Thursday 28 October 2010

PKL pops in to London Restaurant Week

When Michelin star chef Jason Atherton popped up at a pop-up restaurant raising money for the homeless, he was able to avail himself of a wide range of catering equipment donated by PKL.

The pop-up restaurant, in London's Mayfair, was open for two nights as part of the London Restaurant Festival and the proceeds were donated to StreetSmart, the Festival's official charity. The restaurant was managed and operated by Restaurant Associates, and had to be put in place within a very short time frame.

The restaurant was assembled in a previously empty site so the dining area and kitchen had to be specially built, with just 40 places available each night. Guests were treated to a taste of things to come at Jason Atherton's new restaurant, due to open in January 2011.

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View a full version of this case study or download a pdf, click here.

Event kitchen solutions click here.

More case studies like this click here.

Monday 18 October 2010

Modular KitchenPods help Northamptonshire’s schools

PKL has supplied a total of 32 KitchenPod pre-fabricated kitchen buildings to schools in Northamptonshire as part of the County Council’s Hot School Meals programme, designed to raise the nutritional quality of school meals.

Northamptonshire County Council has embarked on a broad-ranging programme to equip 62 primary schools with kitchen facilities, using a mix of refurbishment of existing facilities, new build and PKL’s KitchenPods. The latter have proved particularly cost-effective in situations where there is no space in the existing school buildings to site a kitchen.

Working closely with the County Council, PKL developed three sizes of kitchen, capable of providing between 70 and 150 hot meals per day. Each is sized to have extra capacity to account for anticipated increases in pupil numbers. Where the KitchenPods could not be sited very close to existing buildings, PKL has also supplied regeneration trollies to facilitate delivery of the food to the servery and dining areas.

The County Council’s Martin Hewins, who has been managing the Hot School Meals programme, commented: “We have had a very good service from PKL and they have been very responsive to our needs. The new kitchens have also been well received by the staff.”

PKL’s KitchenPods are available in a number of different designs with a wide choice of equipment layouts to suit each school’s requirements, ranging from regeneration of pre-prepared meals to hot production of school meals. They can also be supplied in a range of finishes to help them blend with existing buildings.

The KitchenPod is just one of a range of modular kitchen building solutions available from PKL Group. Constructed offsite, PKL’s permanent modular kitchens can be built to end user specifications including size, layout, exterior finish and catering and dining equipment, and provide permanent solutions for both small and large scale catering requirements.

Watch a video of a KitchenPod installation by clicking here.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Catering for change

Open plan temporary kitchens have been used by the prison service for a considerable period of time during which they have undergone a significant amount of change. Lee Vines a Director at PKL explains.

The design and specification of temporary kitchens has changed a lot since we delivered our first open plan facility to the prison service nearly 10 years ago.  Many of these changes have been driven by new technologies allowing for improved facilities to be supplied, while close consultation with the prison service and catering managers has also led to developments in temporary kitchen design not only in terms of improving quality standards but ensuring compliance with health and safety legislation.

Of course, there is no standard layout for a temporary kitchen and it’s important that each facility is designed and installed to meet the particular requirements of the prison in mind and to this end, dialogue between all parties at the early design stages is crucial. This helps to ensure that a facility is supplied that matches the expectations of the prison kitchen staff, and more importantly, correctly services the needs of the prison.

Consultation with the prison service is an important factor that has helped to develop the design of temporary kitchens. Many considerations that have been raised at one time or another during projects over the last 10 years are now standard requirements of a temporary open plan kitchen.

Developments that have been made to temporary open plan complexes include ensuring a clear line of site through the careful engineering of the modules so that when they are assembled to create the kitchen, internal walls and supporting columns are minimised and any partitions are as low as possible.  Similarly, extraction canopies are sited so as not to impair visibility.

The goods in area is also an aspect where design has improved over the years, with strengthened floors provided to cope with heavy pallets while the inclusion of bump rails in high traffic areas helps protect the walls from damage from trolleys.

Recent experience has also shown that if you locate heating and ventilation plant on top of the temporary building (within a plant room module) it will benefit from enhanced protection, including cladding for ductwork and a housing to protect it from the elements and bird ingress.

