When Keith and Linda Mulford took over ownership of Dennis of Bexley in 1988, they finally realised their long dream to run their own butcher‘s shop, in Bexley Park, Dartford in Kent.
In the last two decades they’ve built on their reputation and expanded their business to create one of London’s most highly regarded food businesses. They’ve added cheeses, patisseries and what has become a hugely successful pie range to the Dennis of Bexley product selection.
And what a selection. The Dennis of Bexley range has won a variety of awards and listings in food guides. The sausages, home-made pies and hams have been honoured with titles such as ‘best in Britain’ and the shop itself has won awards (including ‘Best Butchers in the UK’), while the business has featured in food guides such as The Food Lovers’ Guide to Britain.
And at the heart of their business is Rational cooking equipment. Food for their 4,000 or so customers per week is prepared effortlessly in four Rational units, including two of the latest SelfCooking Center systems. The Rationals also make it easy to handle the catering for weddings, functions, birthday and events of all kinds.
Keith Mulford says his customers are always delighted with the food. "For example, one customer recently told me the salmon was the best he’d ever had, and another, organising a party, said ‘We had many wonderful comments from our guests about the quality and taste of the food."
"Whatever we prepare, it’s so easy – we just press the button," he adds. "It‘s very efficient and anyone can use it."
Meats such as ham and turkey are prepared in the SelfCooking Center’s low temperature ‘overnight cooking’ mode. "The quality is excellent for this," says Linda Mulford. "It’s even better than when you cook in standard mode – the meat is beautifully moist and there’s no shrinkage or weight loss. Even the customers notice the quality. Overnight cooking makes more profit for us and makes our customers happy at the same time!
"Another bonus is that you can cook lots of different products in a single SelfCooking Center all at the same time. That‘s really helpful, because the variety of foods we make is a big part of our customer appeal.
"I’m totally sold on our Rationals – I have recommended them to my colleagues," she adds.
The SelfCooking Center has enhanced Rational’s established technologies to make life as easy as possible for businesses such as Dennis of Bexley. For example, its ‘CleanJet’ automatically cleans the oven, ensuring spotless hygiene, overnight. Meanwhile, ‘CalcDiagnosis’ automatically indicates the optimum descaling time, and an automatic descaling program means the unit can be descaled automatically by the user, easily and safely.
For information and brochures, or to arrange to come to a free SelfCooking Center® ‘TeamCooking Live’ seminar, contact your dealer, freephone Rational UK on 0800 389 2944 or call +44 800 389 2944. For product information and contact details see www.rational-UK.com