Norfolk pub, renowned for food and art, gets peace of mind with British-built refrigeration
With its emphasis on local, seasonal produce – including whole venison – The Gunton Arms in North Norfolk relies heavily on its refrigeration. The unusual and highly praised venue, which opened late in 2011, invested in a complete new kitchen which was installed by Eximius Projects. A variety of Precision counter fridges and freezers were specified.
Stuart Tattersall is head chef. Formerly with Mark Hix, who has advised throughout the project, Stuart’s vision for The Gunton Arms is to serve food with minimum fuss, to let it speak for itself. “This is not a restaurant: the pool table in the bar helps define us as a pub. What that means for food is that we can be more honest, and maybe less flamboyant – people aren’t expecting a smear of jus on their plate!” he says.
If the food is simple, the cooking itself can be very flamboyant – Stuart prepares several dishes on the open fire in the middle of the restaurant. In fact, the whole pub interior is flamboyant: owner Ivor Braka is an art dealer and not far from the pool table are ceramics by Tracey Emin and a Gilbert & George print.
“Here we are in a thousand-odd acres of beautiful parkland – I think the food needs to do the setting justice. In the season we go to town on game birds. We forage for wild garlic – there’s an abundance of wild ingredients around us. With venison, we celebrate the meat by using the whole carcass, in a variety of dishes.”
When it came to selecting the catering equipment, Stuart took the simple route: “We wanted a high- end kitchen, and I relied on Eximius Projects to supply it – they recommended the Precision refrigeration.”
The Precision fridges and freezers are a mix of counters, including some of the company’s new Space Savers. “I hadn’t used Precision before and I’ve been very impressed. With refrigeration I want to be able to fit and forget. Of course, you need to look after them – in fact, cleaning is very easy on the Precisions. But other than that, you want them to just keep working reliably, which is what these units do.”
The mix of counters at The Gunton Arms reflects the manufacturer’s objective to offer a choice of depths and sizes that allows kitchen designers to make best use of the site’s available space. For example, the pub’s HUC150 Space Saver counter fridge comes in a choice of configurations, either 445mm by 725mm, or 650mm by 600mm, offering 150 litres of storage. Like all Precision refrigeration, it’s manufactured in stainless steel throughout. Standard features include iCool intelligent energy-saving controllers and Envirofoam, Precision’s zero ODP, high-performance insulation.
“All the Precision counters hold their temperature very well,” says Stuart Tattersall. “They’re well built pieces of kit that aren’t going to let you down. They give us peace of mind.”
Precision @ The Gunton Arms:
MCU 211 – 2 door 670 Series counter, capacity 300 litre
LCU 211 – 2 door 670 series counter freezer, capacity 300 litre
MCU 311 x 2 – 3 door 670 Series counter, capacity 450 litre
LPU 150 – 1 door space saving under counter freezer, capacity150 litre
HUC 150 – 1 door space saving fridge, capacity150 litre
For more information check out the Precision website (www.precision-refrigeration.co.uk), or call the company directly on +44 (0)1842 753 994.