While major kitchen refurbishments are usually endured rather than enjoyed or anticipated, many chefs who’ve been through them and used temporary kitchens will have been surprised how well fitted, sophisticated and efficient the modern container-style temporary kitchen can be. Almost any type of equipment, feature and facility is now available.
But one thing has remained elusive during many refurbishments. For a long time, space had been the final frontier in temporary catering facilities. To use another sci-fi metaphor, chefs don’t expect the ‘Tardis effect’, where there’s more room inside than there appears to be from the outside.
Container Kitchen Systems (CKS), the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens, has worked hard to correct this misconception, and says that it’s now easier than ever to offer larger temporary kitchen suites with a lot of internal space.
The culmination of this is the ‘island suite’, allowing chefs to work right around the kitchen ranges. More chefs can fit in a particular space, they can look at and speak to each other more easily (and more quietly), they can cope with more cooking operations at once, and they can handle a larger throughput for the same amount of space. What’s more, a head chef can see the entire operation more easily.
Growing in popularity for kitchens in hotels and larger restaurants, island layouts have long thought to be impossible, or at least impractical, for temporary kitchens, But CKS can now ensure an ‘island’ feature is a possibility for most chefs who want one during a refurbishment, and is even a possibility where there wasn’t one in the original kitchen being refurbished.
"We find growing numbers of caterers are going with our ideas for temporary kitchens with island layouts," says Mark Kingston, managing director of CKS. "While a single container kitchen is a quick and very simple solution, chefs are increasingly attracted to our combined solution. This is where we link four or more modular units together, removing the internal walls, to create a large open-plan space with a central island containing most of the cooking equipment they need.
"In some cases, using space at the back of a hotel, or in a car park, for example, we can offer a kitchen with more space than was available in the original kitchen or planned for the new refurbishment."
Mark Kingston says that in sometimes the features of temporary kitchens have ended up influencing the refurbishments, as chefs ask for them to be added to their new permanent kitchen.
CKS modules can be delivered fully equipped and ready-to-use, are easy to install and can be very quick to commission. All are designed to meet the latest Food and Hygiene Regulations. Once the temporary kitchen is in operation CKS offers full customer support including staff training if necessary.
CKS is one of the UK’s leading temporary kitchen specialists. The company also offers a professional kitchen installation service and operates a catering equipment maintenance division. For more information, brochures and details, contact Container Kitchen Systems direct, by phone on 0845 812 0800, email sales@cksltd.co.uk or on the web at www.cksltd.co.uk.