A more recent innovation in open plan temporary kitchen design is the option to provide tempered air. This ensures that in the morning, instead of coming into a kitchen that has had cold air circulating all night, the building will benefit from having had warm air circulation instead.

Health and safety considerations have also evolved open plan temporary kitchen design. An illuminance of 300-500 lux lighting, combined with even illumination provides a safe environment for food preparation and helps to reduce the risk of slips and falls. The inclusion of a small porch over entrance areas also helps to prevent slip hazards by reducing the risk of rainwater pooling. In addition, changes to legislation surrounding ventilation means that temporary facilities should be tested for a safe level of carbon monoxide emissions before they arrive onsite.

Developments in the provision of temporary facilities are not just restricted to the design of the complex, with as many changes to the way in which projects are delivered and handed over witnessed in recent years.

Onsite access (particularly for low loaders and cranes), and siting units in a position which ensures that there is no compromise to security on site must be given as much consideration as the actual prison design itself, while risk assessments and method statements for each area of the delivery and installation process are now often a standard requirement.

It is also important to take measures to ensure the kitchen runs smoothly from day one. To that end, staff training is vital and we have found this is particularly effective when the entire catering team and the prison Head of Works attend the training session. In this way the information is spread as widely as possible.

Post handover service has also developed and to ensure a smooth operation in the kitchen we would advocate weekly planned preventative maintenance (PPM) visits by the kitchen provider for the first four weeks, followed by regular PPM visits thereafter. It is also helpful if operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals are located in the kitchen.

By their very nature, temporary kitchens won’t be an exact match for a permanent kitchen but there is no reason why they shouldn’t come extremely close to best practice design standards. By ensuring a close working relationship and constructive dialogue between the prison and the kitchen provider and by developing ideas into common design features, expectations of what can be achieved with a temporary kitchen facility should be raised from one project to the next.

Monday 6 September 2010

PKL launches YouTube channel

PKL has recently launched a YouTube channel, where we currently have an example of a KitchenPod installation and a short film about the company.

To view our YouTube channel please click here and keep checking back for more updates.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Kitchen solutions when budgets are cut

As capital budgets are squeezed ever harder there are strong signs that many organisations are turning to outsourced and contract hire solutions that can be met from revenue budgets, particularly within the healthcare and education sectors.

There are many organisations, particularly in the public sector, where there is a desperate need to upgrade catering equipment or kitchen buildings but capital funds simply aren’t available.  The long-term hire of catering equipment, or even an entire new kitchen building, is a real capital-free alternative because the cost is met through a monthly fee. In addition, the service provider assumes the financial risk relating to the equipment.

PKL offers a wide choice of hire options, ranging from the ability to specify a complete kitchen equipment estate with inclusive service and maintenance, to permanent modular kitchen buildings that can be designed and configured to end user choice.

Using the contract hire option to procure new kitchen buildings or to replace or upgrade a current kitchen estate provides a viable alternative to capital purchase and is particularly relevant during the current squeeze on funding. In addition, outsourcing all service and maintenance means that there will be no additional costs once a kitchen is in place.

It seems clear that we will see even tighter restrictions placed on capital budgets over the next few years but many organisations can’t wait that long to upgrade their kitchens.  PKL are happy to work with any of these bodies or the FM companies or caterers contracted with them, to evaluate their needs, identify the best solution and explore the options that are open to them.

More information regarding the contract hire of catering equipment or permanent modular buildings can be found by clicking on the links below:

Contract hire

Permanent modular kitchen hire

Friday 20 August 2010

Pop-up kitchen for pop-up restaurant

Studio East Dining. Photo courtesy of Luke Hayes
PKL has supplied a temporary kitchen for Westfield Stratford City’s “Studio East Dining Pavilion” - the innovative temporary ‘pop up’ restaurant by Westfield in collaboration with Bistrotheque and Carmody Groarke.

