One Farrer Hotel & Spa, Singapore:
Making the connection between style and substance
November 2016
For a chef, meeting the needs of healthcare and hospitality is no mean feat. The daily task of providing nutritious food for patients as well as a memorable dining experience for guests is one that places a great deal of strain both on chefs, and the equipment they use.
One chef who understands this challenge better than most is Kong Kok Kiang (KK), Executive Chef at One Farrer Hotel and Spa, Singapore. Leading a team of 50 chefs at the country’s first integrated healthcare and hospitality complex, Chef KK knows that designing a kitchen that can would work across all areas of the 20-storey development could have been make or break.
He explains: “Our kitchens are constantly in use. The banqueting kitchen serves up to 600 guests a day, and the hospital kitchen serves the facility’s 150 beds with six meals a day. That’s not to mention the hotel’s Escape Restaurant & Lounge, which offers all day dining through three different services of local and international cuisine – or the Local Fresh and Seasonal (LFS) deli and bakery.
With such varied and constant demands placed on the kitchens and their staff, what was needed was a solution with the strength to stand up to this high pressure and evolve throughout a day of service. Any equipment chosen would have to work across multiple environments, serving everything from high volume hospital food to high class restaurant cuisine.
The chef’s team at One Farrer Hotel & Spa turned to Electrolux Professional to deliver a full kitchen installation. Among the equipment specified was thermaline, the manufacturer’s flagship cooking range, to deliver the reliability needed to produce a diverse menu at volume.
Manufactured from a single sheet of high quality stainless steel and with a double frame construction, thermaline’s robustness is key to its flexibility, according to Chef KK. He comments: “In the hotel kitchen, Electrolux’s innovative technology has allowed us to prepare the mise en place in advance, resulting in much more effective kitchen operations and helping us to meet the different dietary requirements of patients.”
What’s more, the range’s ProThermetic braising pans have allowed the team’s cooking to shine. By facilitating different types of cooking simultaneously, the pans allow operators to boil, braise, fry or steam with complete confidence in thermaline’s precise temperature control.
Chef KK continues: “We deal in a huge range of cuisines for a number of different types of diner, so the pressure braising pans are perfect for preparing a large quantity of food in advance. This can then be quickly regenerated as and when the dishes are needed, maintaining the consistency and quality we – and our diners – expect.”
Specifying any kitchen can be tricky, but choosing one piece of equipment that can work for a number of different kitchens and a different types of diners is a particular challenge. Thankfully for Chef KK, they got the decision just right. He concludes: “Not only does thermaline ensure we have a better operational flow in the kitchen, but crucially, it enables us to serve the best food we can, right on time and at the right temperature.”