The Landmark London’s chic restaurant uses Winterhalter’s advanced technologies to tackle washing issues
The Wintergarden Restaurant at the Landmark London hotel has overcome a raft of warewashing issues by using highly advanced warewashing technology, supplied by Winterhalter. The issues related to the new warewash area for the restaurant. “We’re incredibly busy most of the day, so we needed a high volume machine – but we didn’t have the room to accommodate it,” says Executive Chef Gary Klaner. “At the same time, we need to be able to wash some very specialist and delicate pieces of tableware – including gold rim plates – but the machines also needed to be able to clean the standard ware, and clean it fast.”
Another consideration in the wash area was ventilation, which is limited, and in a small room, which was already hot, steam from a conventional warewasher would have caused serious condensation problems.
To cope with the volume of washing in the restaurant The Landmark London installed Winterhalter’s TwinSet – an innovative package that links two PT passthrough dishwashers together, doubling capacity in a relatively small footprint. It has the added advantage that, in quiet times, only one of the machines need be used, halving energy, water and chemical consumption.
To avoid the potential condensation problems, the PT TwinSet selected by the hotel is a ClimatePlus model. It uses heat exchangers to extract heat from the steam generated during washing, using it to heat up the incoming cold water supply. As a result, there’s virtually no steam left to escape when the PT is opened at the end of the wash cycle. The ClimatePlus also sucks in warm air from its surrounds to further heat the incoming water, and then pumps back cool, dry air. While the lack of steam and the cool air enhance the environment around the machine, the ClimatePlus technology also dramatically reduces energy consumption – by over 50%, compared to standard models.
“The TwinSet is doing a great job,” says Gary. “It’s fast, efficient and its ‘air conditioner effect’ is a huge bonus for the team working in such a confined space”
For glasses the Wintergarden’s wash area has a compact UC undercounter machine. To ensure the best possible results it’s an Excellence iPlus model, which means it incorporates Winterhalter’s innovative hybrid water treatment, which combines reverse osmosis (RO) and a water softener. Users can choose whether to use one or both water treatments systems – RO for the very best results, or just the water softener, which uses less water than RO and is fine for less critical items. The UC’s RO system is so good that glasses washed in the machine need minimal hand polishing when they come out.
The Landmark London already uses Winterhalter machines in its main kitchens, so Gary knew the results would be good. However, he wanted proof that the company’s technologies would resolve the problems the new wash area faced. Consequently he visited a couple of customer sites that were already using Winterhalter’s ClimatePlus and RO machines. “We were impressed by both technologies,” he says. “The way the ClimatePlus cools the wash area is brilliant. And the RO? The results speak for themselves.
“In a location like the Wintergarden in The Landmark London, the tableware has to be sparkling – and all the Winterhalters deliver on that.”
i-line Counters installed the Winterhalter machines. The company supplies bespoke fabrications, quality equipment from leading manufacturers and front of house food server counters. For more information visit www.i-linecounters.co.uk.