Food Warmer / Chafing Dishes

[Wonder]

I'm looking to purchase a couple of food warmers to use at DD birthday party in a few weeks. Has anybody suggestions on the best place to get reasonable priced ones? There are a few places that are on ebay that seem good but I always prefer to see before i buy if possible.

[Jamberie]

Are they just for rare occasions Wonder? Or will you use them often after the party? If former, you probably don't want to spend heaps. Home Art (used to be Copper Art) near us had them on sale the other week and I think Aldi had some recently too.

[medusa]

do you mean electric?  Kmart has a three dish one for $39 if that is what you mean.  I am always tempted as I walk past but haven't brought it as yet.

[judydawn]

Wonder, do you remember seeing Chookie's heating dishes, I thought they were great as they hold large quantities.  See the picture on this page http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=12673.525.  Sometimes it's best to just hire them for one-off parties though.

[astarra]

We have a 3 compartment one which is great (or we can remove the top bits and just have a heated flat plate - which is good for heating plates) 

[Wonder]

The primary pupose is for this party but we do have to cater for a large number of people a couple of times a year so it will get occasional use after this. I'm happy to purhcase rather than hire as generally speaking I find the hire costs are quite high and as long as I can see us getting a few uses over the years I'm happy to buy and keep on hand. Judy, it was the ones at Chookie's that made me think I would get them for the party, they were a great idea and held a lot of food very warm. I couldn't remember exactly what Chookie's looked like so thanks for linking to the photos. The ones I've looked at so have a small fuel heater under them but it looks like Chookies may be electrical.

Astarra, Medusa, I had a look at the kmart one and was planning on buying one but after having a look at them thought they were a bit small for what I was after. We are planning to have around 20kgs of meat and i think they only held about 5kgs, and I'm also thinking a non electrical one would be better for our area.

[stacelee]

Most catering equipment companies will have chafing dishes on their shelves as a stock item.  They will normally range from about $150 upwards.  The fuel is normally sold in small tins that are 2 hour, 3 hour, 4 hour or 6 hour burn.  You can also normally buy a large tin that you can refill the smaller ones from.  You can also get electric chafing dish warmers that sit underneath the unit to convert them from fuel to electric  The budget models usually have a lift off lid but you can get the more expensive models as well.  I believe that you can now get ones that can be placed on induction cooktops but I have not had any reason to investigate more details about them.  Most companies get their chafers from either trenton, tomkin or roband...their websites are trenton.com.au, tomkin.com.au and roband.com.au.  Roband used to do the electric chafer warmers but I can't see them on their website at the moment.  If you are looking for a bain marie, the better commercial ones that are actually made in Australia are the Roband and Woodson ones.  The good thing about the small commercial ones is that you can put a wide variety of sizes of dishes into them....you are not limited on size or configuration like you are with the cheap domestic ones.

[maddy]

I think it's a great idea Wonder if you can store it.
You have it then whenever entertaining, so you can prepare earlier & keep food warm,  handy at Christmas etc...

Can you believe DD's nearly 18!  What food are having?
You can also use your slowcooker or ask to borrow some if extra needed.

[Wonder]

Staclee, thanks so much for all the information i'll have a look at the links you've provided.

Maddy, at times i can believe it and at other times it seems to have gone so fast that it doesn't seem real. 

With the food we are keeping it as simple as possible, as 60 of the guests will be 18 year olds who once they've started drinking wont eat much so we've decided on a spit roast - we have two small spits that take 10kg's each which should be just enough so we will have lamb on one and pork on another, jacket potatoes with sour cream and cheese, coleslaw, apple and mint sauce, bread rolls, and gravy. She has also decided on a lolly bar, cup cakes, and a smallish chocolate mud cake. i'm in denial a  bit about how many we have coming and the amount of work I have to get through in the next few weeks!!

[cookie1]

Wonder you will manage. I find a plan always helps.

[obbie]

Wonder it sounds great fun.

[Wonder]

For anyone who may be interested Aldi have the electric warming dishes in store today. I had decided against them for the party but seeing it at Aldi this morning I figured I could use one for keeping food warm at the table.

[obbie]

there are some on ebay at the moment, brand new.

[Wonder]

Thanks Obbie, I ended up returning the Aldi one and will be using two baib marie type ones i purchased from Ebay, we tried them on the weekend and they seem like they work really well.

[obbie]

I am tempted by the ones on Ebay at the moment..