Back of house
Behind the scenes was just as much of an exciting challenge to put together as the front of house, Tranter goes on to explain, especially the ‘show kitchen’, which can be viewed through a window from the restaurant’s corridor.
“Lots of restaurants have show kitchens and unless these are thoughtfully laid out and have good quality equipment, they can look cheap and not work efficiently for the chefs,” Tranter says.
“The kitchen consultant needs to be brought in early on the project to ensure all the operational requirements are met. We spent a lot of time at the beginning working with the client and chef to ensure that the show kitchen was carefully integrated into our design. It’s a fine balance to get show kitchens both looking good and being practical.”
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The kitchen is slightly different to the ones the team work with in Amador’s other restaurants in Mannheim, Germany, and Bucharest, Romania. There, granite work surfaces add character, but strict UAE health and safety regulations prevent the same being recreated here.
However, there is a lot of equipment the team has brought with them. Jörg Hofmann, corporate chef and outlet manager at Amador AG who was in charge of setting up the Abu Dhabi restaurant, explains: “We have imported a lot of German equipment for the restaurant, including MKN induction cookers, which heat up in just one or two seconds.
We use induction heat in our kitchens because gas is too hot. With gas you get everything cooking in a ring around the outside of your pan, then the thing in the middle is not cooked. There are not many kitchens in the UAE that are cooking with this method.
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