NEW KITCHEN EQUIPMENT HITS THE MARK AT HISTORIC LEONARDSLEE

Situated in the beautiful county of West Sussex, are the historic and impressive lakes and gardens of Leonardslee, widely known as the “Finest Spring Gardens in England” which dates back to 1801.

Jean Delport is the Executive Chef that heads up the kitchen team at this 24-acre Leonardslee estate at Lower Beeding, near Horsham. This historic estate features various cafes and outlets on site. Restaurant Interlude offers both sandwich lunches and hot meals to the general public, and dinner consisting of 14 to 21 courses. All meals aim to bring the estate to life on the table.

Refrigeration equipment

Delport and his team have high expectations for what they need from their refrigeration equipment, and chose to work with Hallmark Kitchens and Precision Refrigeration.

“When it comes to refrigeration, we have very specific needs,” says Jean Delport. “Leonardslee is a Grade 2 listed house, so the equipment needs to be compact, as well as performing really well. They also need to be stylish, sleek and energy efficient. When it came to planning our fine dining kitchen needs, Hallmark Kitchens chose Precision equipment because they had every single product available that I needed, and filled any gap I had, to make the kitchen area look great and efficient.”

Delport chose to work with Hallmark Kitchens from colleague recommendations, and were chosen to help design and manage this project for Leonardslee.

“The most useful piece of Precision Refrigeration equipment in this kitchen, is the space savers long drawer option” comments Delport. “We chose this product purely for the amount of ingredients it holds, as well as easy access to produce. Precision’s space saving refrigeration equipment is well designed, and deceivingly big.”

Meat Ageing needs

Leonardslee has a deer park which is home to 4 species of deer. Storing meat as part of their food offering was important to the team.

“We included a Precision meat ageing cabinet in our refrigeration needs” says Delport. “The meat ager allows me to store meat effectively, and the Himalayan salt blocks in the unit adds lots of flavour into the meat. The Precision meat ager performs really well, and allows me to age our meat for 250 days. It’s a great addition to the refrigeration equipment on site.”

Beverage refrigeration

A small bar area was needed at Leonardslee to meet their customer needs. Delport and his team asked Hallmark Kitchens to come up with a solution for this. Hallmark Kitchens chose Precision back bar refrigeration equipment, as it had the exact models and sizes needed. The glass doors and internal lighting of the bottle coolers, showcase the drinks inside beautifully.

The environment

Being in an area of such natural beauty, Leonardslee takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously, and is conscious about its carbon footprint and environmental impact. Both Hallmark Kitchens and Precision took these points into consideration when specifying the refrigeration equipment. With the continuous improvements to energy ratings, and electricity consumption across the Precision range, these requirements were met.

“Working with Hallmark Kitchens and Precision Refrigeration was a breeze” says Delport. “Everything ran very smoothly, and I’m really pleased with the end result. With this in mind, I would happily put Precision Refrigeration in a kitchen again in the future.”