Double features
The fact that there are two dishwashing systems in the new RoadChef motorway service area at Maidstone reveals just how important it is that this kitchen can function non-stop, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Identical Hobart AUX pass-through dishwashers are located on opposite walls. General manager Jim Le Gassick explains: "If we're quiet we use one, and if we're busy we use both. And it means we've got a backup if one breaks down, which you definitely need in this industry. Once I was working for a different company when our flight dishwasher broke down, so it was all hands to the sinks!"
Located at Junction 8 of the M20 in Kent, the site opened at the end of April and it is estimated that 1.6 million people will visit during the year. Trade comes from commercial and business traffic, coaches and, not least, from people heading for or leaving the nearby Channel Tunnel.
The main kitchen operates during peak hours, but the equipment in the mini-kitchens in the service area can take over at quiet times, giving a chance for the main kitchen to be cleaned.
That said, the demand for hot meals in the 280-seat Food Fayre restaurant is so high that the main kitchen is rarely able to close before 9pm on weekdays and 10-10.30pm at weekends.
Cooking equipment in the main kitchen includes two Hobart combi-ovens, used for roasting meat and baking items such as chicken and sweet corn pie. "On a busy day we put them both on and just use them for cooking," says Le Gassick, "but on slower days we use one as a holding oven."
A Garland Pronto atmospheric steamer is used for cooking all vegetables, including items such as tinned tomatoes and baked beans. The atmospheric steamer was chosen in preference to a pressure model because it does not require a special boiler certificate, and because maintenance is easier. Although it works more slowly than a pressure steamer, Le Gassick is happy with its output, saying that most vegetables are done in five or 10 minutes.
Unusually, the steamer has been modified to reduce the amount of conditioned water it consumes, so saving on running costs. While conditioned water is used to supply the boiler, mains water is used to condense the waste steam, reducing the amount of conditioned water needed by 90%. This modification was carried out by PWC, the consultancy which designed the kitchen, supplied the equipment and supervised its installation.
Nearby is one of two Sanyo 1kW microwave ovens, used for tasks such as melting the apricot glaze for pastries and cooking small quantities of scrambled eggs. In addition, customers often ask for baby food or bottles to be heated - Le Gassick says staff make sure bottles are shaken halfway through to avoid potentially dangerous hot spots.
A Falcon 900SX grill is used mainly for cooking items such as gammon and bacon, though it could act as a backup for toast if the toaster broke down. Also, Le Gassick says, it is handy for finishing fried eggs on a tray if the restaurant is especially busy. Normally eggs are fried on the Garland griddle, which is also used for black pudding, gammon and two-ounce children's menu burgers. Next to it is a waste container for eggshells, an essential piece of kit since as many as 500 eggs are cooked between 4 and 11.30am.
In quieter times, eggs are fried in pans on a four-burner Garland hob. The other main use of the hob is for heating soup.
A Pitco twin fryer from Frialator is also heavily worked, with one side being used for chips and hash browns and the other for fish. Le Gassick says its automatic filter is useful: "Oil is expensive stuff, so it is automatically filtered every night, which means it lasts for four or five days. There are also programmable controls, but we tend not to use them in this kitchen because the quantities we cook vary so much, so we need more flexibility. But the same fryer is also in our Wimpy outlet on the site and we use the programmes there."
In the bake-off area of the kitchen there is a Mono convection oven used to bake Delice de France pâtisserie and dessert products. A Kitchen Aid mixer was heavily used when the site first opened to make cream cakes. However, these are now bought in, so the mixer is used only for cream for scones and doughnuts, and for whipping mousses.
In the cold prep area, the main item of equipment is a Hobart vegetable prep unit. "We don't use it to its full potential because we buy in prepared salads," says Le Gassick, "but we do use it for things like tomatoes and cucumbers, and it's an excellent piece of equipment."
Refrigerators throughout the kitchen are from Williams. They include an upright fridge in the bake-off area, an upright fridge and freezer in the cold prep area, and under-counter refrigerated drawers in the foodcourt area.
The walk-in coldstores are from ISD, with plant from Poynton Refrigeration. The walk-in freezer has its own dedicated plant, but the chiller shares a bank of three compressors with the service and dessert counters and the salad and sandwich wells. Not only is this approach cost-effective, but it also provides backup capacity in the event of one of the compressors failing.
