Size Matters

Isabel in Albermarle Street in Mayfair is the latest offering from Chilean restaurateur Juan Santa Cruz. It features a new kitchen supplied by Grande Cuisine.

This is the second time Grande Cuisine has worked with Santa Cruz Co. Grande Cuisine worked with the client supplying an Athanor suite to Casa Cruz, its first restaurant opened in Notting Hill in May 2015.

This stylish new restaurant, which occupies the former Sumosan site, opened in April 2017. Its Art Deco design is informed by a pale gold, navy blue and rich red colour palette.

Low-fat, high protein dishes on offer include quails’ eggs with celery salt and paprika, Iberico ham and Aji Chicken with romesco, coriander and jalapenos.

The kitchen was installed by Hallmark Kitchens based on initial design work from consultants SHW Design. The final design was completed by Hallmark in collaboration with group head chef Thomas Straker and fitted in partnership with the main building contractors – WFC.

Grande Cuisine supplied an all-electric Athanor cook line with four double plaque Athanor cook plates, plancha, a 1/1Gn 6 kW multi-cooker and a 1/1Gn A la Carte style electric service oven. The installation also included a CAPIC hi-light quick therm salamander grill and two D2IC6000 inset induction hobs.

There were two issues with the Isabel kitchen – its size and its location. The kitchen is very compact for a restaurant of this size. This meant placing a lot of high spec equipment into a small space. Dimensions and positions had to be carefully checked and re-checked to ensure optimum ergonomics and workflow. The basement location created a logistical issue with getting the equipment into the kitchen area.

As well as the Athanor cook suite, the equipment specification was high and included counter style fabrication by Select Fabrications, Halton ventilation canopies with UV filtration, Ansul and water mist protection, cold rooms by Foster Coldstore, dish & glass washing by Meiko, Robata grill by Clay Oven Company, combi ovens by both Rational & MKN and Foster refrigerated cabinets.

For more on Athanor and CAPIC call Grande Cuisine on 01908 745540.