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Hot Chips for the Fit
The Community Newspaper
Tuesday 24th March 2009
by michael gill
SUBIACO resident Kaye Craddock is helping locals feel better about tucking into a serving of hot chips.
Having both raised families, Mrs Craddock and a long-time friend Jackie Dihm thought of the idea for their outlets as a way of retuning to the workforce.
"With hot chips the second most popular fast food in Australia behind sandwiches, we wanted to find out how we could make them a healthier option," Mrs Craddock said.
The duo spent two years researching a better way to cook the chip, finding a special air-frying oven in America that cooks potatoes in a light coating of vegetable oil rather than deep-frying.
"The ovens have a combination of microwave convection and impingement technology in a sealed encased unit, which doesn't need ventilation or overhead hoods," Mrs Craddock said.
"It cooks chips extremely hot, incredibly fast; it takes about three minutes to cook 1kg of chips."
Other groundwork included staking out fast food outlets to gauge sales and demographics along with months of market research with more than 200 people at Curtin University.
The duo opened their first store in Midland, three years ago, with another three shops since taking shape around Perth. They plan to offer franchises to the east coast and New Zealand.
As well as being gluten-free and cholesterol-free, the chips have 4.5 percent fat per 100grams, while fried options from some stores can register up to 25 percent fat content.
Both extremely hands-on with the project, the two mums also created inventive packaging with tabs on the chip boxes that fold down to hold dipping sauces.
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