Evolution in action
For the past six years there has been an on-going programme of improvements to the kitchen at Gidleigh Park, the country house hotel in Chagford, Devon. "It's not so much a new kitchen as an evolving kitchen," says chef director Michael Caines.
Latest additions are a state-of-the-art bespoke Bonnet range and a new hot pass, which have just been installed by GS Catering Equipment at a cost of £58,000, bringing the total bill so far to more than £150,000. Previous years have seen investments of about £15,000 on bakery and pastry equipment, £3,000 on floor tiles, £35,000 on refrigeration, and about £20,000 on various appliances such as mixers and ice-cream machines. Meanwhile, Caines's cooking has won a second Michelin star for the hotel's 38-cover restaurant, together with a clutch of other accolades.
Needs in perspective
When Caines first joined the hotel in 1994, he was keen to make rapid, costly changes to the kitchen - and at times this brought him into conflict with Paul Henderson, who opened the hotel with his wife, Kay, in 1977. Caines has continued to press hard for improvements, but his increasing involvement with the management of the business as a whole has taught him to put the kitchen's needs in perspective.
But while Caines has learned to wait for what he wants, he won't settle for second best. "If you buy the best, you'll have it for a long time," he says.
Previously, the kitchen had five modular gas stoves, three of which had ovens beneath them. About five years old, they were increasingly struggling under the weight of work and were costing more than £5,000 a year to maintain and repair. Moreover, Caines felt that they consumed too much gas, because it was impractical in a busy kitchen to keep turning them on and off.
The new range is a Bonnet Maestro Classic island suite, which was designed not only to fit around a structural pillar, but also to go underneath the existing ventilation canopy. At first glance it seems underequipped - there are no open hobs, no bains-marie and only two ovens - but its design is such that Caines can easily cope with his average of 38 covers a night and could in fact do as many as 80.
In part, this is due to the range's two electrically heated planchas, which Caines is the first UK restaurant chef to use. These smooth, griddle-type plates are highly versatile and can be used for direct cooking of food and for heating saucepans.
Caines says that they cook foods such as foie gras, scallops, fish fillets and meat far more efficiently than pans on a hob, because the food is in direct contact with the plancha and there are no cool spots caused by warped pan bases. What's more, the plancha is non-stick. "We use a bit more olive oil these days, but we're saving a lot on non-stick pans," says Caines. "We used to have to replace about four pans a month at a cost of as much as £35 each." There is a drainage moat around each plancha which feeds into a collection drawer underneath. Cleaning is a simple matter of scraping down after each item is cooked, then wiping with a degreaser at the end of service.
Power sockets have been installed on the range to make it easy to use equipment such as blenders and mixers without the danger of trailing wires, and there is also a pair of electric radiant hobs. Caines says that they give good control and heat, and are particularly good for leaving turned on underneath stockpots, because they don't have the danger potential of naked flames. In addition, there are two solid-tops, a salamander and two ovens which are heated with liquefied petroleum gas since, surrounded by 45 acres of its own grounds in the Dartmoor National Park, Gidleigh Park is miles away from the nearest gas mains.
Four sections
Caines has split the kitchen and his nine chefs into four sections: pastry, hot and cold starters, meat and fish mains, and garnishes. Starters work from one side of the range with mains on the other. Caines stations himself at the end of the range by the pass where he can keep an eye on everything, cook mains and starters himself when necessary, and dress and serve every dish. "I've designed the kitchen around my ability to view and vet everything that goes on," he says.
The kitchen is not, however, designed around Caines as an individual. In particular, it makes no concessions to the fact that he lost his right arm in a car accident soon after joining Gidleigh Park. "There will probably come a point where I have a head chef, so I can't build the kitchen round my needs and make it so that only I am able to work within the environment," he says. "It's more important to design a kitchen for the greater needs of quality and consistency."
Apart from the range and the pass, made by Wardpark Gardner, the equipment in the main kitchen is mainly refrigeration. There are three Williams uprights in the main kitchen - one for fish and one for general holding, plus a freezer. In the corridors and storage areas behind the kitchen, there are two more freezers and two walk-in refrigerators.
First area
The tiny pastry section is adjacent to the main kitchen. It was the first area that Caines tackled, installing a Hobart combi-oven, a Bakbar prover and a floor-standing Hobart mixer. Since then, a specialist Dito Sama dough mixer has been added to cope with the increasing amount of bread being made, plus a Rondo pastry brake for both croissants and pastry, together with a reconditioned Carpigiani ice-cream maker.
Outstanding items on Caines's kitchen shopping list are now few: a new ceiling, a replacement ice-cream machine, a vacuum packer and another fridge for the pastry section.