The restaurant was erected on the roof of the 35m high Westfield Stratford City development, currently being constructed in East London. The restaurant was open for just three weeks, feeding around 2,000 people while treating them to breathtaking views across London.

Studio East Dining was the brainchild of Westfield, working in conjunction with Bistrotheque, who initiated the pop-up restaurant trend. The restaurant launched Westfield’s Studio East initiative which is designed to harness young, creative talent by providing commissions across art, fashion, product design and environment for the Westfield Stratford City project.

Designed by architects Carmody Groarke, the restaurant was made from scaffolding and boards borrowed from the site and covered in recyclable plastic sheeting, in keeping with its setting. PKL’s kitchen facilities - comprising a ‘mini-kitchen’, preparation kitchen and dishwashing area - were pre-fabricated off-site and delivered to site in portable buildings, reinforcing the ‘construction site feel’ of the project. The kitchens were designed to Bistrotheque’s strict specification.

All of the materials will now be returned to site. The 1.9m square feet Westfield Stratford City will be the largest urban shopping centre in Europe and will form the prestigious gateway to London’s Olympic Park.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Ex Rental KitchenPods for Sale

We have two ex rental KitchenPods that will soon be available for sale. Both units are available in an attractive wood cladding finish and can be used as a permanent kitchen building. Available with your specification of catering equipment, KitchenPods can be used for preparation, cold or full hot food production.

For more details about this offer, click here.

For more details regarding PKL KitchenPods, please click here:

Wednesday 21 July 2010

PKL kitchen maintains dining for care home residents

A temporary kitchen facility from PKL has enabled Castle View care home in Salisbury to maintain a high standard of catering for its residents during a major refurbishment project. PKL worked with the home’s management team to ensure the temporary kitchen specification would enable ‘business as usual’.

Operated by Wessex Care, Castle View has 26 residents and a minimum of eight staff at any time. Many of the residents require high-dependency nursing with specialist dietary requirements, so this had an impact on the equipment specified for the temporary kitchen.

There were some major challenges in siting the temporary kitchen and PKL managed the whole project extremely well. They also gave our kitchen staff a very clear introduction to the equipment so the kitchen as up and running very quickly. We’ve never used a temporary kitchen before but I would certainly do it again because it makes the whole process much easier,” recalled Wessex Care's Matthew Airey.

More information regarding our range of solutions for the healthcare sector can be found by visiting the page below:
www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/ind_healthcare.asp

Thursday 8 July 2010

Scrapping BSF schemes places many schools in quandary

The news that 719 planned Building Schools for the Future (BSF) schemes are to be scrapped puts many schools in something of a quandary when it comes to maintaining catering standards, says PKL, the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire.

Many of these projects would have included essential upgrades to kitchens, so schools will now have to look for alternatives,” notes PKL’s Lee Vines. “And with other capital budgets also being squeezed there is a very strong case for considering capital-free alternatives such as long-term hire of equipment or entire kitchens. Using the contract hire option to procure new kitchen buildings or to replace or upgrade a current kitchen estate provides a viable alternative to capital purchase,” he adds.

PKL offers a wide choice of hire options, ranging from the ability to specify a complete kitchen equipment estate with inclusive service and maintenance, to permanent modular kitchen buildings that can be designed and configured to end user choice. The company will also work with schools to evaluate their needs, identify the best solution and explore the options that are open to them.

More information regarding the contract hire of catering equipment or permanent modular buildings can be found by clicking on the links below:

Contract hire
www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/kitchenfm.asp

Permanent modular kitchen hire
www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/kitchen-pods.asp

If you would like to discuss any hire or rental options with PKL, you can do so by either by phoning 0845 840 42 42 or emailing postbox@pkl.co.uk

Monday 28 June 2010

Up on the Roof Top

PKL has supplied the temporary kitchens for the Studio East pop up restaurant facility that was recently launched in London.

The restaurant is located on top of a car park, 35 metres up in the air and is operated by Bistrotheque.

More information and photos of the installation can be found at the links below.

FT Online

Deezen.com

For more information on PKL’s pop up restaurant facilities, please click here.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Breaking through the budgetary restrictions

As capital budgets are squeezed ever harder there are strong signs that many organisations are turning to outsourced and contract hire solutions that can be met from revenue budgets. So says PKL, the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire.

