Byfords, a highly successful deli, café/restaurant and wine bar in the attractive Norfolk village of Holt, has turned to Williams Refrigeration - part of Aga Foodservice Equipment (AFE) - for guidance and advice on the best possible refrigeration solutions for its catering and retail operations.
Purchased two years ago by Iain Wilson, Byfords has certainly been the subject of an intensive development programme both in the kitchen and customer areas. Vitally, this has included Williams introducing Byfords to the latest generation of blast chiller freezers and all of the critical benefits of cook-chill from quality to flexibility (now covered in a comprehensive Williams' guide).
Also as Byfords' operates out of Holt's oldest listed building - with parts dating back to the 17th Century - it was essential that the blast chiller freezer installed by Williams was low noise.
Darrell Bethel, the head chef at Byfords, believes that the Williams' blast chiller freezer is a particularly welcome addition to the kitchen: "Given the volume of meals we serve - 60,000 a year - from a small area, it is important to have effective food production procedures in place. The latest Williams blast chiller is integral to this, chilling final and intermediate products to deliver a safe, cost effective, result whilst maintaining taste, texture and nutritional content for our customers.
"Crucially, the blast chiller supports larger batch sizes and delivers greater flexibility in scheduling food production to cope with demand - we can have up to 230 customers seated during the summer peak.
Time is not wasted waiting for food to cool - a good example is our steamed chicken breast served cold, which can be chilled and ready in only 30 minutes. We have even been able to enhance our menus by taking full advantage of the blast chiller's capabilities, a flexibility underlined by the fact that it is able to cope with a whole array of products - even cakes."
It is planned that the Blast Chiller Freezer will play an essential role in an ambitious project to offer freshly prepared ready meals from the deli counter.
The deli has been redesigned to create more space and ease customer flow, with Williams display counters showing off Byfords range of black and green olives and other Italian offering such as artichoke hearts, mushrooms and aubergines to best effect.
The popular Byfords' café/restaurant menu stretches from breakfast baguettes and croissants to sandwiches, jacket potatoes, salads as well as hot specialities including Goan chicken and toad in the hole. Byfords is also open for pizza and pasta three nights a week with downstairs becoming a vibrant wine bar complemented by Williams bottle coolers.
Byfords currently has two kitchens to support the deli, café/restaurant and wine bar operations. The first is for preparation at the back of the deli featuring Williams' advanced blast chiller, freezer cabinets - including Pearls - and a chest freezer.
The second "service" kitchen at the rear of the wine bar has two compact, 4-door, low energy consumption Opal counters. These feature drawers for convenient storage and crucially support the rapid preparation of anything from jacket potatoes to hot dishes such as Goan chicken. A Dominator oven from Williams' sister company Falcon is also installed in this area.
Things are certainly not standing still for Byfords. Future expansion plans include the conversion of the upstairs to support high-class dinner and bed and breakfast facilities and extended opening hours - 7.30 am to 11.00 pm, Monday to Saturday, and 10.00 am to 5.00pm on Sunday.
To cope with the hoped for 1200-1500 covers per week, improved kitchen capacity with a new bulk preparation kitchen, bringing together the Opal with the Blast Chiller Freezer and an advanced, low noise - given the historic nature of the area - Williams Igloo walk-in freezer room with ODP zero foam panels. Crucially, this will offer large-scale preparation and storage, saving time and ultimately cost.
More details on Williams' extensive range of products from commercial refrigeration to bakery equipment, including a wide range of Gastronorm cabinets and Reach-in and Roll-in Blast Chillers.
Williams Refrigeration is part of Aga Foodservice Equipment the market leader in the commercial catering equipment industry.
Williams Refrigeration