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The Kitchen Project Rob Judges
Executive Head Chef Bertrand Faucheux and his staff in the new kitchen.
All is gleaming and new. Chefs in white coats are working away busily, steam rising from the pans in front of them. Around them there is order and state-of-the-art kitchen equipment. Is this the set of MasterChef, you might wonder? No, it’s Balliol’s new kitchen, necessitated when the Environmental Health Officer reported that the old Victorian kitchen had come to the end of its long life. Acknowledging that there was no option but to modernise, the College took the opportunity to undertake two less essential but desirable projects at the same time: the installation of a new disabled lift to Hall, and the renovation of the Buttery, former archives area and SCR pantry. Building work began in January 2014 and was completed in February 2015. A sizeable challenge As is the case for anyone planning a new kitchen, the challenge was to minimise expenditure while working within the constraints of the space available and making sure that the kitchen was suitable for the service it has to provide. The College wanted it to be as future-proof as possible as well as economical to run in terms of energy consumed for cooking, refrigeration and ventilation. The kitchen also had to 8
satisfy the Code of Practice for food safety and hygiene, a particular aim being the fivestar rating which it had been impossible to achieve before. Using the underground location of the old kitchen was found to be the best option, and the decision was taken to gut the area. Working with Sidleys Chartered Surveyors, a plan was developed, based on the ideas of the Executive Head Chef, Bertrand Faucheux. ‘No bursar in Oxford voluntarily spends money on refurbishing a kitchen,’ says the Domestic Bursar, Jo Roadknight, ‘but Balliol was one of the lucky ones to have held out for longest, and so was able to learn of the pitfalls other colleges have experienced, along with what has worked really well.’ Bertrand visited about a dozen kitchens and learned a great deal about workflow and equipment. The entire drainage and ventilation systems needed to be redesigned, and the first step for construction company Beard Ltd was to dig a huge hole into which to instal new pumps for drainage. Much of the floor area had to be lowered by about a metre and half. Other major preparatory work included rewiring and the installation of the disabled lift, as well as another lift replacing the old ‘dumb waiter’ up to the SCR pantry.
f lo r e at d o m u s b a l l i o l c o l l e g e n e w s
Now, in a new layout, staff go straight into a changing area before going into work. There are much-needed new cloakrooms and female staff no longer have to change in the toilets or in the organ loft: they have their own room, with smart lockers in Balliol red and blue. Previously deliveries had to be taken through the kitchen; now they go down a main passageway to an area where staff can receive them and put them straight into giant freezers and fridges or the dry storage area. The larder (for ready-to-eat food), pastry kitchen and cooking area are all much better separated from each other. All these arrangements help prevent cross-contamination and enable better hygiene. The floor is now all on one level, which is better for the movement of goods, trolleys and people; it also makes cleaning easier, as do finishes such as the special (non-slip) floor covering and wipable White Rock walls, and new appliances, many of them chosen for ease of cleaning. Nothing but the best The cooking area has very high specifications: ‘The College acknowledged the need to have the best, especially for our private dining and banqueting clients,’ explains Bertrand. Appliances using the latest technologies include some very fancy deep friers, with an