The Merrion Hotel has for many years been one of the best-loved luxury hotels in Dublin. Just a five minutes’ walk from the main cultural and entertainment attractions of the city, for over twenty years it has continued to welcome its guests in high-end spaces with exclusive design and first-rate service.

The hotel offers a vast range of dining choices, from the more informal options available at The Cellar Bar to the modern Irish cuisine of The Garden Room, and the more sophisticated dishes served by Patrick Guilbaud, Ireland’s only restaurant with 2 Michelin stars.

After extensive renovation work which ended in 2017, the already high quality standards of the hotel reached even loftier heights.

The brief

• In order to best meet the production needs of the Garden Room restaurant it was necessary to remodel the kitchen with a highly versatile solution which would allow meals to be prepared throughout the day – breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day of the week and every day of the year. The production demands however still had to be matched by high quality. Each dish had to be prepared with always super-fresh ingredients and very great care taken with presentation.
• Chef Ed Cooney also wanted to offer a work environment as comfortable as possible for his team, i.e. a cool and quiet kitchen without excess steam.

The solution

• For Gerry Kane from the company Kaneco, kitchen contractor and longstanding partner of the Merrion, there was no doubt as to the choice of the company which was to build the kitchens: Ambach.
• Together, Kane and Cooney opted for two cooking islands from the Ambach System 900 Exclusive Range, intended both for the bar menus and those of the Garden Room restaurant. Made to measure with a single hygiene top, both are designed with areas dedicated to the various phases of preparation. “Each area is ‘independent’ and equipped with an Ambach island, an oven and refrigeration and patisserie equipment”, explained Kane.
• All this was designed to optimise work. For example, staff entering and exiting move in two different flows. In this way confusion, noise and the risk of breaking plates are considerably reduced. “The work space is now much quieter, easier to manage and cleaner”, commented Kane.
• The kitchen control system also reduces the annual costs of running the air treatment and extractor system by 50%, a significant saving for a kitchen which works non-stop all year.
• Difficulties did however arise during the works. “It was a bit like playing Tetris. We constantly had to move everything from one side to the other without closing down the hotel, not even for a day”, added Kane.
• The greatest challenge came when Kaneco and Cooney had to totally redesign the layout of the kitchen as two large pillars ‘sprang up’ just where the cooking area was intended to be originally. “This forced us to optimise the space available by moving the kitchen by about 50 cm”, explained Kane.
• After having completed the work on the Garden Room kitchen, the team moved on to the other kitchen at basement level. Here, despite the confined spaces, it was possible to allow access to the kitchen thanks to the Ambach system which enabled the island to be turned through 90°. All the equipment was reconfigured in the new position and a patisserie zone was also created.
• Even if the Garden Room kitchen is very different compared to the original design, Cooney and his team expressed great satisfaction at the end result. “It’s a pleasure to work in the new kitchen. I’m pleased with the design as well as the ergonomics and the performances. The work environment at basement level has also really improved”, added Cooney. Judging by the crowd in the restaurant, customers too have not been slow in showing their appreciation, recognising the high added value for the hotel.

BollAnts – Spa, housed in the Bad Sobernheim wellness centre, is considered to be one of the 20 best spa hotels in Germany. Furthermore it was here where, in the early 20th century, the famous Felke therapy was devised, a byword since then for a balanced style of living made up of a healthy diet and naturopathic treatments.
The hotel was built in 1907 by the great-grandfather of the family of owners, Bollant-Anton, and extends for 120,000 square metres divided up among accommodation facilities and private gardens, both designed to create a true haven of peace for guests.
The six private lodges allow you to restore wellbeing in solitude, while a large wellness centre, with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, relaxation treatments and medical treatments, contributes to total relaxation.

The dining options are served up in three different restaurants to satisfy every palate. They include the Jungborn restaurant, awarded a Michelin star and the undisputed reign of the two chefs Jens Fischer and Philipp Helzle, the gourmet restaurant Hermannshof for Mediterranean cuisine and the main restaurant inside the Villa in which only the hotel guests can enjoy the delicacies prepared by chef Jens Gilcher and sous-chef Fabian Schwan.

The requirement

• Parallel to the renovation work on the Villa and the need to add 160 covers in the restaurant, it was found to be necessary to move and expand the kitchen.
• The kitchen had to continue to function during the renovation, cooking for hotel guests, those residing in the private lodges, for dishes to be served in the Jungborn and Hermannshof restaurants and also the events catering service.
• For this reason the owner of the Bollant Anton hotel and chef Jens Gilcher sought a small, compact cooking island, fitted out with innovative and high-performance equipment together with necessary work surfaces for preparation.
• The owners opted for invaluable support from Jürgen Wirtz, CEO of the company Wirtz GmbH. who in turn recommended choosing Ambach, long-term partner of Wirtz for around 40 years.

