[foodpump]

What a lot of commercial co.s do is build a undercounter fridge without a top, and then slap a marble slab on top. These work quite well, even in hit crowded commercial kitchens

I have worked with specific made marble tops with refrigeration coils underneath. Very noisy, spews out a lot of hot air, and in the end we just switched the unit off and used the marble slab on its own.

 

[foodpump]

Well, save yourself $5.00, because I can tell you what will happen with 12" frozen tiles.

Within the first 5 minutes of taking the tile out of the freezer, your dough--especially if thin, will freeze or get so stiff that it is impossible to roll out.

Within the the next 5 minutes the tile will sweat profusely as it warms up, and your dough will become wet and sticky. In other words, condesation happens. Ideally, the slab should have no more than 10 degrees temp difference between itself and room temp in order to avoid the whole condensation issue.

So why were marble slabs such a big deal back in the day?

Ideal fir chocolate work. Mind you, the slab must NOT be refrigerated, just cooler than room temp. Very easy to clean, you just run your scaper (a s/s drywall 10" spatula) over it and you're done.

For confectionary work, you can pour hot caramel on it and it won't buckle or warp

For pastry work, but nothing to do with refrigeration, its just this massive, heavy hunk that won't move, jiggle, wobble, or shimmy on you.(uh..that is assuming the table it rests on is built like a tank too). Its also easy to clean as well.

Hope this provides some insight...