Restaurant equipment needs to be updated, as chefs know all too well. Chefs, more than most, know how to make the best of a bad situation. Fryer on the fritz? Serve calamari seviche. Scallops still at sea? Just adapt the dish to halibut. Necessity is the mother sauce of invention.
The "make do" habit is hard to kick, even when it's high time for a kitchen makeover especially in the restaurant equipment arena. "My biggest fear in changing was losing that certain soul in the kitchen, especially that workhorse old range," says Todd English, chef/owner of Olives in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and numerous "Figs" in the Boston area. "No matter what you put in, it seemed like good food always came out."
During the past nine years that they've both owned their own restaurants, English and his Boston compatriot across the Charles River, chef/owner Lydia Shire of Biba and Pignoli, have gained fame, won James Beard awards, and watched numerous proteges spread their wings. This year alone, Biba co-chef Susan Regis won the James Beard "Best Chef of the Northeast" award, and Olives chef Victor LaPlaca was recruited to man the Olives stove in Las Vegas, scheduled to open October 15 in the Bellagio. (Shire herself won "Best Chef of the Northeast" in 1992; English won it in 1994, as well as "Rising Star Chef" in 1991). But it was only during the past year that English and Shire reassessed the state of their respective flagship kitchens and decided that they needed new restaurant equipment. Consequently, they've filled them with new equipment and made cosmetic changes, too. Both their experiences provide a fascinating glimpse of the seasoned chef's dream kitchen.
An example of one of our past clients is Red Clay. It is the collaborative creation of three of the Boston area's most respected restaurateurs who have formed an ambitious partnership during the past several years under the name The Sapphire Group. Michaela Larson, former owner of Michaela's in Cambridge and of the notable Rialto in Harvard Square, along with Jody Adams, executive chef, and Karen Haskell, part owner of the same, intend to grow and refine the dining concept beyond its Boston area base.
The restaurant boasts a large open exhibition cooking theatre style kitchen that contains a grill and saute station which houses two heavy-duty series Montague ranges, a Montague charbroiler and a Pitco 14 fryer. Behind the wall of the exhibition equipment line is an additional prep kitchen which houses a Montague range, a Vulcan tilting skillet and a 60-gallon jacketed steam kettle. Together with the saute equipment, the tilting skillet and kettle provide the foundation and base for many of the uniquely served entrees that grace the tabletops of Red Clay.