D’Arry’s Cookhouse, a popular Cambridge restaurant, re-opened recently with a new £100,000 state-of-the-art kitchen from Hobart. The re-opening came less than three months after a serious kitchen fire, which began when the sous chef left the stockpot on full flame overnight and took more than 40 fire fighters to tackle.

It almost devastated the whole building and much of the rear of the restaurant. Rook Gouldie, d’Arry’s head chef, described his old kitchen as, “full of old systems bought from eBay and other auctions, we had to work around what was there.” After researching a number of kitchen equipment suppliers, Rook decided upon Hobart. As well as being recommended to him, what won it for Rook was the solidness of the Bonnet range, but also that he could obtain a complete range of equipment from one supplier. He chose a full Bonnet Optimum 900 cooking suite complete with fryers and a pasta cooker, Hobart combi oven, Hobart mixer, Bonnet refrigerator and last, but certainly not least, a Hobart AMX hood-type warewasher. Rook was involved from the ground up and this, he says, is the trick to any successful kitchen project. “Sit with the project manager and designers every step of the way and be forward thinking about your end result. This was a real team effort,The Advance Group, who came up with the design, did a good job and listened to what I wanted. The new kitchen runs so smoothly and it’s easy to keep clean too.” Rook describes his style of menu as, “All fresh, pan to plate, with no re-heating. When you order your food, we cook it.” So it was imperative all elements of the new kitchen were up to the job; after all, what is the point in being passionate about producing great food, only to serve it on less than perfect tableware? The AMX delivers a host of benefits for d’Arry’s including its ease of use and significantly reduced running costs, which could save the restaurant more than £20,000 over 10 years. But the most important thing for Rook was to have consistent wash results; Robin Macaulay, Hobart business unit manager assures us that Rook has made the right decision selecting the AMX. “ In-depth research and years of development have delivered innovative wash features which, via higher wash temperatures, efficient water distribution and accurate detergent dosing,d eliver unbeatable wash performance.”