Le Canard Nouveau is a destination restaurant for German gourmets. Housed in an impressive round building designed by the architect Meinhard von Gerkan, it offers a breath-taking view over the river Elbe. Awarded a Michelin star in 2006 with famous chef Ali Güngörmüs at the helm, the restaurant suffered a fire which led to its temporary closure and later total remodelling.
Le Canard Nouveau finally reopened in the spring of 2019, redesigned to look both simple and elegant at the same time.
Now the restaurant operates under the name of Norman Etzold, former chef with a Michelin star at the Palais Hansen Kempinski in Vienna. His cooking uses always fresh, seasonal ingredients, “so that the dishes are easy to explain to guests”, he claims.

The brief

• After the fire the kitchen needed a total overhaul, taking into account the fact that the existing fittings had to be adapted to the limited space available.
• “Originally it had been decided to move the walls and build one big kitchen but, after the fire, this was no longer possible. We had to find a partner able to help us make the most of the available space”, said Etzold.
• Le Canard worked with the distribution company Chefs Culinar to carry out the project.
• After several searches the choice fell on Ambach, the only company able to meet the high technology and flexibility standards necessary to meet the demands of the restaurant.

The solution

• The solution proposed by Ambach is a made-to-measure island from the System 850 line, which enabled full use of the available space while taking the chef’s needs into consideration.
• It was specifically Ambach’s extensive flexibility that allowed the kitchen to be designed with the utmost precision. The chef had very clear ideas about the equipment layout. “The oven had to be placed in a particular point and the plates had to be arranged the same way I had previously”, explained Etzold.
• To ensure speed and maximum productivity in the kitchen, the arrangement of the equipment and workstations along the island was optimally designed to reduce transit and allow staff to work efficiently and ergonomically.
• Optimisation of space and maximum functionality and much more. The Ambach island is open and has carefully crafted profiles.
• In black, “it has no sharp edges and a very sophisticated design”, said Etzold. “Also”, added the chef, “with the restaurant’s logo on the front it is truly perfect”.

Spazio Roma is a versatile and multifunctional restaurant that bears the signature of award-winning chef Niko Romito.
Located in the heart of the famous Parioli district in Italy’s capital, it represents an experiment that is unique of its kind. Although in line with Spazio, the catering format created in 2013 by the chef, the restaurant stands out from his restaurants in Milan and Rivisondoli in Abruzzo thanks to the exclusive combination of two ambiances – the restaurant Spazio and Pane e Caffè, the area used as bakery, cafeteria and cocktail bar, open all day, from morning to night.
Romito serves authentic Italian cuisine that offers a modern and original interpretation of tradition, focusing on lightness, genuine flavours and sophistication. “I try to offer customers at my restaurant, and Spazio Roma in particular, an authentic culinary experience, made of genuine flavours and tasty dishes, sometimes even very simple ones like bread, all made with the highest quality”, said Niko Romito.

The brief

• Italia Cibum, the company that owns Spazio Romito, needed to restructure the entire area given over to the restaurant. It was a rather atypical place and difficult to develop from an architectural standpoint. It was neither a historical building nor a place with special features. For this reason, it was necessary to rethink it in its entirety, also proposing a style that would give it personality and character.
• The biggest challenge in executing this project was the need to combine in the same space various eatery types, managing to create different atmospheres throughout the day. For this reason, in addition to the furnishings, lighting and materials used, the kitchen and the equipment supplied, which had to guarantee maximum flexibility and constant top performances, were definitely to play a key role.
• The chef had very specific needs and requests for his kitchen. Even in a limited space, it had to be well organised and include everything necessary to achieve fast and structured service for a total of around a hundred covers, divided between up between restaurant and bistro.

The solution

• To supervise the project, Italia Cibum created a work team with Studio Triplan, the architecture company that handled the design of the restaurant, and Grandimpianti Ali, a company specialising in turnkey projects in the world of professional catering.
• The extensive renovation works lasted from September 2017 to January 2018 and, in the final design, two distinct floors were created, namely:
  – the basement level where storage, the meal preparation area, the washing area and the bread and pastry bakery are located;
  – ground floor: for housing the main open kitchen serving the restaurant, a second washing area together with the bistro and the bakery at the entrance.
• “For the kitchen we proposed Ambach because it was absolutely the best choice for meeting all the chef’s needs,” said Alessandro D’Andrade, Grandimpianti’s sales director. A custom cooking island from the System 850 line with minimalist design stainless steel knobs and matte black RAL finishes chosen by the chef was suggested. It is a complete kitchen: the island is fitted with induction hobs, fry top with compound plate, pasta cooker and fryer, all integrated in a single hygienic top with 4 rounded corners.
• The single top has been divided into two parts and then shaped to measure so as to incorporate an existing column in the kitchen. In addition, a grille for resting pots and pans and a support for a salamander were fixed in the central stack.
• To avoid the problem of space, the cooking island was first brought into the room and, subsequently, the kitchen was created around it. The kitchen has been entirely made to measure and is organised with different preparation areas that follow the workflow of the chefs.
• Spazio Roma is certainly an important project because of the intrinsic special feature of the restaurant. Thanks to the excellent teamwork by Studio Triplan, Grandimpianti and Ambach, the end result is there for all to see: a high-performance and good-looking kitchen inside an area with a design carefully crafted in every detail.