“There are many organisations, particularly in the public sector, where there is a desperate need to upgrade catering equipment or kitchen buildings but capital funds simply aren’t available,” notes PKL’s Lee Vines. “The long term hire of catering equipment, or even an entire new kitchen building, is a real capital-free alternative because the cost is met through a monthly fee. And the service provider assumes the financial risk relating to the equipment,” he adds.

PKL offers a wide choice of hire options, ranging from the ability to specify a complete kitchen equipment estate with inclusive service and maintenance, to permanent modular kitchen buildings that can be designed and configured to end user choice.

Using the contract hire option to procure new kitchen buildings or to replace or upgrade a current kitchen estate provides a viable alternative to capital purchase and is particularly relevant during the current squeeze on funding. In addition, outsourcing all service and maintenance means that there will be no additional costs once a kitchen is in place.

“It seems clear that we will see even tighter restrictions placed on capital budgets over the next few years but many organisations can’t wait that long to upgrade their kitchens,” Lee Vines adds. “We are happy to work with any of these bodies to evaluate their needs, identify the best solution and explore the options that are open to them,” he concludes.

More information regarding the contract hire of catering equipment or permanent modular buildings can be found by clicking on the links below:

Contract hire

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/kitchenfm.asp

Permanent modular kitchen hire

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/kitchen-pods.asp

If you would like to discuss any hire or rental options with PKL, you can do so by either by phoning 0845 840 42 42 or emailing postbox@pkl.co.uk

Friday 18 June 2010

PKL ensures continuity of food supply for Bedford nursing home

When the Airedale Nursing Home in Bedford embarked on a major refurbishment and extension project it was keen to minimise the disruption and inconvenience to its residents.

It was therefore decided to hire a portable, temporary kitchen from PKL to ensure that catering standards could be maintained throughout the duration of the construction work.

"I don’t know how we would have managed without the temporary kitchen and the service from PKL was excellent," commented the Home’s Dr Kamyar. "They understood our priorities and responded immediately whenever we required anything," he added.

The kitchen, a 30 foot PKL Mixed Double, was located in the car park and linked to the building by the PKL installation team to provide direct access to the main building.

For more information, please visit the link below:

http://www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/care-home-kitchen-refurbishment.asp

Friday 11 June 2010

Kitchens and Catering Equipment for Marquees

PKL provide a wide range of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for use in marquee kitchens. Our range of catering equipment for hire can be used to create preparation, production and regeneration facilities, while we also supply a wide range of serving equipment.

Catering Equipment for Marquees

Our vast range of catering equipment for hire is well suited for use within a marquee and we can provide anything from preparation and regeneration kitchens to full scale production facilities.

Temporary Kitchens for Marquees

An alternative to housing catering equipment inside a marquee is to hire one of our temporary kitchens, which are available in a number of different sizes.

For more information regarding our kitchens and catering equipment for marquees please visit the link below:

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/marquee-kitchens.asp

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Healthcare Kitchen Solutions

PKL provide a wide range of temporary kitchens and catering equpiment for the healthcare sector, to cover planned kitchen refurbishments, to provide extra capcity during peaks in foodservice demand or to provide catering facilities at short notice in emergencies.

We have supplied a wide range of solutions to both public and private hospitals, ranging from temporary staff and visitor restaurant facilities, to complete managed kitchens, to emergency cold rooms when freezers have suddenly gone down.

PKL is also vastly experienced in providing solutions to the residential care sector. We have developed the Care Home Kitchen, a unit which can produce anywhere from 15-250 meals per day.

Contingency planning is often a must within the healthcare sector, with a detailed contingency plan often requirement in hosptial and care home kitchens. PKL provides a free contingeny planning guide, which is available upon request by email or hard copy.

PKL is a Buying Solutions registered company, meaning that we are pre tendered to supply public sector and government contracts.

For more information regarding PKL’s healthcare kitchen solutions, please click here.

