“A clever bit of space-saving”: upmarket brasserie specifies Williams
The latest Hush, which is right next door to St Pauls in London, will give customers a classic international brasserie experience – from burgers to lobster spaghetti, it’s an upmarket eatery that aims to provide great quality and great value. This is the third Hush Brasserie – the other two are in Holborn and Mayfair and the brand is owned by Jamie Barber.
“The focus is on fresh, quality ingredients, such as specialist fruit and veg. Looking after them is a key requirement,” says Jamie. “In terms of refrigeration, our brief to the kitchen project managers, df20, was simple: we want heard-wearing, reliable equipment that will look after our food and reflect the quality of the Hush brand.”
All the kitchen and cellar refrigeration at Hush St Pauls is Williams. Alongside standard counters and cabinets are specialist units including a Zircon fish cabinet, under counter blast chiller, a cellar cooling system and a dual compartment coldroom.
David Rood, executive chef of Hush, says refrigeration has to fulfil very specific criteria at Hush. “They include maintenance of temperature, of course, but also practical features such as stable shelving that’s easy to remove for cleaning and easy access to condensers for cleaning. Williams’ build quality provides equipment that stands the test of time.”
Many Williams designs offer a variety of options, so that buyers can tailor them to their requirements. For example, one of the Opal counter cabinets in the Hush kitchen has ingredients pans built in to the worktop. “We use them in our other sites and they keep the right temperature, we cover them when chefs don’t need to access them – the individual pan lids are useful – and the units work very well,” says David.
Being a counter unit, Hush’s blast chiller is right in the heart of the kitchen and is used to chill a wide variety of foods, including duck for salad, fishcake mix, stocks and cooked rice. The Williams unit can handle food up to 90°C, as opposed to conventional designs which need food to be at 70°C. “We use the blast chiller to cool items quickly which might discolor if left to cool at ambient, such as pea soup,” says David.
The coldroom, sited in the basement, combines chilled and freezer storage. Jamie describes it as “a clever bit of space saving.” Michael D’Aubney of df20 explains: “The brief called for the basement to house four storage facilities: a dry store, cellar cooling room, cold room and freezer room. The Williams dual compartment coldroom allowed us to maximise the space available.”
Sustainability is an important issue for Hush. All the Williams products at the site have been developed under the company’s Greenlogic initiative, which aims to provide the greenest refrigeration on the market. “With refrigeration, performance and maintaining food quality have to be prime drivers but energy efficiency is important, too. We’re very happy with the Williams equipment, its quality and green credentials fit us well,” says Jamie.
David agrees, “Energy efficiency is often overlooked when it comes to equipment purchase. But it should be a key criterion, as any savings on fixed overheads will have a positive impact on baseline profits. Plus, at a time of increased awareness of sustainability and carbon footprints, it shows due diligence and is good PR for a business.”
Michael says, “This is an upmarket venue and they expect the best. Service was a vital part of the Hush contract and equipment needed to be totally reliable, and backed by totally reliable service. We try to specify British equipment whenever we can and Williams, as well as manufacturing great refrigeration, delivers real excellence in after-sales support.”
www.williams-refrigeration.co.uk
Williams equipment at Hush St Pauls:
2 x two-door Opal counter cabinets
2 x three-door Opal counter cabinets
1 x three-door Opal cabinet with raised ingredients wells
Hush has five Opal counters. All accept gastronorm pans and feature Williams’ energy-saving CoolSmart controller.
2 x Amber under counter cabinets
Compact, non-gastronorm one-door models with front-vented refrigeration
1 x 10kg undercounter Blast Chiller
WBC10 accepts up to three GN1/1 pans and can chill 10kg at a time. Soft and hard chill programmes, Williams simple 1-2-3 controller and a variety of options.
1 x Fish Zircon upright cabinet
Purposely designed for fish storage, supplied with seven polypropylene storage drawers, each fitted with a removable slime tray. Capable of holding 114kg of fish. Special integral drainage system.
1 x dual compartment coldroom (chilled storage plus freezer storage)
Modular system makes maximum use of available space. External pod refrigeration system maximises internal storage space and allows easy access for servicing, without disputing room contents.
Cellar cooling system