The contents of all the refrigerators are temperature-checked with probes from Electronic Temperature Instruments on each of the three daily shifts.
Promart Manufacturing was responsible for the fabrication and sinks in the kitchen, together with the service counters front of house.
The different sections of the Food Fayre servery include several with their own mini-kitchens, including Spaghetti Junction, Pizza Pasta and the Hot Range section. In addition, there is the 32-seat Café Continental, which also has its own cooking equipment.
To take over from the main kitchen during the "twilight" service, there is a line-up of smaller equipment in the Hot Range, including a Lincat pasta boiler, fryer and clam griddle. This equipment is all used for a cook-to-order service, so has to operate speedily. Because it cooks from both sides once its lid is down, the clam griddle cooks very quickly, says Le Gassick. He adds: "You can take out the branding plate, but we use it all the time because it gives an attractive appearance to steak, gammon and mixed grill."
This section also houses a Hatco Toast King conveyor toaster which Le Gassick says has so far proved efficient and reliable. Typically, 200 slices of toast may be required for breakfast - and sometimes twice that on a busy summer weekend.
Pizza equipment includes a twin-deck Monarch pizza oven from Fields & Pimblett. Each deck can hold two pizzas at a time. RoadChef first puts the pizzas on to circular grids, before using a traditional paddle to put them in the ovens.
Toppings for the pizzas are kept cool in a seven-section Thermawell from Williams Refrigeration. This refrigerated unit is mounted on the wall above the work counter, so saving space and making it easy for staff to access the toppings.
During the busy daytimes, pizzas are displayed on a hot counter. As an experiment, RoadChef has had a water trough fitted into this to provide some humidity to extend the holding time. However, the system is still being evaluated.
For quieter periods there is a Hatco Flav-R-Savor pizza display oven. Glass-cased with rotating shelves, this has a small water reservoir to provide humidity.
For cooking pasta during the main service periods, there is a Hobart pasta boiler. "We use frozen pasta and defrost it before cooking, so it takes about two minutes per portion," explains Le Gassick. "We add the sauce, top with Parmesan cheese, then finish it off in the lower pizza oven. Not only does this give a nicer presentation, but it also gives the dish an extra blast of heat so that it's still hot by the time the customer has got a drink, paid and sat down."
In the Café Continental there is a panini grill supplied by Delice de France for toasting prefilled panini. These look similar to filled baguettes and Le Gassick says they toast well. He adds that fillings, including pepperoni and mozzarella and tuna melt, do not ooze or stick to the grill.
There is also an infrared warmer for heating baguettes and pastries if they are needed quickly. In addition, there is a glass-cased, rotating Tiffon Gyrofour oven, also from Delice de France, for baking off pâtisserie items. Le Gassick comments that baking off frozen pâtisserie means that production is flexible to accommodate fluctuating customer levels. And he adds: "The smell of baking is very appealing to customers."
The ice-cream machine in the Café Continental produces star-shaped ice-creams similar to those produced by a soft-serve machine. However, the One Shot system from Unice International in fact operates in a much simpler way. Ice-cream is ready-made in tubs - vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - and the One Shot simply ejects them from the tubs using a piston system. "It's really easy to use, simple to clean, with good portion control," says Le Gassick. "Also, it's only about half the price of a traditional ice-cream machine."
Beverage machines in the Café Continental include an Egro Vitesse VT42 espresso and cappuccino brewer, which supplies frothy milk at the push of a button. There is also a Lincat boiler for filling cafetières and making tea, a Douwe Egberts grinder for filling the cafetières, and a Cadbury's hot chocolate machine from Premier Beverages.
There is another Cadbury's unit in the main servery, and for bulk coffee service both in the Café Continental and in the main servery there are Douwe Egberts Satellite 2000 machines. These make coffee from frozen concentrate so can instantly cope with large demands.
The layout of the Café Continental is such that its drinks counter and pay point is opposite that of the main Food Fayre, enabling customers to use whichever they choose. "You never know when a couple of coachloads will arrive, so it's essential to have two till points and two drinks counters," says Le Gassick, explaining why yet another area has a double line-up of equipment.
