How Taylor Electric Clamshell Grills Can Help Burger Businesses Manage the Rush

Do Australians really love burgers?

There is good evidence that burgers are a popular takeaway choice.            

2025 Uber Eats Cravings Report
Uber Eats reported that a combination of ten-piece nuggets and burgers was its most-ordered fast-food combo of 2025 in Australia. This is useful evidence of burger popularity, although it does not establish burgers as the country's overall number-one fast food.

It's 12:15 pm. The lunch crowd is arriving, takeaway orders are coming through, and delivery drivers are waiting near the counter.

Behind the scenes, the kitchen is in full swing. Burger patties are cooking, buns are being prepared, fresh toppings are lined up, and staff are working together to get every order out on time.

For customers, ordering a burger is often a quick and simple decision. For the business preparing it, however, every order involves timing, coordination and consistency.

And when the lunch rush hits, the grill can quickly become one of the busiest stations in the kitchen.

For burger shop owners, the challenge isn't simply making a great burger. It's making great burgers repeatedly, even when orders keep coming and the pressure is on.

That is why the equipment behind the counter deserves as much attention as the ingredients on the menu.

The Everyday Reality of Running a Burger Shop

Burgers have earned a familiar place in takeaway culture. They're convenient, customisable and suitable for everything from a quick lunch between meetings to a casual dinner with friends.

That familiarity creates an expectation. Customers want their orders prepared properly, served promptly and made the way they remember.

Behind the counter, meeting those expectations takes more than a good recipe. Staff need to coordinate cooking, preparation, assembly and collection without allowing one stage to hold up the rest.

When the grill becomes a bottleneck, the effects can spread across the kitchen. Assembly staff may have to wait for patties, takeaway orders may take longer, and the team may find it harder to maintain a consistent pace.

This is where the right commercial cooking equipment can make a practical difference.

Why Some Burger Kitchens Choose Clamshell Grilling?

A traditional flat grill remains a useful choice for many food businesses. It offers an open cooking surface and flexibility for different ingredients and cooking methods.

A clamshell grill takes a different approach.

Instead of relying only on the lower cooking surface, it uses an upper platen that closes over the food. Heat is applied from above and below, allowing both sides to cook simultaneously.

Depending on the product, programmed settings and cooking requirements, this arrangement can reduce the need for manual turning and help standardise repetitive cooking tasks.

For a busy burger operation, that can mean a more organised grilling process and less time spent manually managing every patty.

It doesn't remove the need for trained staff or proper food-safety checks. Rather, it gives the team another way
to manage a demanding cooking station.

Introducing the Taylor Electric Clamshell Grill Range

Taylor L820 | Electric Two-Sided Clamshell Grills

For commercial kitchens considering two-sided grilling, Taylor offers a range of electric clamshell-style grills, including models from its L8 family and Crown Series.

These grills are designed to support controlled, repeatable cooking in commercial food-service environments. Depending on the model, businesses can choose different numbers of upper platens and cooking positions to suit their menu and expected workload.

Some models are designed around a single cooking position, while others provide multiple positions for operations that need greater capacity or flexibility.

That distinction matters. A neighbourhood burger takeaway serving a manageable number of orders may have very different requirements from a high-volume burger restaurant handling dine-in, takeaway and delivery orders simultaneously.

Rather than choosing equipment based on size alone, operators should consider how many products they need to cook during peak periods, the variety of their menu and how the grill fits into the wider kitchen workflow.

More Control Over The Cooking Process

One of the useful features available on applicable Taylor models is programmable cooking control.

Depending on the model, the controls can help determine cooking time, temperature and platen gap for selected menu items. Automatic platen adjustment is designed to maintain an appropriate gap between the upper and lower cooking surfaces.

For a burger business, these features can help staff follow more repeatable cooking procedures instead of relying entirely on manual adjustments for every batch.

This may be particularly valuable when different team members work across shifts. A more standardised process can make it easier to train staff and maintain consistent routines.

Of course, the final result still depends on the food being cooked, the programmed settings, portion size and the operator's procedures. Equipment supports consistency, but it doesn't replace good recipes, training or quality control.

Making Better Use of Busy Kitchen Time

During peak service, even small workflow improvements can matter.

When the cooking station operates smoothly, staff can coordinate more effectively with the people preparing buns, adding toppings, wrapping orders and managing collection.

Two-sided cooking can reduce some manual handling, while programmable controls on applicable models can help simplify repeated cooking tasks.

Some models also offer independently controlled cooking zones. Where available, these can allow operators to use different settings for different products or switch off an unused zone during quieter periods.

The practical benefits depend on the model and how the kitchen operates. Businesses should assess their menu, expected throughput and operating costs before deciding whether a particular grill is the right investment. 

The aim is simple: make the cooking process work with the rest of the kitchen, rather than allowing it to slow
everything down.

Choosing the Right Grill for your Burger Business

There is no single grill that suits every food business.

Before choosing a Taylor electric clamshell grill, consider the number of orders you handle during your busiest periods, the products on your menu, the cooking surface capacity you need and the space available in your kitchen.

Electrical requirements are equally important. Commercial electric grills can require substantial power, and the supply needed varies by model and configuration. Always confirm the exact specifications with the supplier and have the installation assessed by a qualified electrician.

It's also worth looking at the complete kitchen setup. Refrigeration, food preparation benches, ingredient storage, ventilation, staff movement and the location of the assembly station all influence how efficiently orders can move through the business.

A grill should be selected as part of the operation, not in isolation.

A Better Kitchen Experience Starts Behind the Counter

Customers may remember the flavour of a well-made burger, the freshness of the toppings or how quickly their takeaway order was ready. They rarely see the decisions that helped make that experience possible.

For the business owner, however, those decisions matter every day.

The right equipment can support more organised workflows, repeatable cooking procedures and a kitchen that is better prepared for busy service. For some burger businesses, an electric clamshell grill may be a useful part of that solution.

Taylor's electric clamshell-style range offers options with different cooking capacities and features, giving commercial operators models to consider based on their specific requirements.

At Cater Central, the goal is to help hospitality businesses look beyond individual products and think about the
equipment that suits their operation. Whether you're setting up a new burger shop, upgrading an existing kitchen or reviewing how your team handles the lunch rush, choosing equipment around your actual needs is a practical place to start.

Because behind every great burger is more than a recipe. There's a team, a well-planned workflow and a kitchen equipped to keep up.

EXPLORE THE RANGE:

Taylor's official range confirms that the L8 models are commercial clamshell-style grills, but not all are electric. Some models use gas, and certain configurations combine two-sided cooking with an open grilling zone.

For the models currently shown in Cater Central's Taylor collection, however, we can confidently focus on these electric options:

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