The solution

• A modular cooking island was therefore chosen from the Ambach System 850line, which immediately became the nerve centre of the new kitchen in the Villa. A small gem in back-to-back configuration, distinctive in its ruggedness and performance.
• Preparation of the healthy dishes required two induction hobs on each side of the cooking island with a compound grill and pasta cooker. All the equipment was then integrated into a single hygienic surface for ease of cleaning.
• Thanks to the H3 open lower base units an additional space was formed in the kitchen, very useful for arranging the cooking utensils.
• Another innovative addition to the suite was engineered incoporating two panels hinged laterally on one side of the cooking island, a perfect solution for creating the necessary work surface and storage space, especially for large-scale catering for events.
• Wirtz monitored the works throughout, from design to development and installation of the kitchen in the Villa.
• Collaboration among all the partners was excellent. In fact the owners, chef and sous-chef declared themselves very pleased with the new Ambach System 850 cooking technology. “Arrangement of the equipment is outstanding as it allows us to work without stress and with maximum efficiency and speed of preparation. We were certain right from the start that Ambach was the right choice”, said Jens Gilcher.

The Miramar Club Hotel is known as one of the finest hotel facilities in Bulgaria and is an integral part of the HVD Hotels – Hospitality Variety Dedication Group.

Overlooking the Black Sea, the hotel opened its doors to guests in 2006 offering a mix of relaxation, fun, and entertainment in the setting of a truly unique landscape.

To completely satisfy the needs of its guests, the hotel has created extensive culinary offerings through a vast choice of restaurants, including The Blu, serving Italian cuisine with an à la carte menu.
Located on the sixth floor of the hotel, the restaurant provides a magnificent terrace with breath-taking views of the Black Sea.

The requirement

• The Hotel wanted to add to guests’ experiences during their stay by creating a destination restaurant.
• The space available for creating the kitchen was small, confined, and irregular in shape. The equipment therefore had to be easily adaptable to the environment and, at the same time, extremely high performing in order to serve over 80 covers per day.
• The time available for carrying out the work was decidedly limited. All the work had to be carried out in a few short months to be ready for the start of the summer season.

The solution

• The space at the attic level on the sixth floor of the main building and the large adjacent terrace were used to create the restaurant space, the ideal setting for creating a restaurant with panoramic views.
• To best meet the needs of the Hotel, Architects and Project Managers from the company AVA-M Ltd appointed for the project, chose the equipment Ambach System 700, the compact and high-performance line, ideal for medium-sized kitchens where space is at a premium. With its innovative features and cutting-edge design System 700 is the perfect solution for those who do not accept compromises between style, quality, flexibility, power and performance.
• In order to equip The Blu kitchen, Ambach supplied a complete solution including: a double hob, a four hob, flat grill, pasta cookers, and gas fryers, H3 hygienic open base units with ad hoc design completed the design. The worktops were fitted with the exclusive Ambach “Seamless” joining system which combines the widest freedom of configuration of a modular kitchen with the highest standards of hygiene.
• With such a well-organised kitchen, the restaurant can serve around 150 covers per day and offers an à la carte menu with 10 main dishes.
• The work was completed in around five months. There were several challenges and critical factors faced including; delivery of the equipment by crane up to the sixth floor of the hotel and then assembly in situ.
• AVA-M Ltd then completed the tests and commissioning on the equipment as well as providing staff training utilising their executive chef.

The name Winklerhotels embodies exclusivity and premium quality for an unforgettable stay in the splendid setting between the Val Pusteria, the Dolomites and Plan de Corones. In the four hotels that make up the Group Winklerhotels offers relaxation, sport and well-being for all ages and all tastes.
Moreover, every stay is also a journey of discovery of alpine and Mediterranean dishes from gourmet Alto Adige cuisine based on a careful selection of the raw materials and use of local products of excellence.

The requirement

• Around one year ago, in June 2017, the Hotel Winkler was reopened in San Lorenzo di Sebato, one of the structures owned by the family of the same name which heads the company Winkler Hotels GmbH.
• The hotel has renovated the entire kitchen with cutting-edge equipment to offer increasingly high quality.
• For such a significant renovation it was essential to choose a partner who offered an all-round service design of a made to measure kitchen, but also creation of a buffet area and supply of all the refrigeration equipment.
• Preserving the existing but also daring to do something new. The Hotel Winkler project presented the challenge of achieving an optimal balance between tradition, innovation, and quality.

The solution

• The Winkler family decided to count on invaluable assistance from Niederbacher, lead company in the area of gastronomic outfitting in Alto Adige to meet the challenge.
• For the main cooking equipment Niederbacher proposed the Ambach System 850 line which was chosen for its modular line, high degree of flexibility and guarantee of high performance.
• The design of made-to-measure solutions both for the cooking zone and the refrigeration area enabled optimal use of the entire space available. This was made possible thanks to careful planning and preparation of the work upstream, consisting of painstaking every detail of the project.
• The work was carried out in a total of seven months, while handover and installation of the Ambach cooking island took place and all the items of equipment for the refrigeration area were made available in only four weeks.
• The end result is the creation of one of the most innovative and leading-edge catering structures in Trentino Alto Adige.
• All this was carried out without hitches thanks to the excellent organisation, planning and synergy between the client and the firms of architects Bauart AG and Archifaktur, alongside the team from Niederbacher.