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Early British Success at Winter Olympics

PKL Group have successfully completed the installation and handover of the temporary catering facilities for the Athletes Village dining complexes in both Whistler and Vancouver for the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games.

PKL, the Portable Kitchen and catering equipment hire specialists who operate from Bishops Cleeve, just outside of Cheltenham began designing the kitchen and dining complexes in August 2008 and have had a permanent project team stationed in Canada since July 2009 working on the build, installation and maintenance of both facilities.

The two, 4000m2 kitchen and tented dining complexes will be used to cater for around 8,000 competitors, officials and staff taking part in Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which commences on 12th February. All of the kitchen and servery equipment used in the two dining halls has been transported from PKL in the UK and will return to the company once the Games have finished.

PKL Group are no strangers to undertaking projects of this scale, having supplied similar facilities to the last three summer Olympic Games, including Beijing 2008, where the company's equipment was used to serve over 200,000 meals per day.

During a recent visit to see the facilities in Canada, Company Directors Chris Irving, Peter Schad and Lee Vines found the time to visit delegates from Sochi, to begin discussion about the Winter Olympics in 2014. Sochi in Russia, which coincidently is twinned with Cheltenham, was awarded the event in 2007 and has already begun preparations for staging the next Winter Games.

Monday 17 May 2010

Kitchen contingency plans are a must

PKL’s free Contingency Planning Guide provides an overview of the importance of kitchen contingency planning and helps users to produce their own personalised plan.

Contingency planning is vital for any catering operation. A contingency plan helps to minimise the adverse effects of sudden closure or disruption, so that in the event of an emergency, appropriate plans can be implemented quickly and efficiently to restore service as soon as possible. In some sectors, a kitchen contingency plan is a requirement, to ensure that foodservice operation is not interrupted, while a contingency plan may also be put in place to help manage seasonal peaks in food production with maximum efficiency.

PKL’s Contingency Planning Guide builds on the company’s 20+ years experience of delivering emergency kitchens and catering equipment at short notice. It provides a contingency planning checklist, outlining key considerations and highlights factors that are often unanticipated. For example, if you need an emergency kitchen, will it be necessary to close roads or lift it over other buildings? Or do you know what items of equipment you would need to maintain service to customers?

PKL’s emergency response service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to supply temporary catering facilities to clients that have suffered unforeseen emergencies such as fire, floods or equipment breakdown. Solutions range from single items of catering equipment to complete kitchens and restaurant facilities, which are usually up and running within a few hours of receiving the first emergency call (depending on the size of facility required).

In addition to the free Contingency Planning Guide, PKL can also provide bespoke contingency plans, tailored to each client’s exact requirements and business priorities.

To order a free copy of the Contingency Planning Guide, click here

For more information regarding PKL's contingency planning services, click below.

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/contingencyplan.asp

Monday 10 May 2010

PKL is one to recognise

PKL Group, the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire, has been announced as a finalist in the Sunday Times Fast Track ‘Ones to Recognise’.

Compiled by Oxford based research company Fast Track, ‘Ones to Recognise’ is part of the Sunday Times annual Profit Track 100 report. It showcases a selection of companies that are chosen on the strength of their management team, innovation, ability to overcome challenges and their potential for growth.

Managing director Chris Irving commented: “PKL has earned its market-leading position through a commitment to high quality products and innovation, as well as first rate project planning and customer service. These qualities have proved their value to customers during the difficult economic times and provide us with a strong foundation for our ongoing success. We are proud to be recognised alongside so many leading names in British industry”.

PKL Group has a range of over 900 portable kitchens and support units, including cold storage, dry storage and warewashing facilities, and over 9,000 items of catering equipment readily available for hire.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

LACA / PKL School Kitchens Design Forum – London South Bank Centre

The latest LACA/PKL School Kitchen Design forum, held in London in February, addressed key issues relating to provision of school meals and associated facilities. Sponsored by PKL and the Local Authority Caterers Association, the event was attended by around 50 delegates representing local authorities, consultants and other stakeholders.

