Warewashing Special: no getting steamed up over Sushi at The Westbury

Winterhalter eco-machines offer absolute quality with no waste steam

The Westbury in Mayfair is one of London’s most exclusive hotel venues. The Westbury’s new restaurant, Tsukiji Sushi, was conceived to be ‘a perfect fusion of Japanese food and Mayfair spirit.’ Under head chef Show Choong, and with specialities like grilled tako with spicy ume miso sauce and tataki with yuzu ponzu jelly and parmesan crisp, the restaurant embodies new Japanese cuisine and features a sleek, sophisticated red wood interior with twenty covers.

In such a refined atmosphere the quality of presentation and tableware has to be absolute. Within the restaurant’s prep area there was the need for glass and dishwashing facilities and CCE Group Ltd, who carried out the catering equipment design, supply and installation work for The Westbury, specified Winterhalter’s new undercounter UC Energy machines.

“While the UC models offer us a lot of benefits, the key issue was performance,” says Andy Wood of CCE. “These Winterhalter undercounter machines deliver superb cleaning results.”

However, there was another major priority. The Westbury’s executive chef, Andrew Jones, explains:  “The prep area is quite restricted and small, so we had to ensure the dish and glasswashers didn’t produce loads of steam at the end of the wash cycle.” At the same time, CCE wanted to minimise the warewashers’ impact on the prep area’s extraction system.

The UC Energy models provided the ideal solution: since they emit virtually no steam or water vapour at the end of the wash cycle, their affect on the working environment is negligible and they need very little external ventilation. “Winterhalter’s Energy models have heat exchangers that extract the heat from the steam and use it to warm up the incoming water supply,” explains Andy Wood. “This results in little waste steam, as it’s condensed back into water.

“Plus, the system slashes energy costs. Depending on workload, Winterhalter estimates each UC machine can save up to 2,900 kWh per year.”
The UC Series is Winterhalter’s most technologically advanced undercounter range, combining reduced resource consumption with operational efficiency.   Each UC machine can be tailored to the site’s exact requirements, in terms of dosing, water pressure and hardness, and so on, to ensure they deliver the best possible cleaning results, whatever the local conditions.

The Tsukiji Sushi restaurant has one UC glasswasher and one UC dishwasher, both of which are medium sized models accepting 500mm x 500mm racks. The glasswashers can process up to 48 racks per hour, the dishwashers up to 40 racks per hour.

The Westbury’s first two Winterhalters have impressed Andrew Jones – and not just because they don’t get his kitchen staff steamed up. “The results are great and they’re very easy to use. We’ve already ordered a third UC Energy machine for another venue within the hotel,” he says.

Links:
For information on Tsukiji Sushi at The Westbury visit www.westburymayfair.com
For more information about CCE (Contract Catering Equipment) visit www.contractcateringequipment.co.uk
For information about Winterhalter visit www.winterhalter.com/uk-en/
CCE and Tsukiji Sushi at The Westbury
The new Tsukiji Sushi restaurant is part of extensive catering design and installation work being carried out by CCE Group Ltd at the five star Westbury Hotel. For the Japanese restaurant, CCE worked in close cooperation with the hotel’s interior design team, Sushi consultant and main contractors. Alongside the Winterhalter UC machines, CCE has supplied Adande undercounter refrigeration; a bespoke fish sink with jet spray and special fish-scale filters; a rise and fall instant heat wall-mounted grill; one-piece, 4m long stainless steel tops with inset sinks and magic-eye taps; and a one-piece, toughened glass overshelf, 4m long, over the front server display counter.
Winterhalter’s UC Series
Before the launch of the UC Series, Winterhalter undertook extensive market research to ensure its new range exactly met the needs of the industry. The four key areas that the research highlighted were ease of operation, quality washing results, ease of maintenance, and low running costs. Winterhalter developed new technologies to meet the demands of its customers and the UC Series sets the standards in each of the four areas.
The UC machines are available in four different sizes, small, medium, large and extra large, and four different configurations, one each for dishes, glasses and cutlery or utensils, plus the multi-purpose bistro version, which can wash glasses and dishes at the same time. The glasswashers can process up to 48 racks per hour, with racks ranging in size from 400x400mm in the small model to 500x540mm in the extra large. The dishwashers and Bistro machines handle up to 40 racks per hour, the cutlery or utensils washers up to 11.
The UC Energy versions include a new, compact, circulating air heat exchanger that is able to recover heat efficiently in the smallest of spaces. The heat exchanger extracts the energy from the warm, humid water vapour inside the machine and uses it to heat the incoming cold fill. This reduces energy consumption by 0.1 kWh per cycle. If the machine is put through 80 cycles per day, it can save up to 2920 kWh per year. Plus it improves the room atmosphere, as when the hood is opened very little steam escapes from the machine.