Every day the Amonti & Lunaris wellness resort in Alto Adige delights its guests with dishes that are always fresh and made to order. Thanks to the team of chefs Christoph Stolzlechner, Günther Niederkofler and Matthias Kirchler, the cuisine on offer at the hotel has now reached very high levels.

The day begins with a rich buffet breakfast with organic products and continues until lunchtime with a selection of salads, soups, Italian antipasti and pastries made in house, available throughout the day. Food service continues in the evening with a varying menu made up of five courses and a dessert buffet. “All dishes are made on the premises with organic and regional seasonal ingredients”, explained Siegfried Steger, who heads Lunaris. “With great creativity, passion and a focus on details, every day we create a gourmet Alpine-Mediterranean menu, simple and light, traditional and, at the same time, international”.

The brief

• Opened in 1964 as a guest house, the facility was first turned into a hotel annexed to the sports tracks and, following further renovation and extension work, into the current Amonti & Lunaris wellness centre. In 2018 the entire group of hotel buildings was remodelled, including the kitchen.
• The previous cooking island from the Ambach System 900 line, installed in the 90s, ensured high reliability. With capacity for 1,000 covers a day, it was no longer able to meet the centre’s new requirements.
• The client needed solid and robust kitchens which would guarantee high productivity, hygiene, safety and the most innovative technological levels. Furthermore, the kitchen had to have large work surfaces and compact equipment which would not take up too much space.
• The biggest challenge was to meet the 120-day deadline set for completing the renovation work on both buildings that make up the hotel, including the kitchen, and the building of a link via an underground tunnel.

The solution

• The choice fell on the Ambach System 850 line, with its high performance and low energy consumption.
• Thanks to its flexibility and modular design, the cooking island perfectly adapted to the client’s needs, allowing optimal use of available space. “The design of a kitchen is the basis for success of a restaurant as it guarantees fast and fluid cycles”, explained Siegfried Steger. “We are totally satisfied with the Ambach solution”.
• While the old kitchen ran on gas, the new one uses induction technology.
• Working alongside Prostahl, firm specialising in the production of stainless steel furniture for industrial kitchens, buffets, self-service restaurants, bars and workshops, it was also possible to meet high standards of hygiene in the kitchen.
• Niederbacher, catering equipment leader in Alto Adige, was responsible for planning, design and machinery. “The timelines for the project, which also included the planning stage, were extremely ambitious and left no room for action”, explained Hofer and Schöpfer. “It was all made possible thanks only to teamwork and flawless coordination of all those involved in the project. Only through careful and accurate planning was it possible to carry out this large, complex project in such a short space of time, fulfilling the needs of the client”.