A spectacular new dining experience has just been unveiled in London’s Greenwich area at the InterContinental Hotel. A banqueting hall providing sumptuous dinners for up to a potential 3,000 guests now occupies the hotel’s Arora Ballroom.
Impressing high-calibre guests with gourmet food is a difficult undertaking in itself, and it requires almost military precision to achieve on a large scale. The Bradford-based Airedale Group, responsible for fitting the new attraction, selected MKN appliances in order to meet the unique demands of delivering thousands of covers at a time.
A Team Effort
“Our team were delighted to be involved in such a prestigious project,” Mike Butt, Airedale’s managing director, commented. “Working together with our partners, we have all delivered a great scheme.” The distributor installed several FlexiCombi combi steamers, which have the capacity to serve up to 3,500 people and so promise to be more than capable of satisfying the InterContinental’s 3000 potential diners. The hotel will not only be providing banquet services, however. The more regular demand will include a variety of daily services, including room service, a la carte and all-day dining. To meet these additional demands, a variety of combi steamers and additional appliances were fitted throughout the kitchen.
When holding large scale events at this location there is the possibility for some incredible food to be created along with some splendid entertainment options, all in an area that can be decorated to fit in with the event and even some wonderful lighting can be included. Lighting Specialists such as https://encapsulite.co.uk/ provide some breathtaking lighting options for both indoor and outdoor environments that would look spectacular in space like this.
Quality Equipment
MKN products are not only acclaimed for their capacity to deliver consistent and even cooking results – an essential feature when catering for a high number of covers – but are also equipped with cleaning features that make them cost-effective. Sourcing outstanding equipment such as cookers, utensils, and commercial warewashers is a crucial aspect of high-quality kitchen service. It is also worth checking whether certain appliances have been recommended or endorsed by official bodies such as the Food Standards Agency. For a sense of scale of the new banqueting suite, even the prestigious Oscars dinner only caters for approximately 1,500 guests, as reported by BBC news.
Daren Pavey, the hotel’s head chef, was hugely impressed by the German MKN factory when he visited recently. “The organisation of an array of foods and cooking utensils in a busy kitchen environment is always a huge logistical challenge,” Pavey said. “But the innovations here were very impressive. I’m aiming to implement some of what I’ve seen into our own kitchen at the InterContinental Hotel.”