Winterhalter helping Michael Caines’ new venture build shining reputation
Overlooking the mouth of the Exe estuary, Lympstone Manor is a Grade-2 listed Georgian manor house that has been transformed into a refined, contemporary hotel and restaurant by owner, Michael Caines MBE. One of Britain’s most celebrated chefs, Michael’s career has seen him hold two Michelin stars for eighteen consecutive years at Gidleigh Park.
His ambitions for this new venture include gaining a third one. “Be assured, Lympstone Manor will be one of the best hotel/restaurants in the UK and Europe. I am aiming at the top echelon!”
Michael has spent a year developing his menu for Lympstone Manor, combining new dishes as well as reimagining classics. “We want to create fantastic experiences for our guests, as well as presenting my vision of modern British cuisine,” says Michael. Drawing on his love of his home county, there is a strong focus on using seasonal ingredients, locally produced.
The project was overseen by Salix, one of the UK’s leading catering designers. Michael was involved at every stage of designing the hotel, naturally, including the kitchens. “If you want to be the best, you need to make sure everything is planned out exactly,” he says. “I wanted to create an efficient and safe environment that had a natural flow, making the process of creating food as smooth as possible”. Choosing the right equipment was therefore vital. “Consistency and quality are paramount at this level, you need the best equipment to produce the best food,” he adds.
As any chef will tell you, cleaning the dishes and glasses and getting them back into use is just as important as the equipment that makes the food. “There’s only a few hours a day that the kitchen isn’t in use,” Michael explains, “We’re working from breakfast through to dinner, so you need to have equipment that can work at that pace.”
Lympstone Manor has warewashers from Winterhalter. “I was already aware of how good Winterhalter’s equipment is,” says Michael. “So including them in our plans was a very easy decision!”
The hotel has separate machines for dishes and glasses, in order to guarantee perfect washes for each type of ware. “We have very fine glassware,” says Michael, “so we wanted to reduce handling, and therefore breakages.” To help with this, the machines have been equipped with Winterhalter’s Romatik reverse osmosis units.
The RO units filter water through a membrane, removing all impurities so no residue is left after washing. This means no additional polishing is required and items are ready for use as soon as the wash cycle ends. “It gives you a very clean glass straight out of the machine, which saves a lot of time as we don’t need to do extra polishing once it’s finished,” says Michael.
Aside from the quality of the cleaning, Michael is also impressed with the efficiency of the equipment. “We’re very committed to making the hotel as energy efficient as possible,” says Michael. “Not only is it good for the environment but it also saves us money!”
Winterhalter is constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency of its equipment, by reducing both energy and water consumption. “We’re surrounded by beautiful countryside here in Devon,” explains Michael. “It really brings home the importance of doing everything we can to preserve it. It’s why we chose the equipment that we do.”
Winterhalter also produce a range of cleaning chemicals designed specifically to work with their equipment. “It used to be pretty frustrating, looking for chemicals that gave us the results we wanted with our equipment,” he says. “You can imagine how pleased I was when Winterhalter launched its range of chemicals!” They have been designed to give great results with the reduced amounts of water required by Winterhalter’s machines. “Plus,” explains Michael, “They’re also eco-friendly, with minimal impact on the environment.”
While it has only opened recently, Lympstone Manor is already gaining glowing reviews for the quality of its menu, and that third Michelin star seems inevitable. “When you’re aiming to be the best, every part of the whole has to work together,” says Michael. “And that’s certainly true of our Winterhalter warewashers – the equipment and the chemicals are the perfect combination!”
Winterhalter at Lympstone Manor
Lympstone Manor has a PT-M with Energy Plus which can process up to 77 (500mm x 500mm) racks per hour. It’s the markets first passthrough dishwasher with energy-saving heat exchange technology fitted as standard. This extracts heat from the waste water, using it to heat incoming cold water and reducing energy costs by up to 10%.
It also incorporates an energy control system that speeds up the washing process, increasing rack capacity by up to 28% an hour and reducing heat-up time by 50%. The patented “full jet” filtration system works in conjunction with Winterhalter’s Mediamat filter to constantly clean the washwater.
The new VarioPower feature allows the operator to optimise the programme to suit the delicacy or dirtiness of the wash items. The wash arms provide 100% coverage, which combined with the advanced filtration systems and the new VarioPower system, improve the brilliance of cleaning results by 29%.
For more information about Salix, visit http://www.salix.co.uk