5 Star Hotel Basement Kitchen | TAG Catering Equipment

The Brief

We were asked by the client to complete a full refurbishment of the basement kitchen. The kitchen would need to have modern feel that will last for another 20 plus years. We needed to:

Reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs
Cut the number of staff required during peak and off peak service
Bring down cleaning costs and improve overall hygiene levels
Create an aesthetic restaurant feel for the Chefs’ Table, generating a sense of theatre for the customers.

ceda Grand Prix 2019 – Project Over £300,000

Services

Commercial Kitchen Design, Commercial Kitchen Installation, Energy Management

Location

Park Lane, London

Sector

Hotels

Awards

ceda Grand Prix 2019 – Project Over £300,000
ceda Grand Prix 2019 – Sir Donald Thompson Cup

About the 5 Star Hotel

Located on Park Lane, this is one of London’s most iconic hotels offering various food and drink experiences, from a hotel run coffee shop and florist, to meetings and events, wellness facilities, a Wine Vault and Michelin-starred dining.

The kitchen located in the basement was over 20 years old, previously installed by TAG, providing catering for The Promenade, banqueting, in-room dining and the Chef’s Table in the Krug Room.

TAG is a great company to work with, their dedication to detail and planning was of the highest standard. Their invaluable experience and guidance was more than anyone could have wished for, which clearly is showing at the finished project.

Henry Brosi, 5 Star Hotel / Executive Chef

Basement Kitchen - Krug & Promenade Kitchen

Basement Kitchen - In-room Dining Kitchen

The Solution

The biggest change we made to reduce energy consumption was to eliminate the use of gas and implement induction technology. This change also allowed for more equipment to be placed in a smaller footprint, whist at the same time reducing the ambient working temperature of the kitchen.

The entire kitchen and refrigeration pack system were connected to the Total Control System-TCS® from DeManincor. The system continually monitors every connected appliance’s power consumption, idle times, and temperature status up to 30 times per second preventing unwanted energy spikes and reducing the overall energy usage.

Krug & Promenade

We worked closely with the Executive Chef, Engineering Directors and the Food and Beverage operations team to gain a full understanding of what was needed for the Krug and Promenade.

We rotated the cooking ranges by 90 degrees helping change the equipment layout to allow chefs to work together and overlap on both ranges. This helped to improve operational efficiency and flexibility, and this, alongside removing the pot racks, gives unrestricted views of the whole kitchen from the Krug Room.

The new layout of the kitchen ensured that theatrical equipment, such as the pizza oven, Josper and main ranges were in full view. The counters were complete with black granite tops and a backlit onyx marble front to give a ‘restaurant’ feel and a fantastic aesthetic.

In-room

In-room dining previously featured a gas island cooking range that was switched on continuously, had no access to the cold room and only was given minimal refrigeration.

The new design for this space features an induction wall suite which could be used in quiet periods or alternativity, be switched off over night to save energy. Angled chilled pan rails and two suspended gantries helped to maximise counter space and make it more accessible for chefs working in the area. We also incorporated a centralised cold room which helped to divide the areas whilst still being accessible from all kitchens.

Banquet Kitchen

The Banquet kitchen was previously very inefficient, so creating a better layout was vital. We created two island sections both with suspended gantries, tray runner and under-counter refrigeration, helping to provide an adaptable middle space for various functions. We gave the space a ‘production line’ approach which has improved the flow and efficiency massively.

This also included the supply and installation of multiple RATIONAL combi ovens and iVario multi-function cooking centres, for efficient banquet cooking.

Pizza Kitchen

The Pizza Kitchen was a new concept created for the client to provide an expanded menu and added theatre to the kitchen from the Chef’s Table Krug Room. We designed the area to be fully autonomous and allow for dough making, topping preparation and baking to be carried out in the space giving a pizza restaurant vibe within a large kitchen space.

We designed the area to be fully autonomous, allowing for dough making and topping preparation.

We designed and built a bespoke feature wall which contains the pizza oven. This is located centrally giving the whole kitchen a focal point, and a restaurant vibe within the large kitchen space.

The Outcome

The client management teams have already noticed a reduction in running costs, reduced breakdowns, and staffing efficiencies.

We have also had good feedback from those operatives working in various areas regarding how easy to clean, how the new layout has radically improved their footprint and enabled greater fluidity in the whole kitchen.

The size and scope of this project was vast; we are still getting positive comments as new aspects of the design are being realized.

I want to thank Tyron and the team at TAG for their the extremely hard work. The seamless process of the kitchen and services installation made this very easy for our team to work around the disruption, which in the scheme of things was very minor.

From the chefs to the hotel manager, and everyone in between, are in awe of what has been achieved in such a small space of time. Henry Brosi is over the moon and says it has changed his life and if chef is happy, then I am happy!

What also personally impressed me was on this large project at the end which was completed on time as agreed and there were no extra costs.