COLLEGE CANTEENS
Why an MT Series conveyor dishwasher and glasswasher is the perfect solution for a school or college canteen: Paul Dunn, Head of Catering and Events at »Dulwich College«, London, and his decision to opt for Winterhalter.
The caterers of Dulwich College see a lot of work during term time, producing up to 1,600 meals a day, including breakfast and supper for 150 boarders and residential staff, and an impressive 1,300 for lunch. The College is also at the heart of a busy residential summer school system for overseas students keen to learn English, as well as hosting conferences, functions, weddings and corporate occasions that generate valuable income, the kitchens currently see heavy service up to 300 days a year.
"There's a lot of pressure during term-time, but if anything holidays are now just as busy," says Paul Dunn. At the same time, the quality must be high. Once the preparations are complete and all of the lunch dishes have been set out, the employees stream hungrily into the nicely appointed room. Lunchtime means relaxation and good food. Hearty dishes, fresh, bright salads, all types of pasta and a tasty dessert to round it all off. Employees can then return to work reinvigorated. And at lunchtime the next day, the team starts all over again.
In selecting the new warewasher, Paul Dunn took an approach, that even today, is unusual for catering managers - he consulted the people who would be expected to use it!
"I talked to the staff and asked them what they would want in a new machine. Whether a rack or flight-type, how it would be used differently in term time and the holidays, and so forth. I had an idea of what machine I thought we needed, but I wanted it to work for our staff - I didn't want our staff to work for it.
While the energy saving options, running costs, reliability and wash quality were important to Paul Dunn's hard-headed decision, the staff raised two other questions: How easy is it to operate? And, how easy to keep clean?
"My staff's opinions were really helpful and made me rethink my options," he says. Along with my Executive Head Chef and my Kitchen Assistant Supervisor I also visited working examples of both machines we were seriously considering, so that we could see them working. "You could say that, together, all our staff chose the machine!"
One difference from many conventional catering operations is the wide range of tableware the College uses. "We have standard, tough crockery for everyday catering in school term time and for the summer school," says Paul. "But there's another layer of tableware altogether, for our finer functions, such as corporate banquets and wedding receptions. This has the College crest on it, and is much more delicate and expensive. The Winterhalter machine copes with this as well, without needing to switch between various programs or using separate detergents."
This flexibility extends to glassware. "With the previous system, we needed to wash glasses separately. While we still often wash them separately, the quality of the wash on the new machine means we can run them through the Winterhalter MTR when required, with perfect results."
Resource saving is a big advance with the MTR. "I like the way it only uses the chambers it needs. So if you put a single rack through, for example, it senses which chambers are empty and automatically switches off that section of the machine," he says. "That's a definite saving in running costs."
Paul Dunn also believes that that support from the manufacturer is key to a successful installation - from specifying and customizing the chosen system, through installation, commissioning and staff training to ongoing maintenance. "I can't emphasise enough how important it is to get expert advice, and in my experience that's still rare," he says. "Winterhalter's machine performs superbly, but to cap it all from my point of view, Winterhalter's staff on the ground helped to make the whole experience hassle-free."
Each of our customers has their own specific reasons for choosing Winterhalter for their commercial warewashing needs. These are Paul Dunn's (and his staff!) main ones :
Winterhalter's machine performs superbly, but to cap it all from my point of view, Winterhalter's staff on the ground helped to make the whole experience hassle-free.