LACA Chair Beverly Baker opened the proceedings with a focus on the importance of school meals and associated facilities – in the context of the changing educational environment and the higher profile of nutrition amongst young people.

Continuing this theme, Liz Randall from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) explored the proposed amendments to regulations governing dining space and nutritional standards in school premises. It was clear from this presentation that improved facilities for both the preparation and consumption of food will play an even more important role in the future.

Factors influencing the take-up of school meals was the theme of a presentation by Linda Smith of the School Food Trust, who presented the findings of the School Lunch & Learning Behaviour Study. This study showed quite clearly that improving the dining room environment could play a pivotal role in increasing the acceptability of school meals to pupils.

The focus of the day then switched to the design and delivery of school kitchens. Robert Danks of Food Chain Solutions outlined a recent case study with Northamptonshire County Council, rolling out their “Hot Meal” plan in schools. Paul Saer of Buying Solutions followed, providing an overview of the Buying Solutions agency and John Robinson from PKL finished the first session with a presentation on PKL Group’s school kitchen solutions, including a number of case study examples.

After a lively question and answer session, delegates were then asked to work in groups to produce brief presentations for fellow delegates, covering their own successes and difficult situations in relation to planning kitchens and learning from operational use

Successes included training, marketing school meals and the use of regeneration kitchens. Areas of difficulty included the BB99 regulations, failure of architects, planners and contractors to listen to the people who will be running the facilities and a lack of understanding by head teachers. Funding for improving facilities was also perceived as a barrier to taking plans forward.

Following this interactive session the forum concluded with a presentation from Vic Laws of AVL Consulting, presenting the findings of a recent study into energy efficiency in school kitchens.

More information:

www.pkl.co.uk
www.schoolkitchens.com

Monday 26 April 2010

PKL launches new website

The new PKL Group website (http://www.pkl.co.uk/), launched on 26th April 2010, provides visitors with fast access to information on the company’s key areas of expertise – including portable kitchens, long or short term equipment hire, system kitchens, event catering equipment, and rapid response kitchens.

For enhanced ease of use, each of these areas is also further sub-divided to enable visitors to quickly drill down to the specific information they require. By making use of the extensive cross-referencing users can also jump to related services such as site surveys, kitchen design, project management, delivery and installation.

Additional features on the site include notifications of special offers, useful tips for contingency planning and access to service and operating manuals for a wide range of catering equipment.

PKL also operates a ‘micro website’ dedicated to school kitchen and catering solutions at http://www.schoolkitchens.com/

Monday 1 February 2010

Rapid Response Emergency Kitchens from PKL Group

 
Wherever permanent or temporary kitchen facilities are need FAST, PKL’s Rapid Response service is ready to deliver! Whether it’s for military use, disaster relief or a remote industrial project, our temporary kitchens can be delivered anywhere in the world with minimum delay.


Key features:
All specially designed for remote sites with rapid deployment, DROPS compatible and suitable for delivery by helicopter or fixed wing aircraft.

PKL has an unparalleled operational record in provision of field kitchen units to the world’s military, peacekeeping and rescue campaigns.

Our emergency kitchen units are robust, ISO rated container kitchen facilities, designed for durability and continuous operation. With options for on-board service such as electrical generators, water and wastewater storage, and water purification, our emergency kitchen facilities can operate even in areas with damaged or non-existent local services.

PKL Rapid Response provides a range of camp kitchen systems ranging from single camp kitchen modules to large open plan modular kitchens, for a spacious, efficient working environment. We can provide support areas for all our temporary kitchen units, scaling servery areas to your requirements and providing ablution blocks and laundry areas for more complete remote camps.

PKL’s purpose-designed, controlled-environment prefabrication facilities enable all mobile kitchen units to be built off-site and fully tested, with all systems optimised for the environment in which they’ll operate. Once complete they can be transported by land, sea or air anywhere in the world.

We have over 15 years of experience in successfully delivering rapid mobile kitchen units to remote international locations. Our teams have a clear and detailed understanding of the unique requirements of field kitchen, emergency kitchen or camp kitchen deployment, and are able to provide you with the most suitable options for your particular project.