CUTTING EDGE CULINARY DESIGN FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

One of the most monumental and exciting projects I managed and designed was the Culinary Arts Center and Food Court at the Manatee Technical Institute (Bradenton, FL). The 12,000 square foot Culinary Center included a teaching kitchen, baking and pastry center, classroom space, a walk-in garde manger, a coffee and pastry shop, a formal dining room and a food court (Cafe Mirabilis) complete with an open kitchen. During this project I had the pleasure of working with the Chef Garry Colpitts and his team and Manatee Technical Institute, as well as Fawley Bryant Architects (Sarasota, FL) (http://manateetech.edu/community/restaurants/)

One of the challenges we faced was a space constraint. I know that 12,000 square feet sounds huge, but designing all the different space on the School's wish list was a challenge even in such a large area. An especially unique item on the wish list was a walk-in garde manger enabling students to prepare salads, hors d'œuvres, canapés, and pâtés under refrigerated conditions. A creative solution was to design a 1200 square foot walk-in cooler/freezer/garde manger on the exterior of the building with access from the interior kitchen space. The garde manger was complete with a partial glass wall facing the interior space so that the student work was completely on display. Access to both the walk-in cooler and freezer was provided from the garde manger.

The Culinary Arts Center was to be a Skills USA competition site. So one challenge was designing the kitchen area with enough cooking stations to accommodate the competitive cooking teams. This was accomplished by providing an open and double sided cook line with various cooking stations. Another challenge was providing viewing access by the public during competitions. So, we designed an entire glass wall along the hallway outside the kitchen space. The public would have full view of all the excitement of the competition.

A Testimonial by Chef Garry Colpitts:

"Jim was magnificent in working with my entire culinary team in 2010-12, in designing state of the art culinary, baking and pastry labs in the State of Florida. The culinary, baking and pastry labs and classroom opened for business in January 2013 and is the envy of many hospitality professionals that come to visit. What impressed me and my team at Manatee Technical Institute about Mr. Richards, was his holistic and personal approach, as well as his genuine willingness to listen to our questions, concerns and exceeding all our expectations moving forward with design."

Chef Garry Colpitts, CEC, CFSE

At the PES Design Group our mission is: "Designing functionally innovative, attractive and profitable c-store and food service facilities on time and on budget".  Our promise to you is, that whatever your project may be, we will approach it as unique. We will use our years of experience to design innovation and uniqueness into your project helping you to set yourself apart from the rest. 

Call us today for a FREE consultation about your project! 800.850.6638


PES Design Group
Food Service and C-Store Design Specialists
800.850.6638
www.pesdesigngroup.com

    

About the Author

Jim Richards is the Managing Member of Cademan Enterprises, LLC and Design Consultant with the PES Design Group, Southeast Office. During his 25 years of experience in the Food Service Design Industry, Jim has encountered countless challenges that he has overcome through experience and innovation.  

SOLVING BUDGET CHALLENGES WITH INNOVATIVE DESIGN

I had the pleasure of being the lead design consultant on Sarasota County Technical Institute's brand new cutting edge Culinary Arts Teaching Kitchen, restaurant (Bistro 502) and kiosk. (http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2011/11/02/restaurant-review-bistro-502-at-scti/)

SCTI's Lead Chef Instructor, Chef Brian Knecht, had a vision for the new program.  In addition to the teaching kitchen space he wanted to create a working restaurant environment for the senior students where they could have hands on experience working and managing all aspects of a restaurant.  On Chef Brian's "wishlist" was a set of European-style cooking suites that would enable students to communicate more openly and freely and provide them with experience on various types of cooking equipment, including a chargrill, griddle, fryers and pasta cooker.  

With the typical commercial European-style cooking suite having a price tag well into the $100k range, a cost not affordable for a County tech school program, the challenge was being able to provide the experience and yet still stay within budget.  

The solution was an innovative modular suite design.  I worked with engineers at Imperial Commercial Cooking Equipment to design an island-style cooking suite using standard cooking equipment set into a custom stainless steel wrap.  We designed two islands, each with it's own arrangement of cooking equipment. The island wrap consisted of a center structure, where utilities (such as gas, electric and water) could be easily accessed, and outer "wing walls" that kept the standard equipment pieces aligned.  The cooking pieces were finished off with an enclosed kick plate and continuous front rail.  The rail and kick plate are easily removed and all equipment pieces are on castors with 48" long quick disconnect gas hoses to make routine cleaning under and behind equipment easy.  The islands look impressive and are the show pieces of Bistro 502's open kitchen concept.

To view the entire photo gallery for this project go to:
SCTI.pesdesigngroup.com

The finished islands look and function like a commercial European island suite, yet much less in cost.  I estimate the County School Board saved up to 60% on the purchase of the innovative cooking islands from Imperial as compared to other European cooking suites. This is an example of how innovative design can help solve a challenge and achieve a goal that otherwise would not have been achievable. 

At the PES Design Group our mission is: "Designing functionally innovative, attractive and profitable c-store and food service facilities on time and on budget".  Our promise to you is, that whatever your project may be, we will approach it as unique.   We will use our years of experience to design innovation and uniqueness into your project helping you to set yourself apart from the rest. We will also use innovation to solve challenging issues such as space, time and budget constraints.

TESTIMONIAL FROM CHEF BRIAN KNECHT, SCTI CULINARY INSTRUCTOR

"Jim Richards was very instrumental with the design and layout of the Sarasota County Technical Institute Culinary Arts Department. The department of 18,000 square feet presented many challenges due to the wide variety of concepts that we wanted to offer to our students, faculty and community. Incorporating a teaching restaurant (Bistro502-open to the public for lunch during the school year), an instructional learning lab, bake shop and confection room, retail kiosks, banquet facility and class room related instructional spaces to all come together for an efficient work flow was the task for Jim to solve. Three short, but fast years have passed since the new SCTI was opened in the spring of 2011 and I can honestly say that Jim exceeded our expectations."

Brian D. Knecht, CEC, CCA, AAC
Department Chair & Instructor
Commercial Foods & Culinary Arts
Sarasota County Technical Institute

Call us today for a FREE consultation about your project! 800.850.6638

PES Design Group
Food Service and C-Store Design Specialists
800.850.6638
www.pesdesigngroup.com

    

About the Author

Jim Richards is the Managing Member of Cademan Enterprises, LLC and Design Consultant with the PES Design Group, Southeast Office. During his 25 years of experience in the Food Service Design Industry, Jim has encountered countless challenges that he has overcome through experience and innovation.  

INTRODUCING PES DESIGN GROUP - FOOD SERVICE AND C-STORE DESIGN SPECIALISTS

We are professionals in Food Service and C-store design and have a wonderful staff of talented and knowledgeable people with over 40 years of experience in designing innovative, attractive, efficient and profitable facilities.  

We are dedicated to fairness and individual attention to the details of each client’s project. When developing any new or remodeled facility, the importance of an experienced and qualified store planner is without question. We can design a facility for you that is modern, innovative, efficient and most importantly...PROFITABLE.

Please contact us about your next restaurant, c-store or food service project. It would be our pleasure to assist you in planning your facility.

Call us today for a FREE consultation about your project! 800.850.6638


PES Design Group
Food Service and C-Store Design Specialists
800.850.6638
www.pesdesigngroup.com