Open to inspection
For the teams competing in La Parade des Chefs at Hotelympia 2000 next week there is nowhere to hide from the public gaze should a problem occur. If a sauce separates or a sugar cage shatters, it will be in full view of the spectators gathered around the four kitchens.
The kitchens have glass panels to enable Hotelympia visitors to watch the action and this year for the first time they will also be open on the restaurant side so the chefs are visible to diners. "It's important that the windows aren't blocked by pieces of equipment, so that people get a nice clear view and can see the skill levels involved," says salon director Peter Griffiths.
Designed for use by a team of six chefs and one kitchen porter, each of the kitchens is equipped to cook for an 85-seat restaurant in La Parade, sponsored by British Meat. They will be used by a different culinary team on each of the five days of the show. A total of 20 teams are taking part and Griffiths says that the event is now so popular that 14 teams had to be turned away.
The kitchens for La Parade are built in less than a week. Unlike permanent kitchens, there is no need for extraction canopies because the exhibition hall has a very high ceiling. Gas, electricity, water and drainage all have to be supplied, and the wooden floor needs to be strong enough to take the considerable weight of the kitchen equipment. At the end of the show the kitchens vanish almost as quickly as they were built. Many of the appliances in them are pre-sold as demonstration equipment by their suppliers, so they are removed and reinstalled in permanent kitchens.
Each kitchen costs about £60,000-£80,000 for the sponsoring manufacturers to install. Two have been installed by Hobart, one by Zanussi Professional and one by Palux. Small equipment has been supplied by Rubbermaid and M Gilbert, with pots and pans from George E Neville, plate stackers with non-stick rings from Banqueting Solutions and cleaning chemicals from Henkel-Ecolab.
The Hobart and Zanussi kitchens have similar layouts. Both have preparation counters and sinks along one wall, with the cooking appliances running parallel and accessible from three sides only, plus a stand-alone pass. The Palux kitchen layout is different in that its cooking appliances and pass are arranged in a U-shaped island group. All have a hotplate on the pass, with overhead lamps, a fryer, two salamanders, two combi-ovens, a food processor, mixer, slicer and refrigeration. "It is important that the equipment is capable of producing varied menus and that similar facilities are offered to all the 20 teams," says Griffiths.
In most respects, the kitchens are like those in commercial use, but the demands of the competition mean that there are a few differences. "Normally, the combination ovens would be against a wall rather than in the middle of the room, but the glass windows mean there is no wall available in the La Parade kitchen," explains Terry Stack, marketing manager for Zanussi. "And the kitchens are a bit light on preparation equipment because the competing chefs like to do everything by hand."
When it comes to ranges, all three manufacturers have taken a different approach. The Zanussi kitchen has a solid top together with eight open burners to give chefs a choice of cooking methods. By contrast, at Hobart the belief is that the speed of the competition means that the chefs have less need of the simmering capabilities of solid tops. "You can't bring several pans to the boil quickly on a solid top," says Alan Tomlinson, marketing services support manager for Hobart, "so we decided that open burners were best for these kitchens - chefs can use them for both rapid boiling and simmering."
Palux does not make open burners but its Vario cooker, which looks rather like a pasta boiler, can be used for both wet and dry cooking. For instance, vegetables can be blanched and refreshed in perforated gastronorm containers, while meat can be braised with the use of solid containers. This kitchen also provides chefs with a Vario pan, which is rather like a small bratt pan. With a highly polished surface, it can be used for frying as well as wet cooking. For tasks which require pots and pans, the Palux kitchen also has a Vario range with a rectangular solid top that, unlike a bull's-eye solid top, provides an even temperature all over and can double as a griddle.
Because of space constraints and the time it would take to install them, there are no walk-in refrigerators. Besides which, there is no requirement for large-scale storage. "Food is delivered each day for each team," explains Griffiths. "Part of the competition is that the teams have to leave their kitchen clean and stripped down, ready for the next team the following day."
The four kitchens share two dishwashing areas, one installed by Zanussi and the other by Hobart. A hood dishwasher has been chosen for both because of the compact space available. "This is getting to the limit of its capacity, but it occupies less than a square metre of space," explains Stack.
The competing teams of chefs are supplied with lists of the equipment in the kitchens and with kitchen plans prior to the event. When they arrive, at 7am on their allocated day, representatives from the sponsoring manufacturers are on hand to give them a rapid training session. "They may never have used our equipment before, so we may need to show them how to light it, for example," says Tomlinson.
Palux has invited the chefs who will be using its kitchen to visit a test kitchen before the event. Development chef John Cruickshank explains: "It's a new concept in cooking, so we don't want chefs coming in on the day and asking why there are no open burners." Throughout the five days, engineers will be on hand in case there are any problems.