Burg Gleiberg boasts a long history spanning more than one thousand years. Once the residence of Count Friedrich von Luxemburg, today it is an exclusive venue for absorbing culture and delighting the palate thanks to the rich menu of its restaurants headed by Axel Horn, versatile chef and manager of the facility.

The castle has as many as five kitchens of which three are used for weddings, conferences, parties and other various events, and two used for the à la carte restaurants: Nassauer Stube, known for its French cuisine, and Albertus Klause in which the maître rotisseurs and the Euro Toques chef prepare typical local dishes.

The brief

• The kitchens in the à la carte restaurants had to be remodelled with solutions that would ensure high performances, reliable results and a workflow designed to speed up preparation as far as possible, especially for à la minute dishes and those based on fresh ingredients.
• Cleaning was also a crucial factor in the choice. The islands had to allow fast and easy cleaning for hygiene without compromise.
• The kitchen also needed to be attractive in appearance and everything had to work perfectly as the chef is used to inviting guests directly into the kitchen so that they can watch him work.

The solution

• Pleased with the Ambach equipment used in the preparation kitchen, the chef was in no doubt about opting again for Ambach for the restaurant kitchens too.
• However, while there were very definite expectations, there were still a number of challenges to be faced, linked to the architecture of the spaces, such as for example the very high ceilings and uneven walls. The walls could not be altered in any way and the new kitchen had therefore to be adapted to the space available.
• A load-bearing column standing in the middle of the room where the kitchen is located meant a special recess had to made with millesimal precision to make best use of the space available.
• Not only the walls but the castle ceilings and floors too are uneven which meant difficulties in stabilising the island on the floor.
• A further restraint came from retaining the old extractor hood, in other words the kitchen had to be adequately dimensioned in relation to the hood while observing fire prevention regulations in full.
• The choice fell on the Ambach System 850 line which, thanks to its modular design, was easily transported onto the premises of the old castle. With over 150 modules available and endless composition possibilities, it allows the kitchen to be changed and redesigned over the years.
• The Ambach Joining System and the single hygiene top were equally decisive factors in the chef’s decision.
• Creation of the kitchen was made possible thanks to teamwork which saw maximum collaboration between the chef and the consultant from the company GeS Krenzer.
• Thanks to innovative Ambach technology, the new kitchen allows high quantities to be produced in a very short time and without effort.

The new Brussels headquarters of insurance giant AXA is not a classic head office. Set in a light-filled building surrounded by greenery, it’s more reminiscent of a 5-star hotel than a multinational.

The extensive spaces on the ground floor, for shared offices and meeting rooms, make way for a large area with catering services intended not only for employees but also outside guests. They include a cafeteria, delicatessen, pizzeria corner and a grill and boulangerie. For corporate events there’s also a high-end brasserie offering a wonderful view over the gardens of the nearby Royal Palace.

The foodservice is provided thanks to the use of three different kitchens, one for large-scale production, a finishing kitchen and an open kitchen designed ad hoc for the à la carte brasserie menu.

The brief

• AXA needed state-of-the-art kitchens. “Ambach is one of the very few companies in the world able to make them with the 3 mm tops further reinforced with 3 mm of steel. In order to best meet the client’s needs we had no doubts about the choice”, explained Jan Vyverman, general manager of Metos, the Ali Group company chosen by AXA for the impressive project.
• “Secondly, it was important to work with a supplier on the same wavelength as the company and its values. Once again Ambach was found to be the most appropriate choice thanks to the vast focus on the client and the ability to create completely custom-made, ad hoc solutions”, added Vyverman.
• The most complex challenge of this project was the open kitchen. “AXA wanted something radically different from the classic staff canteen”, explained Vyverman.

The solution

• Ambach’s extreme flexibility enabled three custom-made solutions to be created for three completely different kitchens. “The special feature of a company like Ambach is the great ability to supply everything, from the central kitchen islands designed and made to measure for the most demanding of chefs to equipment intended for production on a vast scale such as that of hospitals and canteens”, underlined Vyverman.
• For the kitchen situated in the basement and used for canteen service Metos chose the robust and high-performance Ambach System 900 line. The kitchen is made up of separate areas for preparing hot and cold dishes and is equipped with cold rooms, bratt pans and pressure and induction cookers.
• On the upper level the open kitchen represented a more complex solution. A custom-built block from the Ambach System 700 was designed, with its considerable length of 4.4 metres which perfectly fits the size of the room. “We couldn’t use the standard System 700 block as it had to be 1300 mm deep instead of the standard 1400 mm”, explained the Ambach area manager, Georg Dissertori. For this reason we had to create an extension on the back and a custom-made base unit”.
• Despite the fact the benchmark line was the System 700, the open architecture of Ambach and its great flexibility enabled a plancher from the System 850 line to be installed with larger cooking surfaces, perfect for meeting the high productivity needs of the chefs. The team also wired all the electrical connections for the whole block into a single connection point.
• The smaller finishing kitchen on the first level is from the System 850 Ambach modular line, complete with hygiene joint.
• Given the complexity of the project, the excellent team work by the architects, engineers, design office, general contractor and the subcontractors was crucial for the success of the project. “It was interesting to see that we were all well trained”, recalls Vyverman. “We worked together to achieve a truly excellent result. Everything went very well and, when work had finished, we were all surprised at the result. Often projects look great on paper, but then in fact turn out very different. In this case the exact opposite happened”.