defining a volume for housing said compartment therein;
• at least one tray having an open top for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray being placeable into said compartment;
• said tray including a tray bottom, a top edge, and a sidewall structure extending upwardly from said bottom between the tray bottom and the top edge;
• and
• means for supporting said tray in said compartment so that the bottom of said tray is substantially horizontal and said top edge of said tray is from zero to about 0.25 inches from said upper compartment surface to restrict evaporation of liquid from the cooked food portions contained within said tray.

A device for holding previously cooked food portions at elevated temperatures, comprising:

• at least one compartment for holding the food portions, said compartment being bounded above by an upper heated surface;
• a cabinet defining a volume for housing said at least one compartment therein and including at least one area for inserting and removing the food portions into and out of said compartment;
• at least one tray for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray being placeable into said at least one compartment;
• said tray including a tray bottom, an open top having a top edge, and a sidewall structure between said tray bottom and said top edge;
• and
• a supporting structure within said at least one compartment for supporting said tray when contained in said at least one compartment such that said top edge of said tray is from zero to about 0.25 inches from said upper compartment surface to restrict evaporation of liquid from the cooked food portions contained within said tray.

A device for holding previously cooked food portions at elevated temperatures, comprising:

• at least one heated compartment for holding the previously cooked food portions, said compartment having an upper compartment surface;
• a cabinet defining a volume for housing said at least one compartment therein;
• at least one tray having an open top for containing the previously cooked food portions, said tray being placeable into said compartment, and said tray including a tray bottom, a top edge, and a sidewall structure extending upwardly from said bottom between the tray bottom and the top edge;
• and
• a supporting structure within said at least one compartment for supporting said tray when contained in said at least one compartment such that the top edge of said tray is from 0 to about 0.25 inches from said upper compartment surface to restrict evaporation of liquid from the cooked food portions contained within the tray.