Bigger, better, faster: the latest kitchen products and installations
Lisa Jenkins rounds up some of the kitchen equipment installations and new product initiatives from around the UK
Sefton Horn Winch brings Boodle's bang up to date
Boodle's is one of London's most prestigious clubs, as well as the second-oldest gentlemen's club in the world.
Named after its original head waiter, Edward Boodle, it can count significant figures such as William Wilberforce, Adam Smith and Ian Fleming among its members, and Sir Winston Churchill had honorary membership.
Located at 28 St James Street in London since 1782, it has a long tradition for high quality and service and recently sought the services of hospitality design agency Sefton Horn Winch to look into refurbishing the kitchens, which had not received an upgrade in more than 20 years.
The project included specifying and upgrading the ventilation system, providing the design and specifications for the stainless steel fabrication for the preparation and service areas, as well as a new Athanor cooking suite from Grande Cuisine.
Executive chef Stephen Carter had undertaken research into the different suites and ranges offered by manufacturers and, having made a long-term commitment to cut the club's carbon footprint, energy efficiency was considered alongside performance.
A new Vision for Leon at Stansted Airport
Leon Restaurants has opened its 21st restaurant, at Stansted Airport. Stansted was undertaking a vast refurbishment to improve the facilities for its passengers, and Leon was one of the 12 new units added to the airport.
Specialist commercial kitchen supplier Vision designed, supplied and installed the catering facilities within the new unit, with a brief to take the traditional healthy, fast-casual brand and make it workable in a busy, demanding airport.
The peak volumes in the airport are of a dissimilar pattern to the high-street branches, and so the catering equipment had to be selected to reflect this. With this in mind, Vision supplied equipment of high quality and durability, which was more than capable of coping with the extra footfall within the airport.
Cool designs from Adande at Baroosh
Refrigeration supplier Adande has supplied refrigerated drawer systems to independent brewery company McMullen at its Baroosh bar and restaurant in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
The two-drawer units are located beneath the worktop on the kitchen side of the pass. Three of the units are operated at chilled temperatures for the storage of fresh ingredients and meal portions, and the other unit operates at freezer temperature.
The kitchen was also equipped with a single-drawer Chef Base unit, located beneath the kitchen's chargrill, for the storage of fresh meat.
The restaurant offers a wide variety of drinks and an eclectic range of dishes, from sausage with bubble and squeak to Mediterranean-influenced sharing dishes. It provides an all-day dining experience, serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. The pub typically serves more than 1,200 main meals and up to 300 snacks a week.
The kitchen also features an open-plan preparation area, which allows customers to see, hear and smell the kitchen.
Paul Robbins, food development manager for McMullen, said: "There are major operational advantages in kitchen staff having ingredients at their fingertips. The fact that they don't have to leave their workstation to fetch food speeds up service significantly.
"Food stored in the largecapacity drawers is also easier to access than it would be in conventional upright refrigeration cabinets."
Sweet success for Roosters Piri Piri and Aviko
Founded in 2003, Roosters Piri Piri is a small, family-run business serving chicken, burgers and kebabs in a vibrant, street food style. The chain has over 40 outlets with recent openings in Walthamstow and Wood Green in London and Cork in Ireland.
"One of the challenges in the casual dining sector is staying ahead of the game," said founder Khalid Mirza. "In 2014, we restructured the Roosters business, becoming more selective with site locations and developing the franchise division."
Roosters Piri Piri then turned to potato specialist Aviko to help expand its range of sides as part of this development.
Mirza explained: "We chose to work with Aviko due to its expertise in the industry, and also because it met our standards in quality, taking on board feedback from the market and consumers to continually improve its offering. Our kitchens rely on consistent quality and Aviko delivers this.
"Innovation is a big part of the casual dining sector and we're always looking for ways to push forward. We chose Aviko's Sweet Potato Fries to offer our customers something different from what they're used to. It's a high-quality product, which we'll initially add as a side dish on the main menu, but it will form part of the meal deal in future."
Aviko uses a ‘steam blanching' production method for its sweet potato fries to deliver a tastier end result. The fries do not contain any genetically modified organisms and are gluten-free.
Emily Watkins goes green at the Kingham Plough
Emily Watkins, chef-proprietor at the Kingham Plough in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, has recently completed a full kitchen refurbishment designed to create more space and to be as eco-friendly as possible.
The redesign has provided the kitchen team with twice the amount of space for cooking, extra shelving and storage and more preparation areas. A new secondary cook space for the pastry and larder sections was made by moving the previous walk-in cold storage.
The kitchen refurbishment has incorporated the need for lower energy usage by including induction hobs, water-conserving dishwashers and energy-saving refrigeration.
Target Catering was responsible for the design of the kitchen and the project management, and provided the induction suites, stainless steel fabrication and a bespoke ventilation system.
The EcoPro range from Foster Refrigeration, Winterhalter waterand energy-saving dishwashers and a Lincat combination oven and hot cupboard and pass were installed. Foster Refrigeration replaced the old walk-in cold store with a bespoke outdoor cold room.
Watkins said: "The new kitchen has given everyone a boost and I believe it's going to help us push ourselves to the next level with the food.
"The new layout and equipment will allow us to be more precise and more consistent."
