Historic school gets state-of-the-art catering facilities

FRIMA makes sure pupils get food fast at Charterhouse

Charterhouse, a leading independent school with a 400 year history, moved from London to its current 250 acre site in Godalming, Surrey in 1872. It’s a stunning campus with beautiful old buildings and rolling playing fields. Inside the buildings, ancient and modern mingle in harmony and state-of-the-art rules, especially in the new kitchen that was up and running for the 2013 autumn term.

Catering at Charterhouse is provided by Elior, and it’s a massive operation. With 800 pupils who are predominantly boarders, the kitchens need to turn out 21,000 meals per week during term times. And it doesn’t stop there, in the holidays there are conferences, weddings and other special events that all need catering.

“In specifying equipment for the new kitchen we needed to make sure that it was going to be flexible enough to cope with the different types of catering we do - to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for pupils and staff as well as the holiday events,” says Gael Daval, Executive Head Chef. “With that in mind I went to a FRIMA CookingLive event in London and was very impressed with the versatility of the VarioCooking Center Multificiency.”

FRIMA’s VarioCooking Center Multificiency is an efficient, multi-function cooking machine. It combines all the functions of a kettle, fryer, griddle, bratt pan, tilting pan and pressure cooker in one unit. It’s four times as fast, and uses 40 per cent less energy, than conventional cooking appliances.

“The FRIMA is very pretty and modern looking, it fits in well in the new kitchen,” says Gael. “It takes up less space than having separate pieces of traditional cooking equipment, plus it offers storage underneath which is another bonus. Because of the volume of cooking here at Charterhouse I specified a smaller 112+ and a larger 211+ FRIMA.”

As with most schools, Friday is Charterhouse’s day for fish and chips. It’s a popular dish that benefits from being served as soon as it’s cooked.

“The really great thing is that the FRIMA’s so very, very fast,” says Gael. “I can make 150 portions of fish and chips in 25 minutes, drain the oil out and then make the filling for beef pie in 45 minutes. The FRIMA never stands idle.”

The FRIMA’s VarioCooking Control monitors all the cooking processes so that nothing sticks, burns or boils over. It alerts chefs when something needs turning or stirring so there is no need for anyone to watch over the cooking. This frees up staff time considerably and Gael finds he can deploy his 17 kitchen staff on preparation, presentation and other chores.

“I’ve noticed a real difference working in a kitchen fitted with a FRIMA. The atmosphere is much calmer, dishes get prepared more quickly and there’s less wastage as nothing gets spoiled,” says Gael.

For Charterhouse it’s the multi-functional aspect of the FRIMA that really scores.

“It can’t be beaten in speed and quality for bulk cooking,” says Gael. “We use it for just about everything - custards, gravy, rice, polenta, pasta, vegetables. It gets the water to the boil really quickly and we use the pressure cooking setting to make beef stew and curries - that’s super speedy. Its flexibility is unbelievable. We probably only use about 30-35% of its functions at the moment but we’re learning all the time.”

The other aspect of the FRIMA that everyone in the Charterhouse kitchen likes is that it’s so easy to clean. There’s no fuss, no mess. All the operator has to do is rinse the pan out, press the tilt button and the residue drains away. This saves time, saves water and saves chemicals.

“The turnaround between dishes is as little as a couple of minutes,” says Gael. “It’s a fantastic machine. It’s hard to imagine how we would manage without it.”

For information and brochures, or to come to a free Cooking Live demonstration, call FRIMA UK on 0845 680 3981, email info@frima-uk.co.uk or visit www.frima-uk.co.uk

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Charterhouse – Apr-14

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