Mareno Cook Suite Is Jewel in Amethyst Crown

It’s not often that a brand new MARENO cook suite gets overshadowed, but where Amethyst is concerned, we may have to admit defeat. The restaurant, which opened in the middle of 2022, has at its centre a zig-zagged shaped piece of Amethyst, which serves as the chef’s table. From here it is possible for diners to look directly into the kitchen, where they will find chef/owner Carlo Scotto.

Scotto, who rose through the ranks of Gordon Ramsay Holdings, and under the watchful eye of Angela Hartnett, worked closely with kitchen design house i-FOUR at his previous restaurant, Xier, and so when the opportunity arose to create Amethyst, he naturally turned to a team that knew him, his cooking style, and his demands for perfection.

The project was unusual in many respects, and not just in terms of the dining concept itself, as i-FOUR’s managing director, Paul Martin points out: ‘It’s not often that we work on projects where we provide a Project Manager, a Quantity Surveyor and get involved in the planning application process too,’ he says. ‘But I like to think it’s an indication of the level of trust that Carlo and his business partners, Laura and Sahand Jalali, have in us.’

‘The menu at Amethyst draws on Nordic, Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisines and so the MARENO suite needed to be incredibly versatile to cope with dishes such as salmon and foie gras, where the salmon is cured with rose water and paired with a marinated Armagnac foie gras and yuzu jelly, or the equally fantastic black cod with caramelised miso,’ says Martin. ‘But to my mind, it’s the versatility of the MARENO product ranges – from 700 Series modular units to 900 Series units with fully welded tops – that sets them apart from other options out there. And there is also the added benefit that it looks stunning, which is especially important when you are providing the backdrop for 36 people dining at a table made of Amethyst!’

So, what of the cook suite? At just 2665mm x 1100mm its certainly not the biggest one in the world, although it was large enough that it needed to be craned into the kitchen area via a window! At its heart is a four zone electric plancha that allows Scotto to cook either directly or indirectly, and a double ceramic hob. Underneath the neutral section, which is adjacent to the plancha, is a pass through oven.

‘Whilst it’s not the biggest suite, every element of it has been specifically designed and positioned in conjunction with Carlo so that it perfectly complements the way he works. Ultimately, it has everything he needs, which goes to prove that if you plan these things properly you often need less space than you think. And this is a good point at which to mention the involvement of Steve Hobbs and the team at Grande Cuisine. They have years of experience working with top chefs across the UK and know exactly what can and can’t be achieved – they have pretty much seen it all!

For us, at i-FOUR, one of the most important things is that they are willing to invest time and effort very early on in the consultancy process, often long before an order has been placed, and are therefore involved in the overall planning of a project from the word go. That is invaluable to us,’ Martin concludes.