No wonder Richard Allen loves his job. His daylight hours aren't spent in artificial lighting in some basement kitchen - in fact, quite the opposite. The main cooking area of his kitchen opens out on to an 85-seat restaurant four stories above street level, which, on a bright spring day, is bathed in sunlight streaming through a wall of windows running the entire length of the room.
"On days like this it's a pleasure to come to work," says the head chef of Harvey Nichols Fourth Floor Café and Bar, who, having trained in London at the Great Eastern hotel and worked at Quaglino's under Martin Webb, has led the brigade here for four years. As if that wasn't enough, last August he got a brand new kitchen designed to his specification to meet the needs of the bustling restaurant perched on the top floor of the Leeds department store.
Allen spent a year planning the new kitchen with the help of Clive Groom of CNG Foodservice Equipment, which carried out the £70,000 project. Groom explains the problems that had to be addressed: "There was a lack of space, and limited width in key areas made access, work flows and health and safety difficult. The challenge was to create a lighter, better working environment while being able to prepare more food than previously."
After a year of planning, the restaurant stopped trading for a remarkably short time for the refurbishment. "We closed after service on Saturday night, emptied the kitchen and bar, and the contractors were in at 7am on Sunday," says Allen. Trading resumed just over a week later.
Some existing pieces of equipment, including four fridges and a combi-oven, were kept. Key items of new equipment included a Winterhalter dishwasher, Williams refrigeration and - Allen's pride and joy - two Charvet cooking ranges. "We wanted equipment that would stand the test of time," says Allen. "We are now able to use a bigger range of products and organise more in advance while continuing to operate on a fresh-food principle."
Fifteen chefs make up the brigade that prepares the menus served at lunch seven days a week and dinner on three evenings. Menu changes are every three or four weeks, but dishes are tweaked in the meantime. Seventy per cent of the produce used, such as meat, cheese and vegetables, is sourced locally, with fish coming from Whitby in North Yorkshire and Scotland. Customers are attracted by monthly event nights and guest chefs, who in the past have included Michel Roux and Peter Gordon.
The benefits of the redesign have been felt beyond the kitchen door. "Service is a lot quicker," says front-of-house manager Sharon Swales. "We have a lot of business trade who have one hour for lunch, and they know they can be in and out in that time. And front-of-house staff find the new kitchen easier to move around in when we go in to do our prep."
Thirty-seven-year-old chef Adrian Jones has swapped London for an idyllic spot a couple of miles outside Halifax, West Yorkshire. As far as he's concerned, it's the perfect setting.
The brief
"The old kitchen was designed for café-style service with medium-duty equipment and a small preparation area, but it became apparent it was insufficient in the first years of trading ".
Richard Allen, Head chef
* The priority was to redesign the whole flow - from the goods arriving from street level via a lift, into the stores and then on through preparation and cooking - and to increase the cold preparation area and amount of refrigeration. A better hot preparation area was another must, and the potwash also needed improving.
Main cooking suite
The aim in designing the main cooking suite by Charvet, used for cooking all the meat and fish, was to provide more ovens underneath and more firepower on top. As well as the solid tops and two burners sited over two gas ovens, the suite includes a chargrill, a plancha and a twin-basket fryer. Two salamanders sit above.
Most expensive bit of kit
The main Charvet cooking suite cost just over £26,000 and is modular, giving the flexibility to change things around if required. Winching it in through a window was one option considered, but in the end it was brought up in pieces and bolted together in situ.
Favourite bit of kit
Allen's favourite addition to the kitchen is the plancha, a smooth chrome griddle for cooking without pans. "It's fantastic for cooking fish and very versatile," he says.
Cold preparation area
In addition to all the preparation for the restaurant's 100 covers at lunch on weekdays (rising to 250 on Saturdays), the kitchen preps the ingredients for the Mediterranean-style snacks served in an 80-seat pavement café downstairs. To ensure there's enough room, the cold preparation area was extended into what was previously office space. Besides ample stainless-steel work surfaces, the area houses Williams equipment, including fridges for raw and cooked meat, a freezer, and a blast chiller used for chilling soups, stocks and sauces, pastry items such as brûlées and meat and poultry for sandwiches served downstairs.
Hot preparation area
The hot preparation area has been increased by 90% with the addition of a second Charvet suite comprising a 75-litre gas boiling pan, tilting bratt pan, solid top and twin burners with an oven underneath.
Most useful bit of kit
Most use is gained from the tilting bratt pan and 75-litre boiling pan, which between them have dispensed with the need for big stockpots on the stove. In addition to the preparation of stocks, sauces and soups, Allen has found another use is for sealing large quantities of meat for functions.
Dishwashing
Before the redesign the potwash area was rather constricted and the location, right next to the food preparation area, wasn't ideal. Now the area is compact and self-contained with a separate door for waiters dumping dirty dishes. Plenty of racking and efficient storage space ensures breakages are kept to a minimum. A Winterhalter dishwasher was chosen for its simplicity of operation.
Refrigeration
A bank of Williams under-counter refrigerators opposite the main cooking suite keeps ingredients close at hand while providing plenty of surface area with stainless-steel worktops for preparation. Two refrigerated drawers store salad ingredients, and extra refrigeration for meat and fish sits under the heated gantry running parallel to the cooking suite.
Pastry kitchen
A corner of the kitchen is dedicated to pastry, where pastry chef Terri Davison has an ice-cream freezer, a Lincat convection oven, refrigerated cabinets, a mixer and a marble work surface on which to prepare such sweet offerings as chocolate mousse with passion fruit sauce.
Contacts
* Charvet
01342 717936
* CNG Foodservice Equipment
0191-423 6200
* Lincat
01522 875555
* Williams
01553 817000
* Winterhalter
01908 359000